Management Training

Did something cool last week. I helped out with our company's management training by facilitating some modules. Teaching was something I really wanted to experience and adding the fact that the subject matter fit my experience the most, I could say that it was a sweet fit. I taught simple project management, capacity management and performance management.

One downside from this though is that I felt how it was to have students. Well, they were not really bad or anything but it really pisses me off when people don't listen and you just get thrown off your game distracted. All I could do was call people out to answer questions and make them look like fools who haven't been listening. C'mon they're not in high school anymore. Office training and employee growth are somethings that are very serious for the company if it wants to succeed. 

Biggest challenge for us during this training was to change perspective. A lot of the participants were still thinking like an employee and not a manager. Making people act like managers and get accountable for things is something very hard to do especially for Filipinos.

Still, I think the participation and reception was great. People always feel better after these things so I'm glad I was able to contribute to the company goal of making employees grow through management training. Last week was hell but it was well worth it.

I hope I get good reviews.

Client visit

We had foreign client visitors in the office two weeks ago and it was a great learning experience for me. This is mainly because I've never had to directly interact with a foreign client since that week. The past work I was doing with Wideout was that I was fixing up logistics for their stay, but now I was actually participating and giving input into things that greatly impact the business.

I had a very high game that week. I was getting myself in meetings and speaking up when I had some ideas. The data I studied came up once in a while although they were a bit raw. I was kind of disappointed with myself for not polishing it enough but I thought they served as a good starting point so that's okay.

Aside from the work, there were the perks and in our case were awesome meals. We had to bring these people to good places to eat and I was there for the ride. I think I was invited to those meals because my office mates thought I was a social kind of guy. Or maybe everyone else was not as social as me. I'm not a social guy so that's pretty sad.

I was amazed with myself because of how I held myself. I admit I was scared and intimidated at first but after a while I adapted pretty well. The clients were positive and open to ideas which helped me open up as well. After a while of listening to them and studying their personalities, it got easier to speak up and drop lines. Clients are people too, and each one has their own quirks.

The biggest thing I learned though was that you shouldn't be afraid to step up. Most people see their work as just a means to earn money. They give reasons saying it's not their passion. I read somewhere that passion is not simply something that you like doing. Passion is something you make happen and feel for something bigger than yourself.

And when you do awesome work with that passion, that just feels good.

Making a name for myself

Lately it's all been about work. The start of the months are always busy for me because of all the production reports that have to be submitted. I've given myself the moniker Dataman in the office to describe what I do and I guess that kind of makes it more interesting in the office. People are starting to catch on with  it and call me that as well. I don't know why I do that and it's not the first time I made a name for myself. When I was still a strategic planner at DDB, I called myself Stratboy. Yes that also caught on.

What's kind of weird though is aside from being Dataman, I think I'm getting a reputation of actually being a geeky hobbies mam. I know I like the giant robots and cartoons but lately, people are asking me stuff about which is a cool Gundam model to buy or what new game they should play. By game, I don't mean video game but roleplaying table top game. Makes me wonder what kind of vibe I really give out.

I've always thought that people hang out with me because when they're with me, they feel cool because they hang out with a geek. Or maybe They're ashamed they have a geeky hobby and know I am one of the few people who'd talk about it. Plus I don't judge, which I am really proud of.

Makes me ask myself though, do I want to be that guy? A go-to guy for anything geeky and shameful to society? Could be a yes and no.

I'd like to think all of that as an addition to who I am. It could be the easiest way I stick out but shouldn't be the only thing that defines me. I guess that's the value of experiencing new things and rounding yourself up.

But yeah, I do enjoy all the geeky good stuff.