Today I completed the Manager U Certificate program at York University. They asked our class to write a reflection on our experience. Mine is below:
As you wander, you’ll often come across shiny objects you’ll want to pick up or run into people with problems that you want to help them with. Before you know it, you’re carrying a lot with you and it feels hard to keep going.
For me, the shiny thing was a new role at York and the opportunity to become a manager for the first time. Of course, I didn’t expect how much I would need to learn and how many times it would feel overwhelming along the way.
I watch my son, who’s a toddler, constantly learning how to do new things. This involves lots of mistakes, frustration and temper tantrums. I’m finding the process of learning to be a manager can similar.
A shared language, along with shared set of frameworks and vocabulary, helps us talk about these challenges. For me, that has been the biggest impact of Manager U: that we not only that shared language, but we also have a group of people that we can use it with.
Over the past few months, I’ve been struggling to complete a particular project. I know I can finish it myself, but that would take way more time than I have. After talking with my colleagues in Manager U, I changed my approach and decided to coach someone on what needed to be done, instead of doing all the work myself. This has moved things forward far beyond what I could have ever done on my own.
Manager U has helped me see that I’m not the lone wanderer carrying many burdens on my journey, but rather that there are many people who can help and support me and that how you think about that journey makes a big difference.