How Listening in 2020 led to Growing in 2021 ??

As May comes to a close, we have a lot to be celebrating with Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month to Mental Health Awareness Month and rounding out May with Memorial Day this coming Monday in remembrance of those who served and died for our country. 

Amid quarter-end, which many of you in Sales already knows can be a hectic time, all of these themes, including an internal Cisco event called Power of Teams, inspired me to take a moment of pause and reflect on the last year and a half. That’s right, I can’t believe it either, but we’re already halfway through 2021. So, I asked myself what lesson did 2020 teach me that is impacting 2021 and what I arrived at with no hesitation is listening. 

When I took the time to pause and listen to myself and others, I realized that I gained a whole new perspective. After all, like Brene Brown said, “it’s not about being right, it’s about getting it right.” 2020 opened my eyes to a whole new view on race and what it meant to be prejudice. I grew up my entire life thinking that just because I didn't see color or ethnicity meant that I got a free pass from getting involved in this systemic societal problem. So, I never gave racism or prejudice a second look. However, after George Floyd’s death and the waves of protest that followed, I saw that just because I never saw color doesn’t mean I shouldn't listen or get involved. I learned that I needed to be comfortable with having the hard conversions around race, identity, and heritage to embrace the differences of someone else’s story. It gave me a whole new enlightened view into proximity and even opened up new relationships that I never thought possible. It was also a great reminder for me to be more mindful that we are all on a journey, so the patience and understanding that we are all struggling with something other than this global pandemic is such a critical lens to come to work with. Instead of jumping to conclusions, these conversations helped me give people the benefit of the doubt before reacting with judgment to that missed email reply or dropped ball. It helped me show and exhibit compassionate responses for my team and even self.  

This newfound mindfulness of people's whole journeys helped me not only grow as a human but as a leader. It opened my eyes to the importance of listening to all levels in an organization. When you do that, every person begins to play a more active role in shaping the overall strategy and thus feels more engaged, vested, and fulfilled due to this direct impact on the business. In doing so, I make the time to set up meetings with various levels of management to ensure I am listening at every level, so we create strategies centered around the entire ecosystem of our Renewals organization. 

The next question you are probably thinking next is where do I find the time to do all of this? Well, coffee and downtime first thing in the morning. My grounding ritual and saving grace through these unprecedented times have been ramping down to ramp up. What I mean by that is I take a moment every morning a few hours before my first meeting to make a morning cup of coffee, let the dogs outside, and watch ESPN, unplugging in those moments to not think about anything else. This is my meditation for those out there who do this type of ritual. These calming mornings help ground and center myself before the chaos begins.

Now, I am curious to know what rituals have helped you all get through these challenging times? Comment below and remember sharing is caring, and we need a whole lot of that right now!