Punching the Shark

At the training that I recently attended (see January 13 post "Inspired"), one of the topics was "Punch the Shark".

If you are ever in the ocean and a facing a down a shark, you must resist the urge to swim away, and instead, puff yourself up, swim straight towards the incoming shark and punch it in the nose.

The presenter learned that from watching shark week and later, saw an article about a man who had seen the same program, actually did it and saved his own life!

The topic of the presentation wasn't water safety (there aren't any sharks in lakes, although I have seen some big fish and I will attempt to punch them, given the opportunity). The topic was managing staff.

The presenter was making the point- stop avoiding unpleasant situations, instead, turn around and face them head on. Be direct, be intentional in your handling of it, and hopefully if you do those things, you will only have to deal with them once.

For some reason, the idea has really stuck with me. I like to think of myself as a person who deals with things, rather than avoiding them, but as I thought about it, there were several awkward conversations or unpleasant things that I could have been much more direct with last summer and in my daily life.

There are 4 or 5 of my staff from last summer who have already applied for this year, but who I don't think I will re-hire. This is not an organization that just sends out a form letter rejecting their application, and even if it was, after being on staff for a year or more, I think I owe them a conversation. I'm dreading those- they are going to end with tears or anger and I hate both of those things.

I had the first of those conversations last week. Prior to calling him, I actually printed out a picture of a shark to put in front of me. I was determined to be kind, but honest, direct, and not talk around topics or lose my nerve and avoid the negative stuff altogether.

It was uncomfortable and I squirmed around as I spoke, but (quicker than I'd expected) I found my confidence and the conversation went well. No tears, no anger, no confusion. I successfully punched the shark! I'm going to keep practicing and hopefully by the summer, I will be an expert!