A year ago I posted about starting my new dream job on LinkedIn.
I was buzzing. They had sought me out to join their fast growing business and it felt like a perfect match, ticking all the boxes that were important to me
Aligned purpose and values ✓
Culture fit ✓
Opportunity to learn and grow ✓
The potential to have global impact ✓
Feeling valued ✓
And I loved it. I loved the people I worked with and I loved what we were doing. It felt like we were changing the world and then…slightly less than a year later…
I was retrenched, alongside half of the company.
Like so many other stories behind the headlines, the business was navigating the choppy waters of the bow wave of Covid. Soft sales, supply chain issues and costs led to a cashflow crunch which in turn added up to costs needing to be slashed, or ballast to be jettisoned to lighten the load. In a simple equation I became part of that ballast.
Even though I was close to the action behind this decision and it made perfect business sense, it was the first time in my career that I’ve had to work through the experience of being on the receiving end of it. Usually I thrive on change but this was different because I wasn’t in control of it, and it was hard.
Suddenly I had taken a major detour from the path I thought I had set myself on. Ego, fear, grief and anger all competed for attention but fortunately my well practiced positivity bias fired up into overdrive to remind me that I am ok, this is part of life, bringing with it an opportunity to grow, to level up, eat a little humble pie and challenge my comfort zone.
Some days I’m better at buying into this than others but anyone who has worked with me knows I’m fond of referring to unexpected outcomes, mistakes and failure as #learnings or quoting the Amantha Imber term ”flearning” (learning through failure). I’ve also learned a lot from Kathy Caprino and her #FindingBrave methodology (full disclosure, I was also her publisher). So although this experience isn’t easy, I know at a deeper level that I will be a better person in work and in life once I’ve gone through it.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far through a lot of soul searching, a ton of coffee catch ups, time with friends, family and a coach:
A job is not an identity. I have always struggled with that and probably always will but it is critical to know who you are and what feeds your soul outside work
- The things that seem wildly important today may not be tomorrow
- Cliches exist for a reason
- Life goes on – if we are lucky
- We can create our own opportunities, in fact we have to
- It’s ok to ask for help
- Support comes from surprising places and people
- It’s important to take the time to process the experience (if you can)
Time has been invaluable. It has given me time to process the experience and to start focusing on what I want for the next stage of my career.
The steps I’ve been through are:
Clarifying my most important values. For me these are integrity, emotional intelligence and empowerment because…
I believe in being our full selves wherever we are and that in embodying integrity I can be true to myself while creating the space for other people to do the same.
- Emotional intelligence encompasses many things but for me, it’s about honest connection through listening, observing, understanding and valuing the fact we are all human, full of frailties and beauty and different strengths.
- Empowerment is about equality and fairness, recognition and taking action. And I will always push myself to live as the fullest version of myself, even when it’s scary and want to support other people to do the same
Being true to my purpose and owning my strengths. Doing some deep thinking and bouncing off other people has been so helpful for me to confirm what excites me in my work and what my greatest skills and strengths are.
I know for sure that I love and am great at…
- Finding out what makes people tick and hearing their stories
- Connecting people who can do good things together and building bridges through ideas and stories
- Seeing the potential in businesses and being able to pull all the strands together to transform them.
- Creating workplaces that are purposeful and focused on connection, collaboration and communication; where kindness is a virtue, not a weakness and where we acknowledge and celebrate that we are all human. I’ve always done this instinctively and was excited to learn recently that it’s called “social leadership”.
- Knowing that I can’t accept the status quo if it doesn’t make sense, so I will always advocate for important change. I now think of myself as a responsible rebel.
Finding the right fit. Right now I’m in the process of working out where I can best apply my values, skills, strengths and experience to have a positive impact and am getting increasingly excited about what’s next.
I still have wobbly moments; of course I do because I’m human, but when I dig really deep I feel like I’ve been given an unexpected and exciting crossroad in my life. I know I want my next act to be powerful and empowering, standing firmly in my values, playing to my strengths and operating with kindness, fairness, curiosity and optimism.
I wanted to share this experience as being retrenched is still a bit of a taboo topic even though it’s a common occurrence. We just expect people to keep it together and get on with it but there is an emotional impact on people that we diminish by not discussing it openly and comfortably. It’s another example of the way we still downplay the things that make us human in the workforce. Things like our caring responsibilities, disability, parenting, menstruation, lactation, menopause, chronic health issues or simply having interests and a life outside work.
I’m not saying that everyone has to talk about these things if they don’t want to, but acknowledging them, accommodating them, sharing experiences and reminding ourselves and each other that we are human, can only make the workplace and the world a better place.