I Live in Iowa: Week 218

This was a good week, tiring, and at time scary, but to grow sometimes we need to be worn down and scared.

Work is work. I never thought that one of my greatest professional strengths would be motivating others. As we continue the launch of our new ground up product this year, the problems we never encountered during testing continue to grow larger. The most interesting single little event of the professional week was a 25 minute phone call I had with one of our technical support engineers. His job is to directly support the dealerships and customers with warranty claims and performance problems. This week one particular issue blew up to the level of my boss's boss's boss's boss, who I've only heard talk maybe three times in four years because he's that far removed from the daily detailed work that I am involved in. Anyway, our technical support engineer was distraught and discouraged about the overwhelming volume of negativity he was dealing with. After we talked for 25 minutes I think he felt much better, both about our new product, and also about how well he was doing his job, because he is doing a great job, and I'm not sure anyone was telling him that.

Motivation is such a complex topic. I love it! Motivation is a mystery. People don't have the same motivations. Intrinsic motivation, that is motivation that comes from within, is so much stronger than external motivation, although that has a place too. I can't give you motivation. I can help nurture and develop your motivation, but like a plant that insists on growing between the cracks on the interstate highway I can't control it.

Sunday I finished Kelsey's cross state ride in Wisconsin and then rode in the truck back across the state to Dubuque, getting home just after 9 PM. The blog post for that adventure will be published tomorrow.

I only ran 15 miles thanks to my Achilles tendon and sprained ankle, which are both on the same leg of course. I did bicycle 112 miles, and I think I averaged like 16.5 miles an hour or something, with some hills in there, which is pretty quick for me.

Monday, today, I am leaving for South Korea and I will get back Friday to Chicago at 5:30 PM. Pretty awesome to have a business trip that doesn't take anything away from my weekends, that's a little rare. Certainly I will take pictures and post some video of curiosities that I encounter.