Keep Calm and Carry On

When I was promoted from a team leader of a small research team to a group leader, leading developers, qa, ux and the product, I discovered that my the biggest challenge was meeting my own self expectations of being a manager and a leader.

As someone who strongly believes in “Getting Things Done”, I felt that there are too many things that should (already) get done. As someone who believes that a manager should code with the team and be with the team, I understood how challenging it is when you get dozens of mails, endless meetings and excessive context switching. As a group leader, it appears to be impossible to meet my self expectation as a manager and as a leader..

Then, I got a great advice from an amazing person - “take yourself a grace period, you deserve it”, she said. And indeed, as weeks passed, I’m finding that struggling for what I believe in is starting to pay off. Eventually, every challenge is a riddle to be solved, and how much different is one riddle from another… by breaking down tasks and forcing myself to become more productive and more aware of my time, I’m starting to meet my self expectations.