Don’t call it a comeback
I am not nearly as cool as LL Cool J was, or still is. I’m uncool enough to not even know if LL Cool J is still culturally relavent. I do love me a good procedural series, so his long stint on NCIS has been very entertaining. What I do know is that his famous comeback song “Momma said knock you out” popped into my head the minute I decided to start blogging again after having abandon it a number of years ago.
I’ve been “gone” from the workforce for just a few months now on an unpaid, and unexpected “sabbatical”. And this week, kind of out of nowhere, I suddenly felt inspired to find my written voice again. Which is odd because I seem to be speaking at conferences every other month or so… somehow, blogging was something I’d just neglected doing for a while. Can I still blame COVID? Or are we over blaming COVID for everything?
Back to the “sabbatical” thing. I’ve spent 25 years in tech, my first decade and a half with my hands fairly dirty either in writing code, or implementing tools to manage code, or deploying code. Then I spent a decade thinking about people, and processes, and systems, and how maybe if we made those things more people-centric and sustainable the software would also get better. It did get better. And like most challenges, the minute you move through it, you uncover another underlying challenge that you could not see before. My last half decade or so as an organizational leader and consultant is where I started to see that effective collaboration, true innovation, and fully engaged people are often hampered by cultures, environments, and well intentioned leaders who inadvertently got in the way of the very progress that they were seeking. It spanned industries, geographic location, and company size.
I’ve spent much of the last 6 years dedicated to managing and leading a lot of really fantastic humans, many of whom were developing into leaders themselves, and who were anxious and slowly burning out during the pandemic. I then found myself leading those same people through an unexpected acquisition along with all of the fear and anxiety that comes with events like that. I loved every minute of every opportunity I had to provide a safe environment for people, to be a compassionate listener, to help people sort things out and find ways to thrive in an environment that perhaps felt less welcoming and stable than they were accustomed to. All the while, not being nearly aware enough of my own burnout, and finding myself in need of an extreme break last year. When my company ultimately could not support the time off I needed to manage my burnout and the health issues that accompanied it, I had to part ways without something to transition into, which these days feels pretty scary. Hence, the “unexpected and unpaid sabbatical”.
I am fortunate to have financial resources and a super supportive husband who is also a senior leader in tech, with amazing health insurance that he could extend to me. I also have a fantastic career coach helping me to develop a personal networking brief, an updated resume, and a strategy for finding the best possible match based on what I want and need out of my next big career move. I do not take for granted that I have an opportunity to take a huge, deep, cleansing breath that may be out of reach for many others in similar situations. I also appreciate that because I have spent so many years supporting others’ aspirations and being a super-connector for people in hopes of providing them with better opportunities, that I now also have a wealth of connections who are happy to help me navigate my own next career move. So maybe my “comeback” will not be as full of bravado, cool beats, and dance moves as LL Cool J’s, but the future looks pretty hopeful, and I’m starting to feel ready to enter the ring and kick some serious ass. In a very non-punchy manner of course :)
I’m not committing to daily blog posts, or even weekly ones just yet. I never know when I’ll be inspired to share something I’ve experienced or learned in hopes of making someone else’s day a little better… it’s a start.
If you’re considering taking an unpaid sabbatical of your own to give yourself time and space to consider your next career move, and are anxious about what to do with the time, how to plan responsibly, or what a good outcome could look like, reach out to me! My journey is absolutely going to be different than yours. At the same time I’d be happy to share with you what I’ve experienced, what I have learned, and what steps I took to make sure it was not only rejuvenating, but also (eventually) productive and forward looking.
