Pivotal Moments in my Career - 1

In response to a poll I created on my work anniversary. I am writing a reflective piece on pivotal moments in my career till date. To put things in context, I am reflecting on my career experience from 400 level engineering internship role as a network engineering intern to my current role as a Production Unit Manager in Shell. I am still evolving, making mistakes, winning some, failing at some and picking myself back up. I have promised myself an amazing experience and my kids - an interesting story to tell of their mum so I am definitely taking my shot at an amazing career experience since it makes up about 50% of my amazing life experience

So I will write these in a series format so you can pick and choose which of the series you are curious about. There are 10 WHENs - The "When" describes the moment it clicked, That moment something changed within me even if I did not know it then, I know it now that It was in that moment - something shifted within my sub-conscious and changed the choices and actions I took thereafter. When I reflect now, I realise as my causal learning coach and friend Chris Frederic says - "transformational learning has happened when behaviours change." That definitely happened in those unplanned moments.

The 10 WHENs - When I realised peer pressure can be a great thing, When my plans failed, When I started understanding systems and powers, When I started understanding boundaries, When I realized I could change,move and decided to evolve ,When I realised I could use some help, When I took risks, When I started discovering and owning my strengths, When my energy depleted, When I decided to experiment

Lets start with,

When I realized peer pressure can be a great thing

During 400 level internship, we were paired in teams to install internet modems in residential homes and corporate offices. I quickly realised that other teams seemed to be installing more modems than I was installing in a day. I found out that they had figured a way to navigate Lagos traffic and Logistics. I quickly replicated this practice and upped my game. This improved my results and built my confidence and credibility - After awhile, I had an unfortunate accident and decided to change my role, I played another role well, met amazing colleagues that also influenced me in positive ways. So while peer pressure is mostly positioned as negative in societal narratives, It can be a force for development and growth. It is also identified as 1 of the 5 relationships you need for a successful career . The influence of peers as coaches, allies, mentors and sponsors is quite underrated so while we cultivate relationships with senior colleagues and enjoy supporting early career colleagues - We could easily neglect our vital peer relationships - with that we lose the ability for anyone to hold the mirror to us and keep us grounded as we evolve in our career journey. We also miss the opportunity to nurture allies and partnership we require in life. Peers could advocate and amplify your work, They could also provide some pick me up moments when everything else sucks - Everyone needs that peer that invites you to chill at the right moment.

So there it goes - That was my 1st career pivotal moment - Honouring the peer beside me in the trenches - learning from them, supporting them, amplifying peers and recognising the importance of that moment when we are peers for what it is - VITAL.

Today, I honour that learning moment on peer relationships in the workplace. I also extend it outside the workplace by cultivating and contributing some of my time to professional communities that focus on nurturing and leveraging peer communities like Blazers&Baby A Leanin network leader with focus on early career mums and mums to be, Since 2018, BnB has hosted lean in circles to provide peer support to women - navigating career ambition and family life. Associations like SPE, WIMBIZ, African women in energy development initiative provide an opportunity to build peer relationships outside your immediate workplace and exercise your imagination and skills.

As much as we look upwards for inspiration and support, Do not forget to look sideways into the faces of those on the journey beside you for a chat perhaps a relationship that can make the journey more fun and the task of a successful career less daunting

Could you share your experiences , success and challenges you with peer relationships?

What should I write on next?

When my plans failed, When I started understanding systems and powers, When I started understanding boundaries, When I realized I could change and decided to evolve ,When I realised I could use some help, When I took risks, When I started discovering and owning my strengths, When my energy depleted, When I detached from