Chapter 13: Get Back Up

Picture a cowboy from the old Western movies, (think John Wayne), his face hidden by his Stetson hat, ambling across the desert on a horse. Suddenly, without warning, the horse stumbles on a rock hidden in the sand. The cowboy, realising he’s falling off the horse, manages to position himself so that he lands as safely as possible. Once on the ground he checks that he has no broken bones, then slowly stands up, dusts himself off and climbs back on the horse to continue his journey. He may be a little bruised, but he’s still able to keep going. Not only did he manage the situation so that the consequences were minimised, but he also learnt from the experience.

You may not be working in a desert and hopefully you’re not wearing a Stetson hat to work, but the analogy of this story is relevant to the workplace. The skills and approach implicit in both the Mexican proverb and the cowboy story are the same ones you need to manage career disappointments and keep going on your journey.

No matter how prepared you are, how hard you work and how much you know, there comes a time when things don’t go exactly as planned. Disappointments are part of business life, but you can incorporate your ability to manage these disappointments and how you are seen to manage them as part of your Operating Style.

No matter how hard you try, you can’t control every variable that influences your work life. In any organisation there are politics, personalities and conflicting priorities to deal with, so not every outcome can be positive for you as an individual. Often decisions are made that have absolutely nothing to do with you, so there’s nothing you could have done to change the situation. Other times you may not have made the best choices or decisions to achieve what you wanted. Regardless of the cause, disappointments happen. The important thing is to know how to manage them and how to get back up on your feet again.

The impact of challenges and disappointments, your attitude to them and the skills and techniques required to overcome them are the same for everyone, male or female. Everyone needs to develop their skills so that they can deal with bad stuff when it happens. Like the Mexican proverb says, you must know how to fall so that you can ride as safely as possible. That way you can minimise the damage and get back up again.

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Copyright Karen Adamedes 2009