Put Me In Coach!
The last 6 months or so have been a HUGE transitional time for me in regard to my employment. We had a company wide “transformation” where roles were eliminated and a few months later some roles created. Our team has lost and gained individuals in that time frame. Our leadership has changed. Our working location has changed. Therefore, January 2020 is the first month where we haven’t been figuring out how to manage the same workload with less people, figuring out how to redefine roles as a new person comes into the team, haven’t been cleaning and packing up labs, and can consistently drive into the same office. Whew!
Fortunately, when taking various personality tests, one of my highest scoring traits was adaptability. I consider this an invaluable strength when working for a global company who pivots position fairly frequently. In my nearly 10 years working for my employer, I have had new responsibilities, new projects, and new managers at least every 2 years. Thankfully, I am one who embraces changes in the daily routine as I don’t like feeling robotic repeating the same tasks over and over and over again. I like to jump into new challenges and see where I can learn something and help.
And yet, the past couple months have been challenging all around - and more so for some of my coworkers who are relatively new to corporate America. Stress levels have been high and people more emotional than usual which is understandable. People are concerned about the changes, job security, and reassessing their goals and motivation. With that in mind and considering what challenge I would like to take next, I started looking into some professional coaching. I know that I can handle tasks given me but I want to improve my skill sets overall thinking next level which at my company is likely managerial.
On Season 1, Episode 8 of the podcast, I interviewed a woman named Natasha who works in Army Cyber for her Monday through Friday but is also a Leadership & Organizational Coach. We met via my sister’s military network and I felt an immediate connection with her. The interview was SO easy (although we had never met before) and we seemed to have a similar sense of humor. I am not a particularly trusting person but in speaking with her for the podcast, I felt I could trust her with my brutal task of self-reflection and emotional introspection. Eventually, our time tables matched up and as of January 19th, we are officially having coaching sessions.
The first step was completing my DISC Assessment for us to review and discuss. I had already shared with Natasha before the assessment some items I wanted to work on and was validated by the results of the DISC. I couldn’t stop laughing when reading through the assessment because it was SO ACCURATE. From there, we set up some “homework” for me to work on prior to our next session. I am already tracking a couple of items that I am looking forward to discussing with her.
I am sharing this for a couple of reasons:
Seek your own growth opportunities. Trust me when I say NOTHING is going to be handed to you. Be proactive - this is about your end game. You are responsible for your career.
Ask for help. My close friends and colleagues will tell you this one is a huge challenge for me. I am used to relying on myself but at some point, you will need outside support.
Widen interests and your network. It is unlikely that I would have crossed paths with Natasha without creating a podcast. In the midst of the podcast learning process, I found someone who will help me become a better version of myself. She is also outside my company and therefore focused on my personal development and unbiased to the day to day agendas at work.
Stay tuned for updates from future sessions.
Cheers, Heather :)