Someone told me recently about what a company had committed to. I found that interesting because companies and cultures change with new leadership. I have witnessed it myself in ticking off the list of direct managers I saw come and go while I served in different roles. I heard pity in the voices of interviewers. Still, leaders change. Expectations change.
One lesson that sticks with me was what I heard from a talk during my LWT: Advancing Women in LeadershipCohort where the leader mentioned performing a heroic lift for her company, earning much internal praise. When new leadership came in, they wanted to know what she would do next more than what she had once done.
As I think about navigating change as part of a talk I give, the phrase Pause, Pivot, Reset came to me as an actionable way forward.
Pause
The Pause I imagine is the moment when you have time to think and remember to breathe. The intent is to break free from simply looping through memories of how it was to focus on how it is in preparation for how it shall be. The length of the Pause should be determined in the moment by tapping into your power of observation and ability to read the room.
While I have recommended the ‘listen and survey the situation before implementing solutions’ approach in my book Ethics and the Earth Missionary, I see it as an opportunity for leaders and those who serve that revolving door. The key to embracing this approach is giving yourself a chance to react vs respond.
A reaction can be defensive, a trauma response from a deeper wound than is currently visible. On the other hand, a response comes after you give yourself a steadying breath and time to think so that your aspiration or inspiration speaks, and not your pain.
Pivot
Once you gather information you can devise your strategy on how to move forward. A Pivot, as I envision it, is to tweak what you’re doing to adapt to new expectations. As I am learning now, as a recovering People Pleaser, it is important not just to identify the new expectations but to confirm them with the leader and with yourself so that there is agreement on the way forward.
This is key to career satisfaction because you can do all kinds of things – putting the busy in busyness (or business) – and not feel fulfilled when you reach what you thought was your destination. Instead, it is best to enjoy the journey or at least lean into it a bit more to ensure you are still navigating toward your desired location.
Reset
The Reset comes from my exploration of FEAR as an acronym. One version listed it as Forget Everything And Run.
In processing situations with clients where I witness bruising self-talk, I also thought of this: Forgive Everyone And Reset.
Everyone includes you. That means forgive yourself for whatever you think you did wrong or could have done better and begin again.
The reset that goes with FEAR and adapting to a revolving door of leaders who helm the teams we join, means there are times to lay everything down, every duty, every expectation, everything we thought we knew, and begin again from scratch. Some do it beginning with the resume.
Others begin again through coaching and an intentional search for what they want to do next.
Whatever marker you use to signify the end of one chapter and the beginning of another, it is also important that you care for yourself in whatever way you need. After all, without you, this doesn’t work.
