From Analytics To Helper

I’ve mentioned in previous articles and in posts on our social media accounts that like a lot of you I have my hand in a lot of different aspects and departments at my current company. I’m in-charge of our fleet which has over 100 vehicles, our IT which has around 150 lines between iPads, company phones, vehicles GPS’s and Cameras, and I’m responsible for auditing our software to make sure we aren’t paying for additional users that aren’t needed.

One of the hardest parts of my position for me is going between the two kinds of skills I have to have in my bag and then back again within hours of each other. I can be sitting at my desk completely focused on analytics and where I can help the company save money and shave costs. Then I get a phone call that one of our drivers is stuck on the side of the road because of a breakdown to one of our fleet vehicles or they were involved in an accident. I then have to shut my analytical mind off and immediately jump into action and head out into the field to be a helper. I have to make sure the vehicle gets to the correct service center, make sure our diver is ok and that he gets his tools and materials out of the disabled vehicle, and then get him back to the office and into a spare so he can continue his day. That a lot of times can take hours and a big chunk of my day. Half of my position is very reactionary, and it comes at any time. Shutting off my analytical mind to go out and help is easy. The hard part is when I’ve been running for hours and am all juiced up, but finish up that portion of the day, and bringing my energy back down to get back to analyzing things on a screen. I have such a high motor that the reeling in of that bounce can be a struggle to stay on the original task from the day. This can make me fall behind in the money saving portion of my tasks which defeats the purpose of putting that on my plate. I had to get better at refocusing my mind after the chaos. One of the things I’ve started doing to help myself fix that issue is when all reactionary tasks have been handled, I head straight back to my office, avoid as much chit chat along the way as not to see “a squirrel,” close the door to my office, and stay ultra focused on that screen again until my brain locks back into the analytics portion of my job. Some days this can be harder than others as I’m such a people person and love interactions. I think the owner of the company I work for has figured out well over the last 2 years what my strengths are and which parts of that don’t need supervised, but he’s also seen where my weaknesses are with the pulling back into my analytical mind that he’s recently done a great job of staying on me with that part of my day. Having that accountability lately has gotten me to the next level of going from analytics to helper and back again seamlessly, and it has helped me stay on task with everything, and creating a habit of how to do that consistently to not only maximize my work, but keep me from being too buried to catch-up. I don’t like being micro-managed, but sometimes to help develop a new talent or get better at another one you need a little push, and when you have someone you report to that knows how to tap into that is more important than most realize.

“You can do anything, but not everything.”