Month: March 2026

When a project or event ends, it’s tempting to ruminate over all the things you could have/should have done differently. Depending on your focus, this can be helpful or self-defeating.

If the focus of your thinking is on the past, you may find yourself losing confidence in your abilities as you tick off all the ways you could have done better. This self-flagellation serves no purpose other than to drain your self-esteem. However, if your thoughts focus on the future and how the project could be improved the next time, that process can be very helpful in identifying lessons learned for the next round.

We can always do more. The key is to put a period, not a comma, at the end of a project and let it stand. “The event was good. Next time it will be even better when we do X.” (period) vs. “The event was good, but we could have done X instead.” (comma)

Expend your energy on what comes next instead of getting stuck in the doom loop of regret over things you can’t change. Your confidence and project will both be better if you keep the emphasis on looking ahead, not back.

I’ve written before (dot #418) about “T-people,” a term used by IBM to describe those with breadth in many areas (the cross-bar of the T) and depth in one area (the stem of the T). IBM preferred to hire those with that breadth over those who were specialists in a narrow area.

I’ve spoken with several people who have that breadth and expertise in a given area, but they underestimate the value of where their talents lie. For example, one person is an organizational whiz, another has deep experience with volunteers, but they don’t see those skills as “T-stem-worthy.”

Expertise in an area doesn’t have to be in a subject. It can be a skill set you may take for granted, but that is not present in most others. It could be facilitation skills, negotiation, conflict resolution, galvanizing teams, or hundreds of other “soft skills” that not everyone possesses. It could even be being a generalist in a field surrounded by specialists.

Think about where you have special talents. They probably come so naturally to you that you don’t always identify them as your “T-stem,” but being able to articulate them helps enhance your impact and contribution. What skill set do you have that suits you to a T?

I saw a post on Facebook where someone made complete birthday cake kits to donate to their food bank. The kits were packaged in a foil baking pan and included cake mix, frosting, candles, and a Happy Birthday banner. What stood out to me was that they also included a can of Sprite and instructions on how to substitute eggs and oil (that the recipient may not have) for the soda, which surprisingly works just as well.

The person making the kits went the extra mile to ensure it was ready to use when submitted. The recipient didn’t need to acquire any additional items or take any extra steps (other than baking the cake itself).

It was a good example of providing a complete product, a lesson that many in the workplace could learn from. Sometimes, work is submitted that needs editing or additional information, putting the burden on the supervisor to revise or track down data. Work that’s ready to go is something to celebrate.