Stepping into the corporate world for the first time can provide an opportunity to build. To build your name, your brand, and your ikigai¹. Service Design² has helped me gain an understanding of my goals and the steps that should be taken on the road to success. To paint a picture: tucked tight in the corner of a room-share with my youngest brother, lay a mattress encircled with post-it notes stuck firmly across surrounding walls — a shrine of self-actualisation. During this time, roles were varied, payslips were sporadic, but my objectives and where I wanted to go remained constant.
Transitioning from a state of growth to stability means that your approach to work should adjust accordingly. I think growth and more so personal growth can be an obsessive activity leaving innocent bystanders bruised. I experienced this for the first time in my new snazzy role as the Marketing and Communications Manager for an online events company. This was a significant milestone on my road to success. Up to then, I had worked more junior positions and so imposter syndrome³ meant that I felt like I needed to prove my worth. Two Managers had been hired for this role, with the second being a last-minute sudden decision. Naturally, this meant that workload dropoff was inevitable — simply put, someone will be more experienced of the two. That was me.
Because of this, collaboration turned to Leadership. Working together meant following my guidance. The right way equalled my way. I had become ruthlessly self-critical on my road to success. After all, self-critique is the first step to personal growth. But in this role, I was no longer just on a path of personal growth. Instead, I was in a team where each teammate had their strengths and weaknesses valued equally. I managed this Dionysian institution as if it were Zeus-driven⁴.
It was only during my role review that I was able to step outside of this to see how my actions had been affecting others. My manager spoke honestly:
If you continue as this kind-of manager, we wouldn’t want to promote you in this [dominant] way, we’d want you to be more supportive of your colleagues.
This quote sums everything up. I have achieved every milestone on this road to success by being ruthless, blunt, and hyper-focused on my goals. But in doing so, I have now reached a point on this road, where success can no longer be achieved with this approach. I had to re-strategise. In a situation where I happen to know more about a domain of knowledge than my colleague, it isn’t right to just be right. Think of it like that annoying kid at school pointing out the wrongdoings of classmates. By doing so, you create a constricting space, where surrounding individuals seek validation from that same annoying kid.
I have come to realise that I can be that annoying kid. Being that kid will take you far in life, but at some point, you will hit a major wall that only ostracises teammates, denigrates colleagues, and garners internal resentment towards what you stand for. I work in a majority Women team, so it’s worth considering Women in the workplace reports. During these increasingly uncertain times combined with the work from home environment,
Senior-level women are significantly more likely than men at the same level to feel burned out, under pressure to work more, and as though they have to ‘always be on’.⁵
So imagine the added weight of a ruthless co-worker to the already present pressure felt at this senior level. I was raised by a single immigrant mother, and so have always seen myself as an ally of women, but moving forward stating allyship isn’t always enough. In this case, I need to become more intentional with my treatment of women (in general), and my colleague (speaking specifically).
My point is that working individually I have been able to stay empowered by aggressively pushing forward with persistent hard-work. In a majority women team, this is not a productive trait to have, but rather a counterproductive, stopping any achievement of success — it’s stopping my promotion!
Reaching this milestone, what is clear now is that my actions as a Manager should focus on empowering my team. Team empowerment can look different for each team, but a good framework might involve:
- Trust in your team — This is the number one thing you can do when working in a team and the most difficult. Particularly during the work-from-home season where the perception of work activity is so harshly skewed. We no longer have the reaffirming experience of witnessing our team complete work, instead, we come to agreements over zoom calls, and disappear with the goal of returning to completed work. Trust in your team’s ability to make decisions and contribute to work is a key ingredient to inclusion and team empowerment.
- Communicate everything — Over-communication is the real message here. I have gotten so used to working alone where communication remains internal. That’s not conducive of an inclusive team, instead, it’s essential to unlearn internalising key messages about how you feel about certain decisions or the current situation you may be experiencing in your workspace (mainly for those working from home).
- Be empathic — It’s honestly all about creating a space that empowers, empathy generates interest and appreciation for others. It seeks to celebrate difference by strengthening relationships. An empathetic leader is one any team will follow, whilst a leader shrouded in apathy is one a team looks to overthrow.
