I'm going to do something I really have tried hard not to do here. I'm going to talk about work on the blog.
Sure, I've made passing references to it, but I intentionally keep details vague and don't talk too much about it. Just a personal choice. Lately, though, I've been dealing with a lot as my promotion/transition has transpired, my boss has headed off to a foreign country for months to finalize his adoption, and I've gained a staff who is somehow both my responsibility and not my direct report.
This has posed a challenge for me. I'm more than capable of balancing a fuller workload than I'm used to these days...after two years of public accounting, I can handle pretty much anything that gets piled on my plate in that regard. What I'm struggling with is working to establish credibility in a role I wouldn't usually have until several years further down the road. I've been positioned such that I'm much younger than people who I am expected to manage, in a company that doesn't always understand what us young'uns have to contribute to the picture. My staff, in particular, isn't loving the fact that she reports to "a baby," as she's charmingly termed it.
I will be the first to acknowledge that I have a ton to learn. Your average twenty-five year old doesn't know it all, and I happily admit that. It grows difficult, though, when I have to balance credibility and authority with maintaining my usual likeability. I'm facing down some challenges with being taken seriously, and trying to learn to deliver constructive criticism and negative feedback to people who started at the company when I was still in high school. Add to that the fact that I'm the doormat-iest of doormats, and all things negative are anathema to me.
I consider myself a patient, accommodating, easygoing person, and I've gotten great feedback on being knowledgeable, efficient and easy to work with. I hope to carry that all forward into my next step at my company, but I also need to be taken seriously. I'm going to have to face that, and gain the skills to confront the unpleasant aspects of advancing fast as a young person in a very old-school company.
Here's to this developing professional finding her feet...looking forward to continuing the learning experience!