As 2019 comes to a close, we’ve begun our annual year-end reviews at work. This brings up lots of conversations and reflections about the past, and what the future will hold. I feel so incredibly lucky to have had been working with my company now for the past year and a half, and was fortunate enough to be promoted this past July. I couldn’t have gotten there without some amazing people and words of wisdom. I thought I might share them with you.

Doing something you love is easier than doing something you don’t.

I feel like this is common sense for the most part, but do you ever get to certain tasks or aspects in your job and you want to avoid them like the plague? For me, it’s checking email. I absolutely LOATHE checking emails and receiving them. I have tried the past six months to also limit the number of emails I send (practice what you preach, people).

The same thing goes for the type of work you do! I sort of fell into my current role of supporting the learning of data engineers and data scientists at my job, something I definitely never sought out. And let me just say, that it is these people and their knowledge and what they do that makes me smile. Whenever I have a hard day at work or a super busy travel schedule, I think of all the wonderful and grateful practitioners I have met over the past 18 months, and how I fit into their story with the Firm. This definitely helps when you’re pulling long hours and running off Red Bull.

You get a little further in life with great leaders and mentors.

Man, I cannot say enough positive words from the people I have met over the past year and a half who have taught me more than I ever knew about myself or the work that I do. Everyone tells you how impactful having a mentor is. When I worked at Disney, I was constantly searching for mine. I did all the things you’re “supposed to do”. I identified those with similar backgrounds or with skills I admired, and I set up meet and greets. I followed up with handwritten notes. I kept them involved with my progressions forward. And guess what, nothing ever happened.

It was like a terrible game of online dating for mentors. I swiped right so many times, but no one ever swiped back.

Then I joined my current company, and everything changed. I worked on an event during my second week after starting, and somehow the boss in charge liked how I worked. Less than six months later, he needed a new person on his team, and he wouldn’t agree to anyone else but me to fill the position. This person saw something in me and gave me a chance. Even though I had only been there for five months by this point, something that I did made him stick his neck out for me, and I’m so thankful he did.

Here I am a year later from that moment, and I still wake up thankful. Other people said I couldn’t handle the pressure of the job. Other people thought I was “too new”, and the Aquarius in me fought back. I wanted to be the best, to prove the haters wrong and to prove my believers right. And less than one year since taking on a completely brand new position, and with the advocation of my mentor over a series of conversations, I was promoted to Senior Learning Planner.

I know in my heart that I never would have been given the many opportunities I have been given thus far without a mentor, and it is a good reminder each day to keep doing my best. Not just for me, but for those who took a chance on me.

Feedback is your friend, not your enemy.

It is no secret that 99.9% of people get anxious when you mention the idea of feedback. Giving it can be awkward and receiving it can be uncomfortable. But one of the best gifts you can ever give is feedback, and I’ve been around long enough to receive the good and the bad.

Here’s what good feedback looks like to me:

• Honest, truthful, and fact based.
• Geared towards helping you grow.
• Thorough, explicit, and warranted.

On the other hand, here’s bad feedback:

• Emotional, subjective, and sometimes false.
• Given just for the sake of giving feedback, or given to tear you down.
• Vague, unsubstantiated, unclear.

Some of the best feedback I’ve ever received was also one of the hardest days of my life. I still remember it like it was yesterday. It was a Friday towards the end of last year, and I had a promotion on my mind. I had been doing expanded work for months, with no sign of a promotion in the near future. I was frustrated and asked my mentor if I could talk, and began expressing my concerns. After listening to me rant and rave, he hit me with the biggest nugget of truth:

Don’t you think you should be worrying about your program that is going to shit instead of a promotion?

Ouch. I immediately began silently weeping while on the phone, muting myself occasionally to blow my nose or sniffle. And then he continued to remind me that I had an event in a few weeks with participants who didn’t have visas yet, missing faculty, and I was extremely behind on the planning. He wasn’t wrong. And that’s when the feedback began.

I had been so worried about showing any signs of weakness to this leader that I was hell bent on impressing, that I told myself in my head I had to do everything on my own. Even though my mentor had always been there to support me when I needed help, I didn’t ask. And this was the moment where I learned via feedback that asking for help early on is better than waiting until it’s too late. The best part about this whole feedback session? Amongst all the tears, I wasn’t upset because I felt attacked. It was actually the opposite. I felt grateful that this person was taking their time on a Friday afternoon to explain to me how I could handle the situation in the future, to offer a helping hand, and to remind me that I’m not Superwoman and I don’t have to be. I was given tangible examples of how I could avoid this situation and how to ask for help in the future. It ended with kind words, positive reminders that I was doing a good job and that this could only make me better, and we ended with a few laughs.

To this day, we joke about that December and how terrible it was, but I’ll always look back on it fondly remembering a time when someone hit me with the hard truth and I’ve never made that same mistake again.

How it felt to be promoted.

Being promoted after putting it all the extra hours then what was required of me felt amazing. Not only did I have a paycheck increase (definitely not complaining about that), being promoted felt like so much more than that. It was the culmination of the praise I had received over the year prior, it was the validation that I really was doing well, and it was a token of dedication from a leader who wouldn’t take no for an answer when it came to my personal growth.

Being promoted “earlier than normal” makes me feel proud. It makes me feel like the promotion was earned, not just given. It makes me energized to be more creative with my role and continue perfecting my value proposition. What do I bring to the table?

I can tell you what NOT being promoted felt like as well. It felt like my work wasn’t appreciated. It felt like I would have to wait until a passed a certain tenure to be given a promotion, even though there was no hesitation to give me more work or “opportunities”. Not being promoted felt like I wasn’t doing something right.

And while not all companies enforce merit based promotions, here’s an ask I have for all employers: change your mind. Do it right now. You have highly qualified employees who are being passed up for opportunities by Sue who has been here for 3 years doing the bare minimum. Promote the person that earned it because that will only energize them more and encourage them to be better at work. Promoting just on tenure is like giving a screaming baby a lollipop. You’re encouraging bad behavior by reinforcing it. Promoting those that deserve it will be better for you in the long run, trust me.

Keep it simple, end of story.