Today marks the 100th day in my new role at Vanguard.
This is the first time I’ve worked at a massive corporation. Reflecting on the time, a couple of themes came to the surface.
Career change is a breeding group for self-doubt.
Transitioning from my sales leader role to an internal coach meant starting over again. I’ve been in sales for 20 years, and now without selling or management responsibilities.
The adjustment amplifies the imposter who pipes up with things like “you don’t know what you are doing.” In some ways, it is true. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m figuring it out as I go.
Self-doubt is not a bad thing. If you do not feel like an imposter, you are not growing.
The imposter will never go away. It is better to get familiar with dancing with it.
A tremendous local team makes all the difference
They are a fun group to hang with. We have productive working sessions, and stuff gets decided on and put into action quickly.
Countless times the folks on my team have allowed me to shadow their meetings. Other times, people have had my back because I hadn’t done any of this before.
Our team does recognition at a Friday huddle. The outpouring of love was shocking for the first couple of times. I couldn’t receive some of it because I thought I was being buttered up and soon to be asked to take on something or other. But the recognition has only gotten more and more sincere.
This team really cares about each other.
Time in the day to think is a godsend.
Yes, there have been days with back-to-back meetings. But they are rare.
This whole concept is new to me and took a little getting used to. Selling always comes with an endless to-do list. More activities, more results, supposedly.
Having the time in the day to think through ideas or prepare for how I want to show up for someone or something means that it doesn’t happen at night on the weekend.
It has allowed me to learn in areas I am interested in. Take Scrum certifications. I took a Human-Centered Design course, and the connections and applications I saw to selling were amazing.
Organizational change is a grieving process
Our division is going through a large-scale transformation as we move to a new operating model. Change is not easy, and it is disorienting when you are in the middle of it.
Bill Bridges said that in transitions, there is always an end before a beginning.
When things come to an end, there is loss and grieving involved. You can’t take hold of the new thing until you have let go and processed the old reality.
The new reality gets formed during the messy middle. When leaders are willing to acknowledge missteps and allow people to wrestle with the decisions that impact them, change can improve things.
Otherwise, you can go through all the changes, and things around the place stay the same.
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