Multiple tasks and people to lead and manage? Try plate spinning!
“I’m a multi-tasking procrastinator. I can put off multiple things at once.” Office Humor
I’m sure you have seen those acts where an entertainer has multiple plates spinning atop numerous poles. He or she jumps from plate to plate giving them a gentle sideswipe of the hand to keep them spinning fast enough so that they don’t fall. The more plates, the more impressive the act. I’m not sure what one calls these people. Plate spinners? In a business they are called leaders. Here I’ll call them plate spinning leaders.
I was once a plate spinner of another kind. My plates were not ceramic plates atop poles – they were a multitude of tasks and people I supervised. Sometimes there were only a few plates to be spun. I could move with ease from proverbial pole to proverbial pole keeping the proverbial plate balanced and whirling. Often there were numerous plates requiring me to move in rapid fashion from one to the next. At times the number of plates exceeded my capacity, and one or more would fall and shatter.
There is an argument against plate spinning or multi-tasking. Some argue that trying to focus on too much means you focus on nothing. There is no honor in exhaustion. There is, indeed, truth in these statements. I use priority-setting as my guide. Under this approach some plates will break and that is ok. I am a realist however, so I understand, while we ought to strive for focus and simplicity – only a few plates spinning, this is not always possible. Thus, the skill of plate spinning…
