NickVenturella.com 9-19-23 - heed your spidey senses

I know Tuesday is not when you normally get my newsletter, but I was busy hanging out with my family last weekend, so I decided to change the day I would send it this week. I'm just keeping you on your toes :)I was reflecting the other day about which of my past full-time jobs I’ve enjoyed most and thrived in and why.

One thing I remember about the jobs I identified as being good is that even in those job interviews (right from the start) I had a reasonably good feeling about the job, the company, and the people I encountered in the process.However, if I'm being truly candid with myself, for those jobs that I determined were not great for me I remember having a subtle "spidey sense" warning in the back of my brain about what I was getting into. For one reason or another, I still moved forward with employment. Thankfully, perhaps later than sooner, I came to my "spidey senses" and moved on.

Back to the good jobs...Once I was employed I felt fairly safe to be me and take reasonable risks to push the bounds of my role (in a good way) knowing I would not get reprimanded or demeaned if what I tried didn’t work out.In other words, I had the support and collaboration of my superiors in those situations. Support to try and push my work forward for the good of the organization’s objectives. As a result, in many cases, we did great things that were positive for that organization and our individual careers.

In those organizations there was good management strength. The bosses I had personally cared for the people they managed knowing that their investment in their direct reports’ success was an investment in their own success, so they collaborated, mentored and created a safe space to help their team try things and thrive — they were truly leaders.

On the flip side, when I reflect on the places I’ve worked that were not great fits, it seems more obvious now that I did not experience great leadership. I think many of them had good intentions (and most were good people whom I respect), but none of them executed well on being a good leader because they were typically distracted by other priorities (usually imposed on them by the organization) that caused them to be deficient in the areas of collaboration and mentorship with their direct reports. Unfortunately, this eroded trust and any feeling of the work environment being a safe space to do exceptional work.For the workers (the direct reports), this is where hesitancy, insecurity, and imposter syndrome start to become prevalent. Sadly, I think this is where the chasm of disconnect grows and grows. This causes the worker to move into survival mode and/or become disengaged at work leading to “okay” work as opposed to exceptional work.

As this happens in an organization it can lead to it happening in several parts of the organization, which can begin to drastically and rapidly erode the company culture at large. In my opinion, this state of things begs two main questions:

1. Why is the organization putting distracted people managers in place? ...or probably the better question is…

2. What, systemically, is going on in the organization that is forcing its people managers to be so distracted from being good people managers that it would allow this path to continue toward the further erosion of the company’s culture?

Let me know if any of this resonates with you. Feel free to hit reply and share with me.For whatever it's worth, it's not lost on me that any of the "not great fit" jobs I've had were largely my own fault. I made the choice to ignore my "spidey senses" in those situations. Sometimes the job was needed given a life situation at the time so it didn't feel like much of a choice, but ultimately it is a choice. However, I think being able to learn from it to better navigate future decisions (knowing one's self) is the real lesson. That, and paying closer attention to your "spidey senses." 

--------------------------------------------------Updates----------I took some time to revamp my personal website. Feel free to check it out:nickventurella.com----------Dan Lezama and I (we make up the music duo group, Gemini's Rival) have been busy re-recording new versions of our back catalog of songs from the mid/late '90's & early 2000's.The first two of several songs to be released are now out on all major streaming platforms.You can listen to songs, Night to Die and Everlasting (In the End) now.We'll be releasing at least one new version of our old songs once a month through the end of this year. Next up, "Once in a While." This is a rock song that drops Sept. 22, 2023 (you'll be able to hear it here once it releases). 

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Stay positive. Stay healthy. Be kind.Sincerely,Nick VenturellaStrategic/Creative ProfessionalNickVenturella.com