Wisdom from a dead hawk, a rainbow bear and a remarkable team

We pursued excellence by not compromising, by telling our truths and through our compassion for each other.

This week, in front of the window outside my office at Microsoft, a member of my team discovered a dead hawk. We believe she hit a window in flight and then fell to her death on the concrete. Beyond feeling sad about the death of a beautiful bird and concern for the rotting carcass covered with flies sitting so close to where we work, the symbolism of this event has captured my attention and the interest of my team.

As a point of reference, I have a strong belief in symbolism and the concept of spirit animals guiding us through the journey of life, showing us how to find the answers to life’s problem within ourselves. In fact, my family and I have a daily ritual where we pick our spirit animal to guide us through our day from this deck. Coincidentally, the same week we found the dead hawk, I pulled the hawk card from the deck, indicating it is time for me to develop a strategy to reach my next goal with an emphasis on planning and research in order to prepare for what is coming next. Similarly, a dead bird symbolizes the end of something and the start of something new. 

For further context, days before finding the dead hawk, I announced to my team that almost six years to the day of joining the team, I would be moving to a new role in another organization within Microsoft. After much consideration, I decided it was time for me to pursue a new challenge and I found the ideal opportunity for the next stage in my career. As the symbolism of the hawk hinted, an ending and a new beginning were indeed in process for me and for the team.

With my upcoming job transition, I have been thinking about the team I have been leading for the last six years and how much I have learned from them. From the day I joined, team members were extremely clear on what they wanted from me as a leader and what they believed we needed to do to be successful. I also had my ideas about what I thought we needed, and we debated, discussed, agreed, disagreed and listened to each other until we came up with what we all believed to be an ideal operating model for the team. We made no compromises and we landed on an approach with clear accountability and empowerment for each team member supported by expectations for clear decision making. This approach has supported the team in performing at a level none of us thought possible when we started our journey together. To this day, we get together every three months to discuss how we want to evolve and improve, never settling and never complacent with the status quo.

In our day-to-day interactions as a team, if any of us strayed from our agreed upon operating model, the expected norm was feedback, immediacy and conversation. You see, we had a deal: we would all speak out truths and we fostered an environment where individual truths were respected, heard and discussed. We figured that without the truth, what did we have? 

Over the years, this team also became a second family for me. While not everyone would say they had the same familiar sense, many agree we had something special set on a foundation of true caring and compassion for each other and for the people we partnered with each day. I felt the caring firsthand when I took a leave of absence for a personal challenge last year. To hold space for me and keep me in their thoughts, the team bought a stuffed rainbow bear they called “Meagan Bear.” While I was away, Meagan Bear went to meetings and outings plus spent evenings and weekends at various homes. When I returned, I was greeted with a book called “Meagan Bear Adventures,” featuring all the pictures the team had taken. I felt touched and appreciated.

Circling back to the symbolism of the hawk, as I move on to a new role, to a new beginning, I have reverence for the team and I am grateful for the time we had together. We pursued excellence by not compromising, by telling our truths and through our compassion for each other. I am grateful and I realize that a team like this does not come along every day. What we experienced together was beyond any one person or any single leadership style. While I would love to take credit, my leadership contribution was just one aspect of what made this a remarkable team. Everyone contributed to the many successes of the team and I believe we will all transcend our current and our future roles and what we learned together will carry us through this ending and into our new beginnings.

"I am grateful and I realize a team like this does not come along every day." - Meagan