The Friday Thing #763

Almost August….almost time for vacation.

The Friday Thing #763 has been in the queue for a few weeks as I had meant to post it upon the 1-year anniversary of my ‘new’ job here at Microsoft.

As I’ve caught up with friends and colleagues over the past few weeks at company events, after work happy hour or chance meetings at a busier Microsoft Campus, lots of people have asked me the same question – “how is the new job?” My immediate response is that it’s really not new anymore,?but once I get past that, I tell them how much I have learned in the space of 12 months. There are days when the job is challenging, when it’s hard and when I have no idea what I am doing. And there are days when it’s rewarding, exciting and I know the perfect playbook. It’s good to have a healthy mix of both of those things in any role I believe, but most of all, it’s good to be constantly learning. I loved my previous role as Chief Storyteller at Microsoft and still dabble in that world, but I now realize that I was not learning every day. This new job – I learn something every single day. One thing I have (re) learned is the power of asking for help and this post on Upworthy a few weeks ago reminded me of it.?

I took screenshots of the post to come back and read it again a few times because it simply made me smile. I am sure that slushee spill was a pain to clean up – but I love the ‘in the moment lesson’ that accidents can happen and that asking for help is okay. There are days when I feel truly overwhelmed, but I’ve become more comfortable asking for help. I’m also more aware of the signal that it sends to others. As the leader of my team, if I can’t ask for help what message does that send to them? I remind myself how I feel it’s a gift when my peers or leaders ask me for help. Earlier in my career, I’d have thought of it as a sign of weakness but to have the courage to say, “I don’t know, can you help me?” is a real sign of strength.

I’ve had a very fulfilling first year in this role in no small part to the help I have been given, often because I asked for it. And in the process, I have learned a lot along the way.

I am sure this is incredibly obvious stuff but some Friday’s, I just want to share what’s on my mind in the hope that it’s passing on some learning ??

That’s all I have for this week. I’m off to ask for some help with fitting new tyres to my bicycle!

Happy Friday.

-Steve