Previously, my company role was outward facing, where I was training stakeholders within customer organizations for their own roles for product usage, from end user to admin positions. Now however, my role is inward facing, as I am coordinating onboarding activities and running sessions for sales people, as either facilitator to the Subject Matter Expert, or as the SME myself - depending on the session.
What has been of note however, is how the conversation in the office has changed, which I mentioned in passing the other day, but didn't really say why. Some might think that it is because it is technically a promotion or because I deal with some C-level positions, but it isn't that really, it is because many of our company-level relationships have changed significantly.
When I was customer-facing, I was largely working "out of sight" in that I didn't have to engage regularly with people from outside of my own team and a few project members from time to time, as I was dealing directly with the customer. But, now I have a lot of internal stakeholders with interconnected network. Previously, no one's job relied on me doing mine - but now, they are invested in me being able to do my job in order to make theirs easier.
So far, it has been a lot of work and the feedback has been good, but I am not sure if I am "cut out" for this kind of work long-term, but I suspect that "long" in this case will be a max of two years anyway, at least in the role I signed up for. Maybe even much shorter than that, since scope is already changing, as it tends to do in an organization with shifting needs. I am okay with that - perhaps I can end up in a position where I can get paid to do nothing!
That would be nice. Because I have so much to do in other areas already. We actually talked about this in a team (three of us) meeting recently, where we were talking about our "definition of success" in regards to our roles, but my supervisor reminded that we have to have our own definitions of success in what we do also, where we feel like we are succeeding, not just grinding along.
I mentioned that I don't need to think about personal success at work as much, because I derive me sense of self from outside of work. This doesn't mean I don't want to succeed in the workplace, it means that I don't mind not satisfying my own personal requirements, so I can focus solely on the success of others. There tends to be overlap in this anyway, as my definition of success for my enablement role, is to help people get to the point where they are comfortable to move along their learning path and no longer need to rely on me as a crutch.
My supervisor knows some of what I do outside of work (not all of it), but my other colleague was unsure what I meant by it. So I simply explained that I have a couple different types of work I do and that they provide for the various needs I have. What I find interesting personally is however, the amount of effort I am willing to put into my non-work" work life, is far higher than my salaried work life. Purpose matters. I know lots of people who derive their success from their career, but they aren't particularly interested in what they actually do - it is about corporate ladders and paychecks.
But, as I was explaining to colleagues, there are some people who expect to have all their expectations and needs met from their workplace and if they don't, they feel the work is bad. Having multiple value streams is like being investment diversified, a little coming in from multiple sources, some easier to obtain than others, some that are high yield but take a lot of work, some that are low yield and very passive.
I feel that there is a tendency to lower the bar to success for many people these days, where there is a minimization of effort spent in order to maximize free time - which is great - but if that free time is just spent doing very little of value, what is the point to maximize it? I do this too in many ways, by improving my workflows and abilities, so that I can spend more time doing a bit more of what I love.
We are all maximizers
At least at heart. But, there is a lot of variation in how good people are at it and, even more variation in what people see as valuable to maximize. There are the usual suspects of time and money, but there are other factors like pleasure, respect or Netflix. No matter what we desire, we want to feel content in our lives and since we are always changing, it means that we are also always discontent, always looking for some kind of adjustment to increase what we want more of, or decrease that of which we want less.
What I think though is, having a single source of work as the only investment to get that work satisfaction, can mean that like that investment scenario, if something happens, it cuts off fast and it can leave a void. I saw this happen with a friend who suddenly found herself without a job and became quite lost, quite fast, as she didn't have any "fallback" position. The pressure wasn't financial, she was fine, and she had a lot of time - but what she was missing was the value of purpose, the feeling of having a meaningful goal to accomplish and the satisfaction of hitting that target - succeeding.
I don't know what your definition of success is, but I have a general sense of what "completes" me, and it isn't simply hitting a single milestone, it is the amalgamation of several points in my life and whether they are all doing okay, overall. Some are more important than others, some I don't need to be content and are "nice to haves" and there are a few that I can't do without - at least not for an extended period of time. I think that we are all this way, which is why when we have time on our hands but nothing valuable to do, we will substitute a lower quality version and pretend it is the same, like our stomach getting ready to eat when we chew gum, or a one night stand being considered intimacy.
One thing is certain though; we all have needs, which means, we are all looking for something more.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]