Day 3 Anagnorisis
Advice from friends and associates was given freely to me but very costly for me. I tried to do what people were suggesting as much as I could, but every suggestion could amount to hours of work and dead ends. It was impacting me mentally and physically. Even people in high positions couldn’t or perceptually wouldn’t just make something happen for me.
For you, I’d like to address an unobvious truth. People in very senior roles may not be able to just magically wave their hands and hire you. Technically, there are things they CAN for sure do but there are many factors for them to consider including and not limited to perception about them and risk to them.
Is it bullshit? Yeah! You are a direct report for the CEO, we’ve been friends for years and you know what I can do, and you can’t figure out a way to get me in to do some work? Trust me when I say to you, people will disappoint you. However, if you know ahead of time what you are dealing with and set expectations for yourself, you MAY be less disappointed. Personally, I was disappointed at the time, but shook it off and when those same people needed my help, I did for them what I’d asked them to do for me because I knew how it felt to be in that position. You DO YOU!
Why Anagnorisis?
Anagnorisis is a term used in literature to describe the moment of recognition or discovery that leads to a change in the protagonist’s understanding of their situation or identity. It is a critical point in the plot, especially in tragedies, where the protagonist realizes their true identity or discovers the true nature of their situation. The term comes from the Greek word “anagnōrisis,” which means “recognition” or “discovery” – reference to Bing.
I figured you may not know what the word meant. Hey, it’s all good. What happened in your story that led to this situation where you make or made a discovery about yourself?
Quick example, an acquaintance of mine is a retired senior military officer. He was highly sought after while he was in his role as a multi-starred leader. He started with a large commercial firm after he retired and led a large organization as a Partner on the LT. Over a few years, the people he worked closely with in the services were retiring themselves. He didn’t build up his business through adding other leaders like himself. He just used his relationships to get some contracts and deliver on those. After about three years his performance started to degrade. He started to think about changing his approach to growing his area of business but his growth and sustainability vs his business targets were off. While there is a lot more to this story we can talk about, the point is, he lost his job. Initially, he didn’t care, he shrugged it off because he knew his value. He knew he had a ton of contacts; name recognition and he was confident that he would land quickly. That didn’t happen. He was often ghosted. He struggled with recruiters, he struggled with his resume (which he hadn’t actually written), his friends couldn’t or wouldn’t take a lot of risks for him. He started an LLC to just do some “consulting” and did some transactional work through friends, but these were very short-lived activities. He couldn’t understand what the hell was happening. “Don’t they know who I am”? On one occasion he asked me this question and I responded, “They absolutely know who you were, but they have NO idea who you are.” He had to take a good look in the mirror and realize his “true identity.” He was Major General so and so for many years but took off the armor and the uniform and shouted “Hi, I am Tom, I am Tom, I am TOM!” He had to strip down to his fundamentals and discover himself. He was hiding, buried deep inside himself. He was emerging, studying, learning about himself and discovering what he really wanted in his life. Now, he was ready to do what needed to be done for himself and his family. The big reveal!
Erryboddy – At Least Most
Some people have “impostor syndrome” studies show that high performers somewhere between 20-35% feel this way. At least 70% of adults at some point in their lives have felt this way. When you lose your job for whatever reason, it is very easy to go to thinking negative thoughts about yourself. If you consider reviewing your resume and your accomplishments during this time, it can help you factually show yourself what you’ve done and help shape what you can do! Maybe we are all imposters? Who cares.. we can still do great things!
In the Moment
It was very hard when they sat in the room with me to explain why my role was no longer required in a company that clearly required my role. At least to me. It was much harder when I asked people for help, and they didn’t come to my rescue. Reflectively, I hold on to this moment. It inspires me to do better for others and be better for others and myself. My network DID help me but not in the way I thought they would. I had a lot to learn, and I had to look in the mirror and say, “I am Howie” and figure out what the heck that meant to me.
Many of us learn through suffering. If I had the red carpet rolled out for the great Howie Cohen, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn about how things work. I was tired, and I was worried, and I was emotional, but I realized that just like exercise no other person could or would do for me what I needed to do for myself.
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Practical Tactical
Let us pick up on “things to do” as mentioned in the last post. I mentioned templates or patterns before, so I’ll give you a few things to get going. Hey, it is up to you to use this or not. It helped me while I was interviewing. I can share a few stories of the interview process as well. It took me about three months from the time I was released to start the next official role. I always have “the hustle” so, I did some short-term stuff in between.
I’ll use BMS as the example here:
Market “Crush” report from D&B
I wrote a “playbook” based on the role I was looking to perform. I had it printed and bound for the interview. I used their fonts and had additive information around the business to address the people, the market, the technologies, and the future.
I studied the CEO, the board, the team members that I could learn about and the hiring manager. I made BMS my full-time job for a few weeks.
I narrowed down my focus to two companies from five. I started by doing a broad search using a few tools including LinkedIn. In the case of BMS, I had one contact. I’ll offer that my person DID help as a reference, and I acknowledge his contribution to my getting the job. That said, I studied my ass off on BMS to know it as well as any senior leader who had an interest in the company. I could see at least three M&A activities ahead which I mentioned in the interview. This all came to pass, and my brother Giuseppe reminded me of this as we worked together. He was on my hiring panel, let us call him “found family” ??
I took what I knew about the industry, the people, the culture, the history of the business and wrote a playbook. The playbook wasn’t about getting it right the first time but about a place to start. I also gave the interview panel an idea of my first 100 days and what that would look like.
All that said, I had three pages of questions for them. I didn’t ask them all the questions, but I did seek to learn what assumptions I made were right or wrong. I got some things wrong but at the end of the day, I did use my 100-day plan after I started. The BMS team, including my peers, were *** AWESOME.