Almost a year in a new job

Rules, Regulations, Laws, Statutes, Codes, Travel Documents, Monthly Statistics, Grants, Purchasing Guidelines, Hiring Processes

Wow... and that's all beyond showing up, doing training, managing a team of six, consulting with libraries, implementing projects, and learning the agency. It has been a whirlwind year. I am hopeful that within the next couple of months we will have hired someone to fill the Library Technology Consultant position. This will allow me to stop doing two jobs and finally settle into the manager role.

I have experienced times when I felt completely clueless and inept. Recently, I have actually had moments when I catch myself talking to someone and realize I sound like I know what I'm doing. It has been quite encouraging. I know I still have a long way to go to be the employee that I want to be, the program director that my boss would like me to be and to be the manager that the team needs me to be.

Someone told me many years ago that when you make a move, whether it's job or location, it takes a good year to get to a point where you feel like you have a clue what you're doing. My revision is that it takes a year to clue and longer to feel comfortable.

Filling in someone else's shoes

My colleagues and I, to a lesser extent, having been adjusting to the death of a colleague these past 6 months. Most of my work team had many wonderful years working with her, as a co-worker and then as a manager. She established policies and procedures. She took the state to a new level of federal grant funding. She was well-known and loved around the state.

In August, I stepped into the position she held. While trying to get acclimated, I also attempt to fill the duties of my original position. Those duties have had me out of the office roughly 60% of the time since then. Unfortunately for my staff, my juggling skills have been less than adequate.

It has only been since the beginning of the year that I have felt that I am getting my sea legs. My work world has been a huge learning curve. It has been a struggle to get a time line of reports due, responsibilities expected, and just a standard work flow for the normal paperwork required. There are many standards we have to follow, many agencies we work with, and much political history to learn.

In the midst of all of this, there have been several occasions where "but we used to..." has surfaced, from many different levels - employees, upper management, other departments. I try regularly to listen to that feedback and see where it shows me expectations that I was not aware I had been missing. What has been a challenge is standing up when I am trying to lead in a new or different direction. I am a different person. I have a different management style. I have different ideas. I can't and won't ever be what my predecessor was. But, I strive every day to be the best ME I can be.