Effie’s week in review

I grew up in a slightly crazy home. Friday evenings’ highlight was watching Wall Street Week, which is probably not quite the same as many people’s experience.

Most people probably watched fun stuff. Just sayin’.

So, with a nod and a bow to Louis Rukeyser, I thought it might be fun to do an “Effie’s Week in Review”, where we can talk about what happened without any expert-ey opinionated ickyness.

Here goes… from this point forward, I’ll be typing on behalf of Effie.

****************

There were many, many elephants that came out this week, which is always a little fun for me because I actually like hanging out with my peers. But since we can’t talk about any of those elephants that came up with clients, I’m forced to talk about the person I know best:  Liz.

One of the things I saw Liz doing was getting an itsy bitsy bit off track.

I know, I’m always after her about this. I don’t know why  it seems so hard for her to stay focused. We elephants are very single-minded, so I have lots of issues with transference and such around this.

One of the things that is hard for Liz to do is to talk on the phone. No, that’s not quite right. The thing that’s hard for her is to get on the phone. The picking up and dialing part.

Once she’s actually on the phone she is perfectly fine and can talk for hours.

But it’s the getting on the phone thing that’s hard for her. I believe this is for several reasons. When she was growing up, her dad’s business phone rang at the house and she always (even as a very little kid) had to be careful to answer the phone correctly and politely. It was in the days of long-distance being extremely expensive, so when a long-distance call came she often had to run like hell to find the correct person. Sometimes there was yelling about the whole who-answered-the-phone thing. This made the whole answering-the-phone thing less than delightful.

Then there was her first job, where she helped in the kitchen of the bar in her hometown. The phone for the fire department rang in the bar, and when no one was at the VFW, the staff at the bar had to answer it. Sometimes, that meant she had to answer it. I don’t know about you, but for a 16-year-old girl answering a fire phone is just not too appealing.

These days, and this may seem really quirky, Liz is still working through the fact that people a) know who she is when she calls, and b) actually want to talk to her. I know, this again seems strange, but we elephants just tell it like we see it.

I’m trying, in my own quiet way, to help her understand that what she does is really of value — amazing in its ability to help people. I’m also trying to help her see that the only way to talk to some of her right people is by calling them.

Still, she’d much prefer a million emails to that moment, just after she says “Hi, it’s Liz” when there’s the pause during which she’s worried the person will say, “Who…?”

At which point she’d prefer for the Phone Gods to simply take the phone and never allow it to come back.

Now, back to getting off track. (Hey, that kind of rhymed.)

I’ve noticed and pointed out that Liz tends to send out emails and hide behind the veil of the web (I’m pretty proud of that little phrase there) rather than actually getting on the phone. When she does get on the phone, she’s amazingly successful at getting things done.

So, as my amazing and very high-tech intervention, ‘cuz that’s what I do, I’ve asked Liz to stop emailing people when she should call them. She’s really kind of struggling with this, but today she got a whole lot accomplished and actually talked on the phone.

When she does make a call rather than sending an email, I’m giving her a caramel. She loves caramels, and I’m thinking this plan might work. I’ll let you know after we have a few more days and track the data (again, that’s what we clinical types do).

Well, that’s about enough for this edition of “Effie’s Week In Review.” Hope you found it helpful (or at least a little more interesting than a 30 minute show on the stock market).

How’s your week been?

I’ll be here to listen, as always, if you’d like to share anything.

All my best hugs and squishes to you,

Effie

-liz