
Over the last couple of days, I've been exchanging messages with a family member in India - and I recall saying to a friend yesterday, that this time last year I was in India and my thought then would be that I would be back this time in 2025! That's not really how things have played out!
Although we're not quite at the end of January, now is as good a time as any to do a bit of a review of my portfolio for the month gone by. If I were to look at the common theme this month, it would be questions....
The day job
I'm currently working as a project coordinator and when I'm in flow with the work, it comes down to asking other members of the project team a bunch of questions that ultimately determine whether or not we're on track to deliver.
If I have one key takeaway from this role is that projects are about asking good questions, and more often than not, you need to be very specific - to the point of discomfort.
A light example of this was the other day I asked my boss if we needed to do a stock take at a location that had been forgotten about. His response was: 'the question to ask is, is there stock there?'
In my catch ups with the Project Manager, I observe her drill down with me and with others to get to the actual issue and that can be pretty tough!
The extra curricular/freelance
I'm back in running competitions for kids at The English-Speaking Union this season. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love the public speaking format, because it includes a 'questioner' and in the debate competition, there's time for floor questions. Researching and preparing a speech is one thing - but being willing to be questioned off the cuff on a topic and respect another point of view is something quite different.
The volunteer part of the portfolio
I am still an active member of Toastmasters International and in the last six months, I've been very strict with reducing my overall time commitment. It is intentionally where it needs to be for the next quarter and potentially until the end of June.
When it comes to the day-to-day running of a club though, and to some extent a District - I think it is fair to say, I've seen a fair bit and nothing can surprise me anymore. With that comes a bit of mentoring/coaching to current leaders in the form of questions - there may be a few 'Whys' or 'Should we be doing that?'
Ultimately, there are still a lot of questions involved with this hat!
And the big one....
My friends that keep me accountable...this month, two in particular have left me battered and bruised after our interactions, but I have nothing but tears and gratitude. Intentionality in all we do is key. Every now and again, we need to be reminded of that, or have others redirect us...maybe more frequently than we believe.
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Rupa, excellent summary, what does February have in store for you? Paul