New Job = Impostor Syndrome, Continual GTD/EN Refinement, and Leaning Team Project Management Skills
Mmmm...coffee and writing. Really, I need to find a way to make writing more of an everyday practice for me. I just...love it. But it also takes time and is work. But it is such a great thinking, organizing tool...and a way to clean out the mental gutter...free up mental RAM...and other metaphorical connections that I am not able to make right now (feel free to add your own).
One my mind...my new job and some of the massive responsibilities that now come with it. I feel intimidated. Worried I'll fuck it up. For all the criticizing I have done to my supervisors...now I am the go to person. All eye on me. And there are areas of I need to gain knowledge and skills for very quickly. It admittedly feels a bit overwhelming right now. But this is a pretty big life transition. I should treat it as such. I will not be allowed as much of a learning curve as I would in a more subordinate role...but I will be allowed a curve. But I have to project my competence at all times.
I do have experiences..I can attach unknowns to things I do know. I'm not going in totally blind...or I would have never qualifies for the job or been hired. They believe it me. I believe in myself. Or else I did. The infamous impostor syndrome has been beating hard on my door. You fooled them, tricked them into thinking you are more qualified than you are. You marketed your skills and abilities well. Exaggerated them even, Wait until they find out the truth about you!
Leadership roles are a different beast. I have been in them before. None this significant or large since the Navy...and I did well. I liked the extra challenge even. But I have to succeed. I want to move to the next step, whatever that may be. I have to focus...and spend my time much more wisely, while also being loose, flexible, and present.
Remember to be you, genuine, not some notion of what I think a leader should be. That is the killer. Be me. I actually found a really awesome TED Talk video about the power and difficulty of allowing yourself to be...yourself. I like that kind of stuff.
I do need to make plans for the week and my first meeting with my new team this week. First impressions, and all that.
What do I want to say to them when I meet with them? I will make some kind of plan and expected outcome, Make it a project, even. Done...created a project, and now I can start brainstorming and organizing.
I feel...fortunate that during the end of 2014 and the first few months of 2015 I really buckled down on fine tuning a productivity system for myself, mostly centered around Getting Thins Done and Evernote. I played with Todosit for a while as well, but I went back to Evernote...I don't like having to check multiple tools...if I can do as much as possible with one tool...great. That is the power of Evernote (EN). But also why it can be so intimidated. It's customizability is awesome and a strenghts...but the wide-openness and lack of an inherent organizing stricture can be daunting. You have to like playing around with that sort of thing. I committed hard to GTD at the start of the year. It has been a continual tweaking process, and I learned the system and found the tools and process with the system that would work best for me. I am still figuring it out, but I have come a long way, and it has really helped me to juggle several really important project fairly recently. So I have moved beyond simple completion of tasks (although I still do that too)--and I have graduated to building contextual task from projects I am working. A really power tool that really helped...especially balancing personal and professional obligations.
Next is a more in depth project analysis, in terms of developing outcomes and values to guide actions. That will especially be important in my new role as director of student success. It also brings me back to the importance of writing and how writing will help me to be more successful. And i have this advantage in that I am good at writing, love it, and have always used it to clarify my thoughts and goals. This will be more structured and less free form, but, really, that is a good thing.
In my productivity system, I still have yet to implement a good weekly review system. That will be another key. But I keep moving closer.
I also need to expand to team project management...have started to do some research on that. I'm also playing with implementing some kind of GTD system with my team...and even the use of EN.
One my mind...my new job and some of the massive responsibilities that now come with it. I feel intimidated. Worried I'll fuck it up. For all the criticizing I have done to my supervisors...now I am the go to person. All eye on me. And there are areas of I need to gain knowledge and skills for very quickly. It admittedly feels a bit overwhelming right now. But this is a pretty big life transition. I should treat it as such. I will not be allowed as much of a learning curve as I would in a more subordinate role...but I will be allowed a curve. But I have to project my competence at all times.
I do have experiences..I can attach unknowns to things I do know. I'm not going in totally blind...or I would have never qualifies for the job or been hired. They believe it me. I believe in myself. Or else I did. The infamous impostor syndrome has been beating hard on my door. You fooled them, tricked them into thinking you are more qualified than you are. You marketed your skills and abilities well. Exaggerated them even, Wait until they find out the truth about you!
Leadership roles are a different beast. I have been in them before. None this significant or large since the Navy...and I did well. I liked the extra challenge even. But I have to succeed. I want to move to the next step, whatever that may be. I have to focus...and spend my time much more wisely, while also being loose, flexible, and present.
Remember to be you, genuine, not some notion of what I think a leader should be. That is the killer. Be me. I actually found a really awesome TED Talk video about the power and difficulty of allowing yourself to be...yourself. I like that kind of stuff.
I do need to make plans for the week and my first meeting with my new team this week. First impressions, and all that.
What do I want to say to them when I meet with them? I will make some kind of plan and expected outcome, Make it a project, even. Done...created a project, and now I can start brainstorming and organizing.
I feel...fortunate that during the end of 2014 and the first few months of 2015 I really buckled down on fine tuning a productivity system for myself, mostly centered around Getting Thins Done and Evernote. I played with Todosit for a while as well, but I went back to Evernote...I don't like having to check multiple tools...if I can do as much as possible with one tool...great. That is the power of Evernote (EN). But also why it can be so intimidated. It's customizability is awesome and a strenghts...but the wide-openness and lack of an inherent organizing stricture can be daunting. You have to like playing around with that sort of thing. I committed hard to GTD at the start of the year. It has been a continual tweaking process, and I learned the system and found the tools and process with the system that would work best for me. I am still figuring it out, but I have come a long way, and it has really helped me to juggle several really important project fairly recently. So I have moved beyond simple completion of tasks (although I still do that too)--and I have graduated to building contextual task from projects I am working. A really power tool that really helped...especially balancing personal and professional obligations.
Next is a more in depth project analysis, in terms of developing outcomes and values to guide actions. That will especially be important in my new role as director of student success. It also brings me back to the importance of writing and how writing will help me to be more successful. And i have this advantage in that I am good at writing, love it, and have always used it to clarify my thoughts and goals. This will be more structured and less free form, but, really, that is a good thing.
In my productivity system, I still have yet to implement a good weekly review system. That will be another key. But I keep moving closer.
I also need to expand to team project management...have started to do some research on that. I'm also playing with implementing some kind of GTD system with my team...and even the use of EN.
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