So today was my last day of uni. I had a presentation to give with four other guys. They made me the group leader when we first started preparing several weeks ago. I gave everyone assignments, fought for what I thought was best for the group and generally put it all together. I did the majority of the work because I wanted a good grade. I got the guys together several hours early to run through our presentation half a dozen times and to time everything. I did everything that I thought was right. I was wrong.
During the actual presentation one guy spoke for 5 minutes instead of 90 seconds. I thought the other guys in my group are intelligent, they will adapt. Of course they didn’t. One guy read his 45 second quote. Another guy tried to speed up and did an ok job. I was perfect and cut my time in half. The guy after me. Oh how I hate him now. He just rambled and rambled. Talking so slowly and so boring. Until the professor yelled at him to shut up and conclude. Of course he missed all of our meetings and only showed up finally today. He clearly ignored the rest of our work and didn’t know what was on the conclusion slide.
I wanted to yell and punch all four of them for messing up. But as team leader the responsibility falls on my shoulder. We discussed kicking out the extra guy last week for missing all of our meetings. The professor even said it was ok. But in the end, I didn’t pull the trigger. It was my mistake. When I am leader, I need to use a firmer hand. I should have pulled the guy off stage when he rambled.
But this post isn’t just about my anger and disappointment. Or about how yet again people have let me down. Instead, I tried really hard to do what Soul has been teaching me. He is making me read How to Win Friends and Influence People. The first principle is don’t criticize. So instead of saying what everyone did wrong, I just shook some hands and ran off. I could have been better, but at least I didn’t say something mean that wouldn’t accomplish anything other than making me feel a little better. Life is about progress and I think I did ok today.
0 comment