Let it Go

Every year while the majority of people are making New Year resolutions, I make a New Year Mantra. I reflect on the year that has just passed and look to what is ahead. The reflection leads me to a catch phrase that somehow gets me through the challenges and opportunities of the year to come. It seems for the past 10 years or so, I have relied on a theme or mantra to guide me through the trials, challenges and opportunities the year brings. Those little 2 or 3 word sayings can be found in my notebooks; some years the mantra was printed in big bold letters and plastered in my office as a constant reminder. So far, I have shared my mantras from 2015 and 2016. In 2015, I experienced a major life change, leaving an employer after 23 years and had to remind myself daily to Be Kind to myself. In 2016 I embarked on a new journey, with a very entrepreneurial company and leader, finding myself constantly out of my comfort zone, and needing to Just Breathe.

Another mantra I want to share with you, is one that I used several years ago, a few years before the Disney release of Frozen – to a year when I went from having 3 direct reports, to having double the directs and tripling the business lines under my responsibility. At first, I was proud as a peacock – wow, they trust me; they have faith in me and my abilities as a leader and HR partner. Then, as the long hours started to take their toll, I actually became resentful – why would they do this to me, why would they have me to the job of 3 people??? It was not until I had reached out to a mentor, a former manager of mine, to sing my woes about how unjust it all was, that the light bulb went off – well, let’s be honest, my mentor knocked some sense into me! His words went something like this – you are not being set up for failure, you are being set up for success, how you go about it will determine your failure or your success. He talked to me about my strengths and how I was not really leveraging them. I was getting caught up in the weeds, preventing me from tackling the bigger things that needed my attention. After that meeting, feeling a little bruised and wounded (after all wasn’t my mentor supposed to solve my problems, versus throw them back at me to solve), I spent the next week or so paying more attention to where I was spending my time, what types of work I was spending my calories on. As it turns out, he was right. I was spending time on things my direct reports should be doing. I needed to learn to just let go of some tasks, to empower my team, to let them know I would be there to support them and guide them, but do not do their work. I was learning how to Let It Go! The next several months were a journey for me and for my team. We all had the words Let It Go visible in some fashion in our offices. The phrase was spoken several times throughout the day. (I guess had this occurred post the movie Frozen, we would have sung the phrase!) That team was one of the best teams I had the pleasure and honor to work with. They taught me it was okay to Let It Go and I hope that they also learned a few things from me along the way.

That year I had options. I could have stayed on the resentment wheel and deflected accountability for my experience onto others, or I could have taken my mentor’s advice and looked internally to see how I could turn this opportunity of increased responsibility and accountability into a success story. Taking the time to reflect, to evaluate and to empower and trust my team, to Let It Go, was the key to not only my success that year, but of my team’s success.

As I close off, here are two final thoughts:

• You always have options; your attitude and approach will largely determine your success or failure,
• Empower and trust those around you. Let it (them) Go and sit back and watch them succeed!

Until next time,

Rita

Please share our posts…