Having the opportunity to work for five fortune 500 companies across many different industries has been thrilling and also a test of endurance as one leader of mine used to say, “it’s a marathon.” All of the many leaders I have worked for have been brilliant and possessed deep intellect along with dramatic style differences, preferences, and work expectations. And yet…looking back there are some things I wish I had a magic rewind button so I could do some things differently. Don’t you?
Racing Through Time
Throughout my years as a Learning Leader, I have continued to race from one project to the next, feeling a sense of satisfaction (and sometimes an adrenaline rush) when the impossible became possible, always with a highly skilled and supportive team by my side. We accomplished great things: practiced scalable thinking, disciplined project management, and cultivated positive team environments built on empathy and trust. Queues of work were always a mile high, and our commitment to seeing projects through to the end was unwavering.
Rewinding and Considering the Future
And then came 2020. After almost losing my cherished sister to COVID and then actually losing my sister n law (because she was afraid to seek medical treatment in fear of catching the virus) I started to look at things differently both personally and professionally. I started exercising deeper levels of thinking as many say life is the proverbial “continuous classroom.” Now as I plan for my next ten years in Learning, I am beginning to ask myself some tough questions:
- How do I want to work in the future? How do I not want to work?
- What can I change to work with more intention and purpose?
- Where can I exercise more allyship for others, especially underrepresented communities?
There is a great article which speaks to the power of reflection and slowing down to actually produce better and faster results. It is titled “Slowing Down to Speed Up” by McKinsey, written in 2018 and is still relevant today.
What I Learned from my Magic Rewind?
And if I could actually press the “magic rewind” button, what advice would I offer my “early in career” self?
- Instead of rushing from one project to the next “SLOW DOWN”. Whether Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation, Kaufman’s Five Levels of Evaluation, Brinkerhoff Success Case Method, Anderson’s Value of Learning, or the Phillips Model do the ROI work.
- Realize that hard times “come by” a requirement of the human experience. You will interact with some who have fundamentally different values. The “values rub” is for real, and instead of feeling frustrated, exercise more curiosity and openness when you can.
- BTW, don’t take the cool job with the four-hour daily commute to NYC (when you have a six-week-old baby).
- The two colleagues you work with at the big financial institution will become lifelong allies.
- That one very senior leader will push you to the edge and also unleash an inner strength that you were not so sure was still around.
- Be kinder to yourself: journal more, practice more gratitude, spend more time in the woods, and resist temptations of the consumer culture. Oh, and Executive coaching works do more of that.
- And “fail forward” deliberately use your mistakes to find success.
This article was written by Sonja Menton, our very 1st guest blogger.
Sonja is a Senior Director of Learning and Development at Altice USA. She had held learning leadership positions spanning many industries, including Retail, Financial Services, and Technology. Sonja is passionate about lifelong learning and unleashing the potential and possibilities of teams. When not at work, she enjoys time with her family and pursues equestrian interests and advocacy.
