Jean on the Job
Downsizing? Upsizing? Reorging? Merging? Acquiring? Changing top officers? IPO? No IPO? Losing staff? Losing money? Making money? Behind? Out of resources? Out of luck? Out of energy?
Oh boy. We are all in transition. Relax. Most businesses are in the same boat. It is a pretty rocky boat. And we are not always sure we know where the boat is going.
How does one, or more than one of you, stay hardy, then, when so much is adrift, so much is at stake, and so much is unknown?
The key to transition is to begin to enjoy it. The easiest way is to decide that you can re-frame any situation and make sure it can have a possibility of a positive outcome. This past week alone I coached three people who were asked to leave their jobs. It doesn’t feel good. We all want to be in charge. We always want to be the one to quit, to be the one to say goodbye.
If it doesn’t happen that way, find an optimistic approach to the new options open to you. With the e-com companies in such tenuous waters, a portion of our valley is hovering over and around disaster. If your company does give up, must you?
The hardy individual is nimble and able to re-start in a new direction. Sometimes it just takes “acting as if” and other times it takes great emotional courage to say, “I was just terminated, or my company is going under, but I am still afloat and I am sure this will be a transition to the next and better era.”
Imagine that your current unhappy or unhealthy position is temporary. You will be moving to the better opportunity or situation soon. A year from now you will cherish this day. You will be grateful that you had the chance to move to another field, another community, another company. Even though it may be financially frightening now, you may even be grateful for the rest, for the time for reflection, and for the time to re-group and decide what works best for you.
In stage one of the grief, you cannot afford to take yourself too seriously. It’s OK to spit and fume and rant about the other guy, the bankers, the stupid fate of it all. In later stages of reconciliation, you can look at your part in the transition and use this as an opportunity for growth. Today you will feel differently than you will in a month, a year, or in your next career. It can be the first day of you know when.
Jean A. Hollands is the CEO of the Growth & Leadership Center.Write to GLC, 1451 Grant Road, Mountain View, 94040.
