This people based work was not something I ever imagined I’d do.
I picked supply chain because I’m process minded and love solving problems. And, I genuinely believed that if you’re doing a job, you just do it. What’s motivation got to do with it?
That made me an “interesting” team leader back in the day.
But there have been a few things along the way that helped shape who I am today, and explain why I do what I do now.
Having a baby with an incurable rare disease, who required intensive care, where the main battle was to keep her alive. I needed to be her nurse, but I needed to be her mother too. High stakes situations can make you forget about the relationships, the humanity. You can focus on the objective. But without the relationships, there are no high stakes.
Putting humanity back into how we do business matters. So I help people do that.
Amazing people who took time to help me learn. Mentors you’d call them, although they never had the title. I’d go to them with my questions: from office politics, to why Dylan (not his real name) was wasting his potential and being so difficult.
My curiosity about people, and someone to talk it through with, was a constant reminder that most difficult people issues can be handled by simply talking. And yet, talking about the difficult people issues is something we all try very hard to avoid. So my mission is to make it easier.
Burnout from that nursing job, while being a manager, while being a first time mum. But mostly from thinking I had to do it all alone, and it all had to be perfect.
But the best thing about my burn-out is that it switched off my mind. It gave me access to wisdom. And a big fat reality check: you can’t keep going this way.
Find a different way to be excellent, proud of yourself, do what you need to do. – yes, you too.
This is just some of it.
But all of these things taught me that it is ALWAYS about the people.
So I made my work all about the people.
How did you discover your current role?
This is part of my Thought Piece Series, where I explore topics related to leadership and provide both answers and questions. My intention is to start meaningful conversations that help us move forward. Want to connect? Click here.