Change – The Big One
I have been hired, rejected, promoted, made redundant, been a freelancer, set up Comma, recruited and let people go and finally sold my business. You would think I could take most work changes on the chin!
But along comes the big one – stepping back from working most days – many times on holiday too, as business owners do – to a few days a month as non-exec Chair for Comma, the recruitment business I have built and loved for 18 glorious years.
It has taken me about 18 months to move on emotionally from the talking about this change, 43 years since I started working (in international tennis).
This “stepping away” experience will be well in the future for most in my LinkedIn community but believe me it crept up rather suddenly towards the last phase, and then there is so much to think about, to plan and to do, much of it unknown.
The turning point emotionally was a coaching session with my dear friend and accomplished leadership coach Julie Darcey who prompted me through my conflicting concerns about letting go and helped me focus on how I saw my future which started to feel rather interesting and full of opportunity.
I asked my retired girlfriends what it was like to stop working. One said it took her a year to adjust. Another said it took her about four hours.
Their differing views made me think about how people experience change, which can be as variable as those examples. And in business change we see that all the time. Deep change is being felt by many businesses and individuals as they strive to improve, grow and adapt in a tough economy. For an increasing number of communicators, especially since Covid, the change cycle is more intense than ever and there is a concern about change exhaustion out there.
It is true that some people embrace and relish the new and different, others complain about everything from a self service HR system to the loss of a personal litter bin in a new office (you know who you are!).
Over the last few weeks, I have written to clients and candidates, organised a celebration (seems a bit weird), stopped licences I have used for years, deleted hundreds of work phone numbers, moved multiple direct debits, processed complex (to me) legal documents as I sell my business, written to my multiple pension companies and thought constantly about my future which will be dramatically different. It really is happening, right now!
It also helps hugely that I am leaving my company in the extremely capable and talented hands of our new MD, Andy Macleod and his fabulous number two, Matt Gibbs.
Scary, unknown, unstructured, perhaps a bit quiet, perhaps a bit boring? Not for me. This is truly exciting, liberating and time freeing in a huge way.
You will notice I do not use the ‘R’ word about my situation so I am not 100% there yet and anyway, I may retrain to be a celebrant (or not), but it has to be said, this is one stonking change I am really up for. Bring it on!
– Virginia
