ThinkKit: Write a mantra for the year ahead - how you'll approach it, what you wish it to be. How'd you arrive at the mantra? Me: What a coincidence, my new reality at work demands one.
"Be self aware today and plan for tomorrow."
At work, our web group is undertaking a series of complete re-writes of our web sites and applications. We've also been a strict waterfall application development shop. However for reasons I won't elaborate on, we're adopting an agile framework. Sorry non-techies, you'll have to do some Googling if you want to fully grasp what this means. Needless to say, we're experiencing tremendous change. During this transformation, I've been given the opportunity to lead a group as an engagement manager / product owner. It's exciting but still makes me nervous from time to time as it is new and unknown.
This new opportunity requires that I cultivate relationships and really listen to people from many different perspectives, strengths, and needs. Every day, I will need to be tuned in to my team members, stakeholders, and most importantly the end users of the web application on which I am laser focused. I need to be tuned in to myself and be aware of how I am interacting with these different groups of people. I need to be able to assess the feedback and output of many different people to ensure success.
While immersed in the here and now, this role requires vision. I have to plan numerous steps ahead of what we're currently working on. This project must, and will be a success. To ensure this, I need to be looking ahead so that we have a constant stream of appropriate work and that we meet the expectations of the organization.
While I feel well suited and prepared for this new role, it still requires new skills that I must hone. This unknown is pretty exciting. This mantra will help me stay focused on what is needed to ensure success in these uncharted waters I will travel in 2013.
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