[August 3, 2015] One of my more interesting experiences on college campuses today is presenting motivational talks to students … a few professors and staff members also attend and are welcome. Each time I do one of these I speak informally with as many people as I can in before and after my presentation. From these conversations I see a pattern that has always intrigued me. A common excuse often heard why grades are poor and classroom lectures skipped is that students claim they are too busy.
I’ve written about excuses in the past (see link here, here, and here). My theme has been twofold. First, excuses are used by leaders to justify failure or poor performance of others in their organization. Second, excuses are used as justification for poor personal performance. For leaders, both are unacceptable and are used only by the weakest of leaders and poorly performing managers.
Students are rarely leaders in the sense that we use the concept here at theLeaderMaker.com, but they are in an academic setting that is ideal for promoting the concepts of leadership and management ideals. Thus, this has been my personal interest in talking with students and in those who are employed at colleges. Interestingly, I have never found any formalized college training of leadership traits; something I will write about later.
Using the excuse that I’m too busy is intellectually lazy thinking and a failure to prioritize the things we do in life. Many times I’ve run across leaders who tell me that they failed to accomplish a particular task because they were too busy. What they are really telling me is that a given task is not important enough for them to do it in the manner it should be done. Whether modern-day students are that different from my generation is something that others will be able to determine but it seems from circumstantial experiences that they are a bit more lazy and have fewer quality growth experiences than previous generations.
I also find that the modern student is consumed with unessential tasks that keep them very busy. Time is spent texting their friends, posting on Facebook, working on their Twitter account, playing computer games … just to name a few of the most common unnecessary things they do. Each leaks energy and wastes time. These things do get in the way of their studies, something they amusingly recognize but are frightened to do anything about.
The excuse that I’m too busy simply does not cut it in the real world where money, life, and property rests on successfully getting the job done. Students – or anyone who uses this excuse –need to understand that it’s not acceptable and that by using it they are telegraphing that they are weak intellectually and emotionally and that their future bosses will see it as such.
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