Day 1,095

Exactly three years ago today, I started my new job at LinkedIn , ten days after moving my family back to San Francisco. We had nothing but suitcases full of our clothes, back in a familiar town—in fact, the birthplace to one of my children, and essentially childhood home to the other child in her core memory—but in someone else's home with no routines that felt like our own. I'm not a stranger to taking on several new things at the same time, but it doesn't necessarily get easier after each experience, especially when you are changing many aspects of your family's life and your work at the same time.

As I was reflecting on the past three years, the first part of a conversation I'd shared with Charlotte Rogers at Marketing Week just happened to drop ("LinkedIn’s marketing VP on introvert leaders and plot twists" ). Charlotte gave me the space to discuss what it's like to start a new job at a highly relationship-oriented company like LinkedIn , balancing being visible and invisible at the same time as an introvert who happens to be in a highly visible role and function, and why it matters so much to anchor back to who you are and why you do what you do at any given moment. Revisiting this conversation also made me realize that starting a new job (a bet the company took on you, and one you took on them) as a marketer (a highly visible but very little understood function—more on this later) in a leadership position (a highly visible, aspirational for many, but also potentially mystifying) is precisely why this matters so much more, but not for the most obvious reasons.

When you're in a new environment, and no one knows who you are yet, everyone will start to form an opinion based on your past record that's available by reputation or Google search. It's one thing to let your track record speak for itself—which played a part in getting the job in the first place—but now, it's time to focus on making new, present-day impressions, which must come from your active decisions and actions. When you start a new job, especially in a leadership position, everyone's watching your every word and move, curious to learn more about you as a person and a boss. Play an active role in setting that first impression. Treat it like you're launching an existing line of product (you) in a new market (your company). Be explicit about what you want people to know about you, especially when you manage a big, hybrid team around the world. Write a manual about you and share with your new colleagues (and maybe even make a fun go/link if you can).

Your job, when you start that new job, isn't simply to fit in and get along, especially when you're in leadership position. You likely chose a job and a company over other options because hopefully, the opportunity fit the hypothesis of your career goals and plans better than others. Actively participate in defining your value and impact to the company, and in turn, consider everyday a part of making progress against your career hypothesis (eg. "I chose this role because learning new things is a priority at this juncture of my career, and I believe I can learn more about x by doing more of y because of its scope."). Getting the job was just the start. Doing the job is going to help you find out how much of the potential you saw in the role is actually there for you to materialize, both for you and the company, and what else you can do with the opportunity to make it count. The key is to instigate these ideas and activities vs. sitting passively.

On top of all this, being new and being a marketer poses an interesting dissonance in being seen but not always quite understood. Almost everyone will have an opinion about your work and how your entire industry works before you've done a thing yet. Some will think they can do it better than you (most definitely). Others think what you do all day is simply write clever words on command or, oh by the way, where's that Super Bowl ad? I wish I could tell you, having been in this industry for 20+ years, that it gets better. Dear reader, it doesn't (sorry, but what am I good for if not for some real talk). These opinions will never stop coming. But that's precisely why knowing yourself and the value of work, and what you do with that knowledge matter so much. Don't lose yourself and what you can uniquely bring to the table in the swirl of opinions. If people are going to have an opinion about it anyway, you might as well be clear and loud with your own opinion about who you are, and how that shows up in your work. You'd never compromise on how you communicate and position the benefit, value, and the strength of the product you're marketing and selling, so why should this be any different for you? Focus on getting the job done with your distinct point-of-view and a plan. Don't let the seemingly familiar and accessible nature of marketing as a discipline get in the way of letting people see your unique capabilities as an expert in this field. Just because we all need to eat and occasionally address that need with our own cooking doesn't make all of us a chef. Play your own game, not anyone else's.

I'm still doing my best to practice these habits every single day. That makes showing up fully present at work a daily choice and a commitment for me, and because of that, I know I am exactly where I am meant to be, doing my part to make a difference in the work we do. That's a gift I hope you'll feel in your work, too, on day three as well as on day 1,095.