If you had a do-over in your career, what’s one thing you’d do differently?
I was at a conference a couple of weeks ago and the moderator asked the CHRO being interviewed this question. And of course it got me thinking…
There are many things I’d do differently when it comes to managing my career. But if I had a do-over in terms of something I wish I could take back, it was that one time I delivered a performance review and didn’t do it well.
The issue was that I knew going in that the employee and I were on different pages about whether or not he should get promoted. And in preparing for the discussion, I didn’t stop to consider the best way to deliver the news.
Truly, it was decades ago, and I still cringe when I think about it.
I can’t change what transpired, but I can change how I think about it (click here if you missed the recent post on self-compassion.) And I can change how I show up moving forward.
Instead of cringing, I can have compassion for my younger self — the one who was doing the best she could with the tools she had at the time — and offer her a little grace.
If I had a do-over, I’d have talked through my strategy with someone else before the meeting and changed the way I delivered the information. I’m actually grateful for how poorly I handled it and for the awareness it created. I never made that same mistake again.
Which is why the Values and Identity dimensions of the Leadership Fluency™ Framework matter so much.
There’s plenty of research on the role that identity and values play in leadership, but here’s how I see it:
Identity is about making a conscious decision (because it is a choice!) about how we want to show up — the kind of presence, energy, and integrity we bring into the room regardless of what’s going on around us.
Values are our guardrails. They drive our decisions, boundaries, and behavior when things get spicy. (And if we’re feeling crappy, there’s a good chance it’s because our values are being tested in some way.)
Had I known about this way back when, I would have done things differently. Fortunately, Future Me is well informed.
What’s something you wish you could do over? And what would you do differently now, knowing what you know about yourself?
