Recovery and Renewal

Many staff have paid a great compliment to our Learning & Development team by telling me that they didn't even notice I was away for nearly two months.

I was confined to home following a partial hip replacement. It was a sobering experience. In my heart I knew that our team would be up to the challenge - and the fact that special events, workshops, support services, and even a full week dedicated to workplace learning all unfolded without people noticing my absence speaks volumes about the commitment of our team.

The experience reminds me that the key question in my role as a team leader should always be "what can I do for you." I agonized for weeks over the fact that I couldn't be around to assist each L&D specialist meet the challenges of their assignments. I'm back now and find myself getting straight to the chore of making their work flow smoother, more efficiently, and making it more engaging.

There were tough times for each member of our team during my absence, and some important team lessons to be learned - but I don't think our customers noticed. That is wonderful customer service.

And now that I'm able to serve again, I'm really excited about many great initiatives and ideas for Education at the ROHCG in 2010.

As per our blog policy - the opinions and comments in this article represent those of the author and should not be considered representative of the ROHCG.