Five Years. Five things I've learned.

Today I celebrate my five year work anniversary. Here's five of the best things I've learned along the way and that changed who I am today:

If you’re invited to be in the room, contribute.

The year is 2015, Netflix is premiering its first original film and I started a new role working in Insurance. In a catch-up with my leader, we were discussing attendance at various forums and they offered the following advice (at least as I remember it):

“Christopher! If you’re invited to be in the room and have something to contribute – don’t just sit there (if it’s important/ matters to you) than say it!.. One of two things will happen; you’re input will be considered or they won’t invite you back.”

(both outcomes are good) This is advice that has stuck and something I think about regularly. I've certainly gotten better at evaluating when a decision really matters, learning to ask good questions and not picking over detail that is immaterial.

Make the decision.

“What are you doing here!? You know what to do. Go and make the decision."

"I’ll back you up, I might ask you to share how you got there but as long as you can explain your process (in making the decision), you don’t need my permission.”

Well that was different. Having worked for many bosses who want to be involved in everything, I began to experience what it looks like to work for a leader. Leading teams and supporting customers when your leader doesn’t require you seek permission is incredibly rewarding. This started to foster confidence with myself alongside the mutual trust between my leader and I. I continued to engage and conference scenarios to ensure robust solutions through complex circumstances, but not for permission. Decision making is a skill and being able to practice it, to consciously surface considerations, and collaboratively review decision criteria has made me better in all of my roles.

Share your context.

Don't assume people see what you see. There was a process which regularly resulted in customer outcomes that were not ideal and led to ‘un-fun’ conversations (I learnt some new words as part of receiving this customer feedback ;).

It was a low volume but high impact issue (both for the customer and our people) and was not being prioritised (at least not as quickly as I wanted). Following consistent effort within my area and limited progress, I sought out a meeting with a stakeholder in another business unit to understand the context of the process and share the outcomes experienced in my business unit.

Sharing my experience with the process surfaced context for the stakeholder that they previously did not have visibility or awareness of.

These unintended consequences led to a pilot of an updated process. The pilot became process after it delivered improved outcomes and significantly reduced my classes in involuntary vocabulary expansion.

Find an outlet.

Challenge in work and life comes in many forms. There are bursts that feel unrelenting and misaligned to the effort, care and discipline that you’re applying, I'm certainly not immune to this and have faced significant change and challenges in the last five years.

It was during a period of sustained challenge that I started to engage with my health in a more consistent way. It sucked until one day it didn't, and it has been an incredible outlet to review, revise and realign my perspective. 

Running specifically is something I’ve come to enjoy with many a problem being reworked over a few kms of solitude (when I say came to enjoy, it's been a rough journey to get there! 4 years ago I ran three days in a row with resolve to get fit and then promptly quit). 2 years ago, I came back at it again. Since then I've done a bunch of Park Run (it took me a year from sign-up to first run), ran my first 1/2 marathon, my second 1/2 marathon, smashed my previous 10k time (- 17 minutes, turns out training does help) and even battled through a 50km ultra.

There’s a confidence that builds from redefining what’s possible physically and this translates tangibly what I can do, both at work and in life. The outlet of a workout is a wonderful discovery of the last few years.

Build empathy.

This is perhaps the most important one. Finding ways to put myself in the shoes of others, leaders, colleagues, team members, customers. In my opinion it is one of the most highly underrated skills, dismissed as ethereal and not holding value equivalent to the deliberate investment required to cultivate it.

I have found empathy to be the opposite, challenging, "meaty", an enabler of context and supporter of decisions. I always assume value (that people have good intent) and ask myself: What would have to be true for 'x' to be reasonable? (even if I'm wrong, it's a much better story).

Go. Make a ruckus.

I’ve learnt a huge amount about myself over the last five years. If you've been part of the journey, thank you.

When I’m able to contribute to doing things differently, advocating for the underrepresented or agitate and encourage diverse perspectives, this is when I feel most connected and get to bring my whole self to work, that I love.

Go. Make a Ruckus. (HT: Seth Godin)