Hit the reset button when facing a major, enduring change.
Things change. The more aware of changes you are, the better. But being aware and reacting are different. If the change is:
- Minor and temporary, don’t react. Keep doing what you’ve been doing.
- Minor and enduring, evolve as appropriate over time.
- Major and temporary, either take advantage of the opportunity or trigger your crisis management protocols.
- Major and enduring, hit the reset button, re-looking at everything.
Let’s illustrate with a couple of examples.
Champagne
Just before the elevator doors opened, a champagne bottle whizzed by his left ear and smashed into a million pieces against the wall. Richard didn’t even turn around. He got into the elevator, went home, slept on it for the night, and walked in the next morning and resigned. It was time to move on.
He’d been working in advertising for 25 years. He was managing one of the agency’s largest accounts. The day in question he’d presented his client with some advertising ideas. While the client liked the ideas, they asked to see more ideas – the next day.
To say the creative team was disappointed would be an understatement. They thought the account team’s job was to get the client to agree to the advertising they created. Hence the champagne.
The champagne was Richard’s wake-up call. He re-thought what he was doing and realized the work didn’t make him happy anymore. He no longer appreciated its meaning and value for others. He felt overwhelmed, overburdened, under-resourced, time-pressured, stressed, lonely, exhausted and, with the champagne, in danger. He no longer appreciated the rewards and recognition, wasn’t growing, and did not look forward to going to work. These are major and enduring changes.
Biden
Joe Biden is aging. That is a predictable, enduring change. On its own, it was not enough to warrant a reset button. What triggered the reset button was others’ reaction to his performance in the first debate. That made enough people think he was too old and frail to go on. And that triggered the reset button with his dropping out.
It will be interesting to see if it triggers the reset button for the Republican party as well.
New job
Things are going to change in a new job. Hopefully no one will throw a champagne bottle at your head and your allies won’t tell you to quit after your mis-fire in a debate. The signs of change may be more subtle. Make sure you keep your eyes and ears open and build strong enough relationships with others for them to tell you about changes and whether or not they are major and enduring.
Look for changes in your conditions – like COVID. Look for changes in your competitors, allies, and customers – like mergers and acquisitions and changes in their strategy or posture. Look for internal changes with a major and enduring impact on you like a restructure, new boss, or your boss getting a new boss. All those are relatively easy to spot and relatively easy for you to realize you need to hit a reset button.
People’s perception of you is going to change as well. Hopefully, for the most part, that perception will evolve for the good as they get to know you better. But you’re going to make mistakes.
When you make a minor mistake:
- Own it. Don’t deflect blame. Don’t make excuses. Accept your own responsibility.
- Fix it. Repair the damage.
- Apologize for it sincerely. As part of that, go beyond just getting the injured party back to where they would have been had you not failed. If you’re late for a meeting, show up early for every meeting after that with biscuits a la Ted Lasso.
- Ensure it never happens again.
You can recover from minor mistakes. It’s much much harder to recover from a major mistake early in a new job. Do everything you can to avoid them. Get a head start and build relationships. Manage your message in a way that helps all understand what it means for them. Build your team within a team of teams. Drive the results that matter, doing their job, their way. If that doesn’t work, make sure to duck out of the way of the flying champagne bottle or bow out with dignity.
