My youngest enters third grade, a grade that feels like a pinnacle school year. When my oldest was in third grade, I was pregnant with the youngest and had him at the end of the school year. He visited the school many times as a baby and toddler. Now, he’s over halfway through his elementary school career. Third grade is the first year they take those fun state tests with Texas introducing a new one this year making everyone crazier than usual.
Third grade is when things get serious in a child’s education and life. Less play, more work.
Third grade happens to be one of the grades I remember well. It’s the one year I recall laying out my clothes the night before — brand new dress and ugly blocky ’70s shoes. When the students waited in the cafeteria to find out our teachers, we third graders talked about who was mean and who was nice. Out of all that, I remember someone saying, “Mrs. Miller is the mean one.”
Guess who I landed. I also had almost every third grade teacher. First, I had Mrs. Johnson for reading and Mrs. Lambert for math. My mom went straight to the principal and told them to try again. She believed the school placed me in lower level classes than where I needed to be. They moved me to Mrs. Johnson for math and Mrs. Massey for reading. Happily ever third grade.
Oh, and Mrs. Miller? She was a wonderful teacher.
The lessons: expectations and speaking up.
Expectations
We can’t help but have expectations in our lives and careers. You interview for a job and form an idea of what to expect in talking with the people interviewing you. You meet with a potential client discussing the project collecting tidbits from the conversation hinting what it might be like to work with the client.
Sometimes our expectations are on target. Sometimes they’re not. The more accurate information you have, the more likely reality matches expectations. My third grade friends had no basis for saying Mrs. Miller’s mean. It was probably a long line of hearsay.
Speaking up
When something isn’t right or you believe it can be better. Speak up. Fight for it. As a freelancer, my clients hire me for my expertise in content. If I see a missed opportunity or a better way of doing something, I speak up. A freelancer isn’t a person who only does what the client asks. It also means acting like a consultant who shares knowledge and experience to help the client.
For example, I’ve worked with a client on his company website for a long time. Search engine optimization (SEO) rules have changed since we first met. I told him I’d like to revise pages per current SEO recommendations explaining what needed changing and why. He told me to run with it.
When one of my kids received an assignment way out of his league that would hurt more than help, I spoke up. It had happened before to another student and the powers that be didn’t do anything to correct it. I couldn’t stand by and watch my son suffer the consequences of a poor decision on the leaders’ part. It took a few messages, but we found a compromise.
When did you encounter expectations that didn’t match up to reality? How about when they did match up? Why didn’t they match up? Why did they? How about a situation when you spoke up to a manager or a client?
