I have spent much of the morning resisting the temptation to be myself.

In a good way. I think. Or at least a productive way.

What usually happens when someone stuffs up at work is this:

1. I point out the stuff up and suggest a way to avoid this in the future. I do this in a friendly manner that perhaps doesn�t get the message across as forcefully as it should, but, contrary to the opinion of my mother, I�m not up for out and out conflict at the first possible moment.

2. The stuff up happens again. I correct the mistake, or do what needs to be done, myself. Not because I�m a big martyr, just because most of the time it�s easier and ten times more efficient. Once I do the thing myself I let it go. I�m not hanging on to �this person is an idiot, I had to do it myself� � life is too short.

The same applies with contextual variations, to almost every other part of my life. The cleaning habits of house-mates being a classic example.

But as I move into a more managerial position at work, it is becoming more apparent that my approach falls down in a couple of areas. First, and most obviously, I cannot actually do everything. Not enough time in the day. There becomes a point when taking things over (or back) in order to make my life easier leaps that line into making my life harder. Second, the person stuffing up (let�s call them the �stuffee�) is never going to learn to pay proper attention if they don�t keep getting their mistakes sent back to them to chase-up and correct.

Of course there comes a point where the stuffee has crossed the line into total incompetence at which point I�m taking the job back for good because they no longer work for us, but that�s a whole other matter.

This morning a stuff up came to light of a similar nature to one that appeared last week. Neither was the end of the world, both were complete pains in the arse, and both the Boss and I are still fixing. (Fixing in this case because we�re the only ones with the authority to do it, not because we�ve got frustrated and taken the work back.)

But I have been good. I have resisted the temptation to take back that whole area of administration and just do it all myself every week. I have sat down with Priscilla and the new trainee (who�s official nickname is now �Howdy� because of an odd habit I may or may not explain at some later date), explained the mistakes, the way it has to work, the fact that it�s important and that it�s their responsibility but that I�m going to be watching them like the proverbial hawk. Firm and fair but not so friendly. And I have given the job back to them.

All day I have been telling myself that this is not a task I need to do. It�s not a task I have time to do, and even if I did my time is much better spent elsewhere. It�s been delegated for a good reason. I was happy when I could delegate it. I want it to stay delegated and be done properly.

I must satisfy my urge to control by merely supervising. My life will be easier if I do this.

Or it will all blow up in my face when a stuffee does something truly stupid. No! Stop it!

My life will be easier this way. I will be a better manager this way. I will. I will successfully resist the temptation to be myself.

Though only in relation to this.