Glass half full or cup half empty?

One of my younger partners told me the other day how much he had thought about something I had suggested to him some while back: something in fact I had forgotten telling him, but I have thought on numerous occasions is true.

The role of a partner is multi-dimensional. Clients, technical, marketing, people; often too much to do, in too little time, and competing pressures all the time. The same pressures as being a manager or director in business. Most of the issues have, as a fundamental, people; and in my experience, internally, there are two types of people.

The concept I gave to my partner is that we each come to work every day with a certain amount of energy within us, like a cup full of liquid. We will spend that energy during the day; in different ways, from one day to another. And our interactions with colleagues is one way in which the energy is used. Some people, and I have one colleague in mind, use energy: cold tea: they sap your strength; perhaps by negativity, perhaps by taking too much of your time, or by not deciding things they could decide, or by checking things which it is unnecessary to check. They are the sort of people you don't wish to work with.

Another type of person is like Red Bull: they give you energy, working with them tops up your energy tanks. These are rarer, but a delight, and again I have a colleague in mind when writing this. (I have no idea whether Red Bull or similar so called energy drinks work)

Cold tea people need to be more like red bulls; that is clear. What is less clear, is that red bulls need moderation too. But far better to work with red bulls: you want to spend time with them, develop their careers, and, surprise surprise, clients want to be be services by them too.

One of my clients uses a different formulation, but in essence the same: they score people by Mr Men characteristics. They want Mr Happy, Mr Confident, Mr Chatty to work for them: Mr Dull, Mr Quiet, can work for their competitors. It is no surprise to me that the particular client is a top performer in its area of business.

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