mindshift twoStamina is a muscle. Build yours!
I met a young woman, who I'll call Barbara, on a business trip to California. She was working at a successful new company, at the start of her career and proud of her position as her company's first ever sales manager. It's exciting to hold the ‘first’ job within an organisation. You help set the tone and scope of the position. Also, the company was beginning to take off and, suddenly, even her own family and friends were talking about it. For a young person early in her career, she was ideally placed.
But Barbara had just been hit with what felt like very bad news. She was going to be ‘layered over’. The company was hiring a new person above her to run North American sales. He'd be inserted between her and her current boss, so that now, instead of heading sales herself, she'd be an employee in the department she had created.
This change felt like a huge blow. She worried that it would decrease her status and authority. Her salary wasn't changing, but her enthusiasm about her job and her abilities definitely waned. She also told me that she was afraid she was ‘getting old’ and running out of chances to rise. (At twenty‐something? Old? By her standard, I should have been retired, perfecting my golf swing and dining at 5 pm.) She reached out for advice. ...
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