Is it redundant to say, "The whole big picture?" Not for the business manager. Your job demands that you keep one eye on the daily details and the other eye on the big picture: what is happening with the company overall. And you must make decisions and give leadership from the perspective of what is best for the company not only today but in the long run. How will today's decisions and activities impact the rest of the company's activities? Where will we be tomorrow? That's the big picture.
How well you make decisions, give leadership and stay in perspective depends on how well you are able to keep track of everything while attending to the details of some specific thing. It is the art and discipline of paying attention to details while keeping perspective. This is nearly impossible unless you are in reasonably good shape, of sound mind and emotionally stable. In other words, you need to have a life. That's where the "whole"comes into play.
The big picture has to do with the company you manage. The whole picture has to do with your life. Managers who are nervous wrecks really aren't very good for their companies in the long run. The only way not to be a nervous wreck is to get a life. It's that simple.
Having a life and being a business manager, however, is not simple in today's business climate. We are at a time of intense productivity and competition. Much to everyone's amazement we are discovering that it takes a great deal of time to be technologically efficient. At the dawn of the computer age we were told humans could be replaced by technology. Automation would replace our labor. Computers would reduce the time needed for data management and computation from hours to seconds. Humans could rest their backs and their minds. The problem would be how to manage all our extra leisure time.
What has happened, however, is that technology and computers have simply allowed us humans to become more productive. Now that we have greater capacity to accomplish more we are driven to do so: the law of "produce or perish" remains in effect! Managers feel this crunch. The demand is for more of their hours at work, not less. It has become ever more difficult for managers to keep track of both the big picture and the whole picture. They must manage with perspective for the sake of their employees as well. Policies reflect the policy maker's point of view. In the vernacular: goofy managers make work a living hell for their workers.
The first and best way to reduce stress in the workplace is to reduce your own stress. The best way to do that is to come to work stress free: that's only possible if you have a life and purpose beyond your job. Here is a simple one-question test:
When your work day is finished can you hardly wait to go home, share life with people you love and engage in meaningful activities that you enjoy?
When the time comes to need a tombstone, if all that goes on it is "here lies a business manager who gave all for the cause," you are missing the whole picture. Both the company and your workers could pay the price.
And you could need that tombstone much quicker than expected!
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