There and then in the work, whether that’s in a meeting or on a document or in an email or text. To say what I could improve, and to connect me into your thinking and ideas so I can reflect that and to other people you think I should involve.
On my personal development in dedicated sessions for that purpose as it helps me focus my mind to spot the trends between recurring issues or opportunities that I need to surface and what skills I need to develop. I’ve got a coach who helps me do that.
In times of stress I prefer support to look like…
I’ve written previously about how I navigate stress. In an emergency, I tend to respond quickly particularly if I’m asked to tackle an urgent issue — coming up with the steps we need to take, identifying the skills & people I need to mobilise and then getting them on board, including getting people in my team to get involved.
I will need more regular feedback to identify whether I’m doing the right thing and to identify what else is going on in the organisation to respond to the issue, to avoid duplication and feeling that what I’m working on is already being superseded by something else.
I find it good to share my thinking but that needs to be prompted by people having coaching conversations, so I can come up for air and figure out what to do, I don’t necessarily need answers but the right questions.
I get stressed when I don’t think I’ve given a project the sufficient amount of time to bring to life how we might work in a creative & iterative way and where people default to more traditional and linear ways of working, as I know how important it is to create the right rhythm. Which is why I end up thinking about that at night or at the weekend!
I’ve always worked in roles which aren’t strictly defined and I’ve wanted that ambiguity to have the freedom to shape how I can best use my skills, come out of my comfort zone and create spaces for people to enact change — and I’ve had the visceral need to do that at work and outside, from creating strategies, designing experiments to running festivals or campaigns. Which has the effect of creating anxiety as I think of the opportunities missed that I should have taken up to help the project accelerate or grow, so I started a diary to learn lessons on a daily basis, which I haven’t been as disciplined in keeping recently, so need to get back into this!
