We all need to do it at some point!
There are good jobs and bad jobs. You know the kind of shitty jobs, that no one else wants to do or just can’t be arsed to do; and they land at your feet with the immortal words ‘go on, take one for the team’.
And before you know it…you’re doing ‘it’… (whatever ‘it’ maybe!)
It could be dealing with the difficult person or attending the boring, ”that’s another two hours of your life you’ll never get back” meeting or the ‘it’, could be, a physical task causing a spontaneous grimace to breakout on your face. It might even be just getting rid of the spider from the house.
You may have done ‘it’ as you progressed up the so called ‘ladder’ or it is still something that you get lumbered with today? Do you actually volunteer to ‘take one’? Are you tough enough? Are you the one that gives the ‘it’ out? Or perhaps, you are lucky and haven’t yet endured the so called ‘take one for the team‘ opportunity. Well if that’s the case, lucky, lucky you!
I still take one for the team on a regular basis; I actually (if truth be told) enjoy it. People take one for the team in sports of course. It is part of life’s imperfections that we must endure such tasks to gain in some way or to make progress.
And when we do ‘it’, we demonstrate and gain some degree of personal and professional resilience; we did ‘it’ .. even if the ‘it’ wasn’t too pleasant a task!
The Monster
Jobs, tasks and challenges vary in size and degree of course; either at home or at work but some people make them even harder than they actually are. Interaction and engagement is one thing; character building another and of course…some jobs seem like they are taking the piss.
However or whatever the ‘boss’ or your line manager dresses it up as, the task needs to be done for some reason and someone, has to do ‘it’. You may even be same person tasking your good self to go and do ‘it’. You might not have much of a choice?
You might have to be friends with your own
monster and the voices in your head
Say, Say, Say
Say what you want, but very often, the most senior person around will ‘delegate’ the shit task to someone else, and rather unlike the lotto, it could actually be you this time.
You have to go and get ‘it’ done. Suck ‘it’ up as the saying goes!
You end up indeed ‘taking one for the team’ as a way of appeasement, and you hopefully do ‘it’ successfully.
You were brilliantly resilient without even making a song a dance about it or blowing your own trumpet on social media.
It isn’t headline grabbing, follower growing stuff, is it? Everybody wants to rule the world with the sexy stuff, but not the mundane routine jobs. Everyone’s winner and all that….
Could ‘it’ Be Magic?
Alas, most of the time, the ‘it’ in question, that we ‘took one for the team’, did not turn out to be a magical experience. Mainly routine or uninspiring enough for you to fail to mention ‘it’ in the end of the day feedback report to your good partner on the pleasantries of ‘did you do anything interesting today dear’?
But if you or someone you know, did take one for the team today, perhaps that tiny ‘it’ moment wasn’t indeed much for you to write home about for sure; but to others, the people on the other end of the benefits of the ‘it’, maybe they had some magical experiences as a result of your brilliantly amazing efforts?
I’m sure if they are genuine, they are grateful of your efforts. I am.
Who Knew
There are hundreds of thousands of people around the world, who will currently be ‘taking one for the team’ as we speak; of that I am certain. Who knows of them or what they are actually doing, is a little vaguer; but nevertheless, they will be doing ‘it’ either under direct instruction or for the good ‘cause’
What we do today behind the scenes, almost often gets overlooked by the majority; the so called back-office type scenario, the ‘team’ ethos where by some are creative and flair players, whilst others, are the so called ‘water carriers’ who provide some stability and opportunity for the rest of the team to maintain and progress.
It is easy and obvious for those in the spotlight, or indeed, those who wish to turn the light on themselves, to be seen as the success they want to portray.
But without the resilience and resolve of those who each and everyday, have to ‘take one for the team’, they would not shine as bright as they appear. Team resilience is key.
The next time either you use, hear or do the ‘take one for the team’ challenge, just remember that at the end of ‘it’, there has to be a gain or progress for ‘it’, to be worthwhile. Whether that is a duty, a calling, a job, a favour or a help, the person doing ‘it’ is the resilient one and we should be grateful for the amazing contribution they make.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR – A truly down to earth, grounded individual who is a resilience professional. Helping people and organizations to build and maintain their capabilities to respond to and recover from, crisis, emergencies or disasters. Paul is the ‘resilience maverick’ because he is not like the average resilience professional. He uses his great people skills to break down a complicated and often scary subject to make it easier to understand, want and need. Paul wants to help everyone be a bit more resilient because they can. paul@kudrayconsulting.com.