Its a hard knock life-- Cry me the river waah

So here I sit, updating my blog from seat 1B on Continental flight 1492 to Columbus- Columbus, 1492, get it? Anyway. A big part of my job is travel. I totally dig collecting points- Marriott points, Hertz points, Delta was my airline of choice for a while. Points have paid for some really nice trips over the last few years. Loyalty programs are brilliant on so many levels. Despite whatever restrictions companys put on their traveling employees, loyalty programs will still sway choices. I am not the type of customer that saves their points for years and years. I like to use them as early and often as possible. That doesn’t mean I jet off to San Antonio and burn up my airline miles on a short hop, I like to stretch them as far as they can go. We took a bitchin trip to Park City in 2007 all on points, an anniversary surprise get away to NYC on some other points. The wife and I are heading off to a week long trip to Hawaii the end of this week- all on points.
Wow, I went off the beaten path on that one…. My point is I travel and there are some perks. First class upgrades- I would never pay for first class on domestic travel- but it is nice when it’s a freebie. I mentioned in one of my initial posts that I travel a lot, but not in a glamorous role; I am not the one going in to close the big deal. I am a people person. I hope that I am not the "never gonna find a job with just THAT on my resume" type of people person, but I pride myself on how I interact with people- namely my 41 or so employees spread out across the midwest. I train, I discipline, I coach and mentor. I am not the friendliest guy out there. I am not the type who starts up a conversation with a stranger(unless I have a few cocktails in me). I definitely like to get a good read on a person before I interact. I will sometimes rehearse conversations in my head before going in to situations where there is even the possibility of confrontation with people.
Most of the people in the management track at my company are good at the kinds of problems that involve numbers. I am AWFUL at math, statistics, accounting etc.. So I have to fake it a lot with those kind of situations, but people problems can be just as complex. How do you increase retention yet get tenured employees to change their ways-turn their world upside down and get them to hold on. How do you encourage creativity while telling somebody their innovative idea sucks. How do you tell someone you care about their familys, loved ones, that you sympathize with their plight, but tell them to get their ass to work when they or loved ones are chronically ill or dying. How do you build up your successor without getting your own ass replaced prior to you finding your own job.