Be an Up-Stander

I was watching the news and saw a story about a little boy falling from a ski lift. The news story featured the boy’s mom sharing her harrowing experience. She recounted how she was holding onto her son, knowing she could not hold him much longer. She believed he was going to fall to his death. Luckily, he avoided serious injury, or worse, because others below the lift came to his rescue. The boy’s mother wanted to thank the “up-standers” for not just being bystanders.

That resonated me. How many times have we found ourselves in the bystander situation? Do you ever look back at a situation and wonder, “Should I have…” or, “What if I had…”As my dad used to say, “Should’ve, would’ve, and could’ve are all bad words.”

When you walk in the door at work, you are stepping in to solve a problem, to help move the needle in a positive direction for your organization. This isn’t always easy. The relationships can be complicated, fraught with emotions, company politics, and sometimes even physical challenges. I am often asked how do I lead a project like this?

The answer is simple, and it’s what saved that little boy on the ski lift: be an up-stander. Stand up for what you know, stand up for what is right, and stand up for the project goal. Don’t stand around and watch the project pass you by! We all need to be up-standers, protecting what we believe in.

Sometimes, being a bystander is the easy way out. It’s the safe route, it doesn’t rock the boat or cause friction. Our projects will never be successful if we all sit back and become bystanders. Your project, and the world, doesn’t need more bystanders, it needs more up-standers.

Whether it is standing up for the success of a project or for someone who needs our help, when will you be an up-stander next? I challenge you to stand up!

Until next time…we are Advoco, make every minute count.

About Michelle: It’s hard to find someone that doesn’t like Michelle – she’s easy to talk to, she’s a wealth of knowledge about EAM, she’s relatable, and to top it all off, she’s fun to be around! Her Infor EAM life started at a university that used the product to manage facilities. She has since built up and manages our Post Implementation Consulting team. When Michelle isn’t helping our customers, you can find her in her garden preparing vegetables for canning or touring the Upstate on her motorcycle! Have a question for Michelle? Send her an email!

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