My girl friend Brittany and I have an ongoing competition to prove whose city is better. She lives in Raleigh, NC and I, of course, reside in the most exceptional city, RVA (Richmond, VA for those of you not up on the lingo). Last weekend I took a trip to visit her and, as always, it was full of inside jokes, excited stories, and the most amazing food. Friday night we found ourselves at Oak City Meatball with a handful of friends from the area. It is a brand new restaurant and was quite packed when we got there. There is no surprise about it’s popularity- Oak City Meatball has been getting rave reviews on Yelp and has really been the buzz about town.
The menu only allows you to place an order of 4 meatballs. There were no options for 1, 2, or 3. You couldn’t get 5 or 6. It was order in 4s. You assume at a place like that the meatballs will be large, but, none-the-less, what do we all do? We each ordered our own meatballs (which come with a sauce of your choice and one side). And how many meatballs did we each eat? Two. We each ate exactly half our meal.
As a leader I constantly find myself thinking I can handle all 4 meatballs. But, sometimes I have to be honest with myself and share those meatballs. “I will look into that,” “I will be point person for that,” “I will prep the deck for that,” “I will…,” “I will…,” “I will…” How often, in those situations, do we have someone sitting next to us who is just as excited about tasting a meatball? How often do we walk away from situations feeling too stuffed (aka overwhelmed and exhausted) or behind when someone else is still hungry (hungry for an exciting project or task)?
In the moment, I find it difficult to give up two meatballs- my eyes are always bigger then my stomach and I constantly think, “I can do it!” But, in reality, it isn’t that I can’t do it… but do I have to? Just as I need to start remembering to share meals when I go out to dinner, I need to start remembering that the people I work with have incredible talent and add value to the work we do. And, with everyone’s effort, all four meatballs might just get eaten (and possibly in a timely, relaxed fashion!).
So who can you share some work with this week? And, in the process, maybe build your relationship while enjoying a good meal together.
