I once asked a member of a customer service team I led: How you doing?
And his reply was:
Busy and bitchy.
I laughed. I understood. I left him alone.
Busy and bitchy meant he had no time for chit-chat, idle happy-talk from his manager. Certainly, he had no time for meetings about everything but what was important to him getting his job done. That was making customers happy. That was making his team happy. That was building a sense of self-esteem from what he accomplished. That was going home satisfied by what he's done.
We'd structured this group imperfectly, but with enough things done right, that they had most of the resources they needed to make the customer happy, be happy doing it, participate in the decision-making, and with access to me as their manager/leader/boss. And if they didn't like my responses they had direct access to more people in the organization. I knew that, too.
So, when he answered Busy and bitchy...I knew I'd done my job right.
He felt the urgency in his work. Customers depended on him. His team depended on him. His sense of accomplishment depended on him. The desire to achieve was high because he knew he had the means to and would be rewarded, also. That made him busy.
He was bitchy only if silly obstacles or interruptions appeared. Busy and bitchy if asked silly questions. I disappeared. That left him... busy.
Busy and bitchy, while maybe not the terms of enlightened management, is the term of an engaged employee. Passionate. Focused. Impatient. Abrupt. Direct. Crisp. Dedicated to the point of being...the pressure point on my leadership skills. Pushing and demanding I do more, listen more, be more accountable and provide more direction. And allow them to run faster, farther.
Busy and bitchy. That's what you want. The alternative are employees salivating for the next hour long meeting discussing...God knows what...but it's an hour of doodle time in their notebooks. Basically, a mini-vacation that we think is so important. But, they don't.
The next time someone says they don't have time for a meeting, listen to them. They may be saying their work is more important. Getting work done is more important than...a meeting where nothing gets done. They're busy and bitchy. That's a good thing.
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