In your reflection blog, share instances where you have experienced a tipping point at work.
- What was the situation?
- What did you do?
- What was the result?
- What would you do differently?
A few years ago I managed a program for two medical centers in. Although both medical centers were located in Pennsylvania, they operated independently of each other. My team consisted of 7 members at the time and each person was responsible for program oversight of at least one medical center. One of our team members had just notified us that she was taking a new position. Even though our supervisor did not come straight out and say it, we knew this meant someone would have to take on more responsibility. So, everyone waited patiently to see what would happen. Later that week I received a call from my supervisor and he wanted to discuss how he was going to handle the workload.
I knew what was coming, but no matter how much I thought I was mentally prepared, I wasn’t ready. I was already doing the most work as compared to my coworkers and was considered the subject matter expert of our program. I initially felt a bit slighted that my boss would even think about giving his most knowledgeable employee more responsibility. Boyatzis (2013) discusses how people remember how someone invokes part of our “aspiration or ideal self or personal vision, or somebody who believed in you and trusted you and has confidence in you. Someone gives you an opportunity or asks us to do something that we feel is over our head but they believe in us. They are endorsing our strengths. This combination of invoking our vision and our strengths is activating or arousing the Positive Emotional Attractor or PEA.” This is exactly what my supervisor did in our conversation. He told me that he needed me and he knew I was the person who could not only be successful in taking on the additional responsibility, but he thought I could actually make the program better. He put his faith in me and activated my PEA.
That moment, the moment when I knew he was asking for my help was my tipping point. It was at that point when I decided to view the situation as an opportunity instead of a burden. Boyatzis (2013) states “the process of change is not a continuous one, it happens with these tipping points, around these moments of emergence; what moves us ahead in the intentional change process are tipping points that move us into the PEA.” I accepted my supervisor’s challenge and made a conscious decision towards intentional change. A positive change. I was only supposed to handle the additional duty for a few months, but it turned out to be almost a year. And, my supervisor was accurate in how he thought I would improve the program. I made some great changes and left the program much better than when it was given to me. I could have been angry and bitter about the entire experience. However, I decided that doesn’t solve anything and I used it as a positive lesson. The only thing I would have changed was my initial fear and unfairness of being assigned the additional responsibility.
Reference:
So Relatable. (2013, September 11). Module 2 the positive (pea) and negative (nea) videos. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=197x4dmuug8
No comments:
Post a Comment