To grow your career, grow yourself first

Last week when I wrote about career growth and development, I talked about “Know your why”, “Start with the end in mind”, and “Back yourself”. You can read about those here.

Thanks to all your fantastic feedback and encouragement, I wanted to share three more lessons I’ve learned from my career which have been instrumental to my success.

Let’s jump right in!

Be Compassionate

Our character shapes our behaviour, especially in times of high stress. Our compassion and understanding can unlock bigger issues within the business, if you let them.

At Woolworths, we initiated an early change: ‘no ties’ for warehouse supervisors. Most warehouse teams wore high-visibility vests, so this was a small step towards breaking down the “us” and “them” barriers firmly entrenched between managers and warehouse staff.

For most, the change was straight-forward and mostly symbolic. One supervisor, however, refused.

At the time, Woolworths hadn’t invested much into the training or development for new supervisors who were promoted from the floor. They traditionally promoted based on hard work ethic, not necessarily successful leadership principles. When I was asked to meet and manage the removal of the supervisor, I chose to learn more. 

When I showed I wanted to engage, to listen, and when we had established trust, he said, “I only have my tie.”

Without it, he felt he wouldn’t get any respect. 

I could only apologise. I agreed that we had let him down. I had only been at Woolworths Ltd for a short time at this stage, but I represented the management and leadership of Supply Chain. I leveraged my understanding of psychology from my studies for integrating teams in high-power differential communities like warehouses. One such strategy was simple: say hello to someone at least 5 times, and they will start to engage.

 So that’s what we did – together. Each day, we walked the floor of the warehouse without the tie, and for five days in a row he engaged with the team. At first, most of the team ignored him. The second day, a few acknowledged him. And as predicted, by the fifth day… everyone responded to his eye contact and “hello”. Simple compassion led to a much better workplace.

Be Comfortable, Being Uncomfortable

Times of discomfort offer us the best opportunity to grow. But most of us look for ways to avoid being uncomfortable. The challenge is to let yourself experience it – and grow from it.

Whenever we feel flat or down, we’re offered a drink, an outing, retail therapy to buy something new... We seek to distract ourselves from that feeling. At the end of the day, though, life includes emotional ebbs and flows.

I’ve found reassurance and understanding are the best medicine, rather than distraction. It’s in these low or difficult moments that we grow the most.

In business, the periods of frustration or discomfort offer gateways to truly awesome ideas. At 24 whilst working at Armaguard, I was challenged with managing multiple OH&S issues arising from the 80+ decibels being generated inside the coin facility at Bankstown. 

Although our team members had training and appropriate hearing protection, the business continued to deal with cases of industrial hearing impairment. We introduced ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ measures, but this resulted in only minimal changes. Completely frustrated one night, I declared, “What we need is bloody deaf people!”

My team laughed, but I instantly knew I had germinated a great idea. I could easily work with the deaf education network, source terrific team members who were hearing impaired and capable of lip reading. Adding flashing lights to existing plant & equipment was a small investment. 

Within 3 months, our existing team were successfully relocated to cash handling facilities and I resourced a whole new team – who were hearing impaired. From frustration and discomfort, we grew and improved. That wouldn’t have happened if we’d tried to distract ourselves from the problem instead.

Be Authentic

This is the most challenging lesson – and goal – of all.

Many of us feel the pressure to lead or manage in a manner which suits the business culture, or other managers in a business, or how you think you should. These are silent expectations.

True happiness comes from being authentic. We have to embrace our own unique style and philosophy.

I was the HR Coordinator at Armaguard in 1999, the armoured transport business which was 100% unionised with TWU. In the lead up to the Olympics, the Security Act changed and it was essential for all Security Licence holders to demonstrate competency to a higher standard (similar to when the NCCP Act was introduced to Finance Brokers).

If the guards didn’t upgrade, they would lose their licence – and their ability to work within the industry. I have to disclose, I felt the pressure from Management to ensure the vocal union reps wouldn’t upgrade and would therefore lose their jobs.

With the HR team, we analysed the guards’ existing skills and identified 1 day of training to achieve the higher qualification. To ensure success, I chose all the NSW union branch representatives as the first trainees. Change Agents in its purest form; at the end of the day, they were the most skeptical. The Union reps were (perhaps rightly) concerned the new training hurdle would be used as a vehicle to remove TWU guards.

After the first day of training, only 3 Union reps were deemed competent. They were sent home and the remaining 17 told to return the next day. No one was leaving without showing competence to the new skills.

The next day, 15 demonstrated competence. The remaining 2 achieved competency on the third day. I even personally scribed for one trainee during his final exam. The union representatives were then able to go back to their branch to confirm and lead the process throughout the state.

I was determined to be authentic. I had to ensure the pressure of others to do the wrong thing didn’t sway me. In my experience, this kind of sincerity delivers long term benefit.

I hope you’ve found some inspiration and motivation in these lessons I’ve learned. I’m constantly tweaking and changing my life and my career to suit the vision I have for myself, and these stories I’ve shared are some of the moments when I’ve really grown in terms of my career. Always be open to these moments of growth and change! That’s how we can get closer and closer to true happiness in our lives as a whole.

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