I have spent a lot of time lately contemplating and feeling the obligations that I have through the company, volunteering, family, and individually. These are commitments I make that are sometimes contractual, sometimes relational, and sometimes implied even when I don’t realize I have made them. Making and keeping reliable promises is one of our key behavior indicators at Story Construction. It is a basis for trust, and it is a big deal to the maker, keeper and recipient.
It can be easy for me to feel the weight of these obligations and over-focus on not meeting expectations vs. meeting or exceeding them. This leads to my partly cloudy disposition. I have noticed in myself lately that it is getting the best of me, which is not good for me or for those around me.
It occurred to me the other day that it is a me issue, not my circumstances. I need to change my focus; it is a choice I can make. The obligations come as a result of opportunities. Opportunity is the other side of the obligation coin. I am blessed to have many opportunities – opportunities to serve, to lead, to plan, to guide, and to do. You can’t really have an opportunity without an obligation. They come in a related proportion.
By extension of many of my roles at Story Construction and in other capacities, the opportunities and obligations I own depend on others to make and keep. I am accountable on both ends of it; the making and the keeping through others. It is a privilege to have so many people I work with and to have so many opportunities and obligations in the mix all at once with execution through people I know, and many I don’t, in a chain of events that lead to an outcome. I am expected to own it all whether I am in it or not, and whether I know it or not. The opportunity and obligation of leadership.
Leadership and being on a team holds both opportunity and obligation. You can’t have one without the other; the opportunity comes with obligation. I am grateful for the opportunity. When I keep that my focus, I am better for it and so are the people in my circle and my team. It is my choice.
Mike Espeset
CEO