The Best Three Mistakes of My Career - Essay Example

The Best Three Mistakes of My Career Anthony Schwartz Over the of my career, I have not had a large amount of jobs (largely due tobeing at my present place since 1999). However, my first job is one that has been etched into my mind disproportionately compared to all others. One might think that it is significant because it was my first job, but that isnt the reason. The reason I remember this job so well is because of costly mistakes that I made while working there that I was unable to recognize until years later. As a teenager, I was hired at a small print shop that was a comfortable bike ride away from my house. I had some decent self-taught graphic design skills that had caught the eye of one of the owners of the print shop (it was owned by a husband and wife). He hired me to do graphic design work (from designing fliers, to business cards, and even some dust jackets for books). I was to do this while also helping out with the front of the store walk-in traffic. Although I did good graphic design work and was well liked by the clients that frequented the store, being honest with myself I need to rate my employment there from a range of average to below-average. If I did that same job today, my mindset and performance would be entirely different. My shortcomings came from a place of immaturity, a lack of realizing the need to participate in business politics, and not knowing when it was time to move on. My first mistake was immaturity. Although a teenager and by definition somewhat immature, the youthfulness and lack of experience do not fully encompass what I mean. Much of my immaturity came from a place where I had convinced myself that I was more talented and much harder working than I was. For a self-taught teenager that had his business cards from a local business that said ‘Graphic Designer, I was talented, for my age. Was I any better though than the other designers that worked there? The answer is no. I was good for where I was in life, but in the context of the business I was very ordinary. My failure to recognize this rather an obvious fact gave me a highly inflated view of myself. In the chapter on mindfulness, one of the points is that people who live mindfully are able to identify problems before they become major and that they do this because of an inner voice that helps them analyze the world via intuition and wisdom (Boyatzis & McKee, 2007, p. 3). My immaturity derailed any hope at such intuition and wisdom. I never even thought of the fact that I would need to be better than the others there to go further and be safe from things like layoffs or personal attacks. It wasnt that I was lazy per se, but I certainly wasnt driven. The ongoing inflation of my head also had the effect to make me think that I was working harder than I was. In my head, I was playing the role of some teenage prodigy that was far more gifted than those around him. This ‘prodigy didnt realize that he worked at average speed, doing acceptable industry standard work that could be done just as well by someone with a few years more experience. I carried myself as if I was just slightly special as a way to preserve this perception I wanted others to have. Boyatzis and McKee speak to this with something called imposter syndrome where the fear of being found out of not being as good as the image you hope others have of you can lead you to develop a superficial bravado (Boyatzis & McKee, 2007, p. 24). I focused on the fact that I was the best young designer at a well known copy shop, not that I was the only young designer working part-time at a really small copy shop. Fast forward to my current career and I am capable of making the same mistakes of immaturity of mind. At times, I notice that I decide I need to try and beat another company at something very specific, but without asking myself if this ‘victory will benefit the company in any real way. As someone that is usually fairly confident, looking back at this mistake at the copy shop, gives me pause in my present day to stop and ask if I am being smart or acting immaturely. Mistake number two was a political mistake on my part. In spite of all my shortcomings, the owner who had hired me was always very good to me and encouraging. His wife though (the other owner) was not a fan of mine. Although my previously mentioned mistake I am sure didn’t help things, it was not the cause of her dislike of me. As I later found out, she was unhappy from the start, because her husband had decided to hire me without having her as part of the process. She was further unhappy because I never really reported to her (I didn’t ever know I should have been), and instead I usually checked things out with her husband. This reminded me of the Erik Peterson case study when Peterson wasn’t ever made officially aware of whom he reported to (Gabarro, 1995, p. 4). My mistake came from not doing anything to try and make the situation better. Although I was always polite with her, instead of trying to win her over, I avoided her and made a point to check in with the husband on anything that I needed. My desire to avoid someone who didnt like me and focus my attention to the person who did proved especially fatal being that she was the one who controlled the schedule. Over time, she reduced and further reduced my hours down to the point where I was a token employee at best. By the time I realized what happened and went to the husband for assistance, it was too late. As much as he might have thought I was an ambitious and talented person for my age, he certainly wasnt going to risk crossing his wife over someone as insignificant to the organization as me. This was a mistake that I shared with Erik Peterson as he also practiced avoidance with Cantor and Green due to uncomfortable interactions he had with them (Gabarro, 1995, p. 12). Peterson’s avoidance of negative relationships just brought on a different variety at a higher dosage of less than pleasant relationships. My take away from this mistake is twofold. One, it behooves me to take a look at the political landscape of a company where I work or of a client account. There may only be one or two people that can say "yes," however, there may be dozens of people that can say "no" or at least make "no" happen. Two, if one of those people with the political clout to affect you doesnt like you, then it is important not to avoid that person but instead to engage them. Engaging them wont always work to turn them around on how they think of you, but it will at least give you that chance and make it harder for them to hurt you without expending their political capital in the process. The third major mistake I made had to do with my lack of perception and then my unwillingness to leave the place once things went bad. Goffee and Jones in their Be Yourself-More-With Skill discuss cognitive and observational skills that allow leaders to decipher a situation; skills I was surely lacking (Goffee & Jones, 2006, .4). I kept doing good work while I was there but made no intelligent attempts to solve the problem that was causing me to get squeezed out. Accepting my fate at the place was likely the smart decision (nothing would have changed that ladys mind), but the mistake was staying for all the wrong reasons in my diminished role. My reasons ranged from not wanting to explain to my family that something had gone wrong with the ‘cool job, to liking the perceived status I had of having a job better than most other people my age, to having a crush on a girl that worked in the same shopping center. As a result of these factors I didnt look for another job as my hours were being cut, my work attitude likely got worse as I readily played the role of victim, and I cost myself income by allowing someone who was hostile to me dictate how much money I made every two weeks. Looking back, I was not ready at that point to be a leader; even of myself. Goffee and Jones explain that showing oneself as a leader involves taking risks that will demonstrate ones weaknesses (Goffee & Jones, 2006, p. 12). Hiding my weaknesses was more important to me back then than my income. Although I have thankfully not been in that situation again, the lesson still applies to me in many ways. It could be a client bleeding you dry that you should end the relationship with but that ego wont allow it as it is too painful to think about not having this client anymore. It could be a vendor that you keep only because of nostalgia while just accepting that their treatment of you and the company is substandard. It could even been a ‘business crush where you are so enamored with the specific skill set or ability of an employee that you turn a blind eye to the reality that the rest of what they do produces a net negative to the organization. Like Boyatzis and McKee wrote, “Being open to learning, especially learning from failures requires courage,” (Boyatzis & McKee, 2007, p. 7). My first job was a wasted opportunity and somewhat of a disaster, it did put me on the path of being ready to learn and wanting to be better. Although I would have done everything differently given a second chance, part of me is happy that I wasn’t ready to lead back then. My failures made me stronger. References Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2007). Mindfulness: An Essential Element of Resonant Leadership. Boston: Havard Business School Publishing Corporation. Gabarro, J. (1995). Erick Peterson. Havard Business School, 1-18. Ro Goffee, & Jones, G. (2006). Be Yourself-More-With Skill. 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