When we are young and ambitious, we start our careers with an attitude of conquering the world and nothing can and will stop us achieving the higher position in the company. We learn the skills as fast as possible, even get a degree if you did not have one. We ask to be sent on all courses available to learn the technical skills of the job we are doing, and we excel. Soon we are looking to be promoted, because we have mastered the technical skills, so that must be a Game Changer. I was this person. Ambitious, tenacious, loving, liked, and even cocky sometimes. Oh, yes, and don’t forget, I thought I had it all.
I started my banking career in my early twenties after a stint in mining, which made me feel I was already a little matured. I knew a little about life one could say, which gave me a tremendous amount of confidence. So, I progressed rapidly in my quest to conquer banking. I loved working with clients, and soon started to move from one department to the other, learning everything I could. I was confident when I started, but this gave me even more confidence and that made me cocky. I wanted to be promoted!
Naturally I started concentrating more and more on enhancing my skills, that is getting to know everything about banking there is to know. I also started a Banking Diploma Course, because that will bring along the promotion so much quicker. After just 2 years I was seeing myself as a Branch Manager already and started judging my managers at what I would have done better and differently. Mistake number 1. I was so cocky I started offering advice!
I got the promotion and thought I had arrived. Mistake number 2. Being a manager was easy. So, when the staff couldn’t deliver, I started doing the delivering. Mistake number 3, which led to overwhelm, which led to late nights, which had a severe impact on a young marriage of only 2 years. The late nights sometimes included entertaining clients and yes, even Saturday golfing. You get the picture?
Before I could realize what was happening, I lost the staffs’ confidence, which led to work falling behind, until my confidence started dwindling. This led to my seniors losing faith in me and that led to a demotion. Back to square one, this time without confidence and backing. I started all over again, but from a very different position and perspective.
Here are the key lessons I learned:
- Bide your time
- When leading people, technical skills are not enough
- Never underestimate your team’s abilities – delegate, teach and follow-up
- It is hard to recover from failure, but it is possible, because you learn so much
- Face your problems head-on, do not run away from them
- Listen and Learn
Need a little help from a friend, please DM me for a chat. Maybe, you don’t have to go through all the unnecessary pain.