When High Hopes Hit Reality

Late ‘99 and early ‘00 was, at least to that point, the busiest period of our lives. We had just moved into our new home on two and a half acres of recently subdivided farm land so there was a tremendous amount of work to do there. I was picking up any side work I could find, carpentering and picking apples for Cindy’s dad, because there’s never enough money when you’re starting out. Oh, and we were planning a wedding - which also requires money. Then there was work.

Both of our jobs were going as well as we had ever experienced. Since Cindy will tell her part of the story far better than I ever could, I’ll stick with mine. I was rolling right along in my regular role, churning out parts like nobody’s business. I don’t remember exactly when it happened, but somewhere along the line everything clicked and I went from working my tail off to meet the minimum productivity expectation to blowing it out of the water every day without thinking about it. I had also gotten far more involved in the behavior-based safety process, specifically through the steering team. I was (kind of) helping in some of the training sessions held for new observers and I occasionally attempted to lend a hand with the data entry required from all the observations being done across the facility. 

My involvement in that steering team provided me with the opportunity to interact regularly with Terry and the process facilitator, Dennis Nicholas. When the initiative was launched from the corporate level, each facility selected someone with a strong management background to ensure there was some chance of sustainability; the company-wide implementation was the largest the third party provider had ever done and the investment was significant. While everyone else on the steering team other than Dennis and Terry were also hourly employees, I was by far the youngest. With it being a peer-to-peer initiative, this turned out to be a tremendous opportunity for me to learn from a great group of folks with much more life (and leadership) experience than me. And it became the catalyst for receiving direct mentorship from both Dennis and Terry.

That said, it wasn’t long until Dennis accepted a position managing a small just-in-time production facility, still within the company but halfway across the company - near where he had moved to the Shenandoah Valley from just a few years prior. As much as I (selfishly) didn’t want to see him go, I was happy for him and saw it as an opportunity to throw my name in the hat to be considered for filling the facilitator position he was stepping away from. Although I was indeed the youngest member of the steering team, I had quickly become the most involved hourly member and the only one actively looking for career growth opportunities - whether I was ready for them or not.

While I was showing signs of early career stability, that was hiding a few issues I had not yet resolved - or even acknowledged. My early momentum was indeed a mirage. I went into the interview feeling like I had the position in the bag. When high hopes hit reality, though, we’ll have to make a decision. Often, bad situations expose flaws we ignore in comfortable routines, but facing the pain head-on reveals the first seeds of growth. To have the slightest shot of doing anything with those seeds, we’ll need to own the role we play in our failures. We’ll look at that next. Until then, think about a rejection or setback you’ve experienced. Write down the immediate emotional reaction and one blind spot it highlighted.