Heidi Saucier

Embracing Change = Growth

The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress. ~Charles Kettering

We’ve all faced it. Someone announces a change is going to happen for your team, division or even the entire organization. Or maybe through personal reflection you’ve realized that something needs to be different in your life. When we face change, it’s not always with the most positive of reactions. While the experience may have been difficult, I’m sure some of you are able to reflect on the changes and see the growth you’ve experienced because of the transition to something new.

When I moved to my current role over nine years ago, there were changes on multiple levels. I left a team where I had gained experience and knowledge. Now I was in a leadership position where I would learn new processes, build new relationships, and implement my own changes to the team’s operating structure. As I began asking questions and giving feedback on training projects, I received some resistance. I realized I needed to explain why I was asking the questions and build trust with those I would be working with. Once I made that shift, people were more receptive to my feedback and willing to partner with me on training initiatives. Not only did I experience changes overall by joining a new team, I learned that I also needed to change my approach as a leader.

A few years later, along with the rest of the world, tremendous change came as the pandemic hit and we had to make quick adjustments to daily living. For me that meant leading my team from home, making difficult decisions to ensure my family was supported while I was working, adjusting to mask wearing and social distancing, and even increasing virtual interactions with friends and family. For others it was working on the front lines, adjusting to wearing PPE on a regular basis, dealing with fear, figuring out how to stay connected to loved ones that were isolated, and wondering how we would come out of this. Reflecting on my experience during the pandemic, here are some things that I’ve learned:

  1. Curbside grocery pickups are a timesaver. I still take advantage of this option from time to time.
  2. It’s ok to take a break.
  3. Maintaining relationships is critical, even if you are an introvert.
  4. Some people are kind. Others are not. Either way, only we can control our decision to be kind.
  5. There’s always a way to support others.
  6. People are more creative than they know.

Most recently, I’ve begun exploring the use of AI in my role. I will be the first to admit my skepticism towards this technology. Would it really make a difference? Would it reduce the time it took to complete tasks I had grown to dislike because they slowed up the process? At the same time, I was hearing the benefits and possibilities to do things that I was not as skilled in with the support of AI. In other words, it would help me learn new things.

The company I work for has done an amazing job preparing us to increase the use of AI in our work lives. Through learning, job aids, and hands-on activities with the encouragement to experiment, they have offered numerous ways for employees to discover how AI can become a part of daily work. I began to take some classes and started practicing the art of prompting. I learned how AI could help make some of my email messages more concise, how to create a process map using CoPilot and Excel, and discovered analytics that are beginning to reveal key metrics related to the audience that my team supports training. I am still learning how to further refine prompts and use CoPilot throughout the Microsoft Office Suite. My willingness to give AI a chance is bringing positive change and new opportunities within my work. I know that AI is not perfect, and the human touch is still necessary to ensure anything I ask AI to create is accurate and reflects the goals and message we want to portray to our internal teams and external learners.

In all these times of change, I grew. Was it easy? Absolutely not. But when I took the time to step back and look at the bigger picture, I saw that I embraced the change in many ways and gained insights I will carry with me into the future. These lessons are ones that I often reflect on to remind me that despite it all, growth is still happening and there are things we are constantly learning.

Leaders – Embracing change and not running from it is the most critical thing you can do. Remember the people following you. If they see you avoiding the change, that may influence them to do the same. If they see you leading the way through change, and you remain honest and transparent through the process, it will help your entire team transition and come out on the other side of the change a stronger and more resilient group. How will you lead yourself and others through the next change that’s on the horizon? For those that have recently gone through a change, what have you learned through that experience? Please share in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you!

Heidi Saucier

Energy Givers and Drainers

We’re on to the next of the reflection questions I’ve been sharing.

What gives you energy – and what drains it? This has been a discovery over time that continues to help me find balance not only as a leader, but in all aspects of life. I’ve found for myself that some of my energy givers and drainers have slight similarities and have factors that are key to when certain things bring energy and when they take it away.

One area has to do with interactions with others. When I am involved in small group and one on one conversations, I gain energy during the interaction. I enjoy learning about others and hearing their experiences and insights on various topics. When it’s all done, I have to regroup and reenergize. At the same time, being in large groups and engaging in crowd events will quickly drain energy from me (unless it’s a Foo Fighters concert – that’s one of the rare times I find a balance of energy!). I’ve learned to focus much of my time on smaller interactions. When I am in larger groups, I prepare for the experience then decompress at home as soon as I can!

Learning also brings me a lot of energy. I am truly a learning nerd, always looking for new topics and experiences that bring growth. Whether it’s discovering a new recipe, watching a video on nutrition, looking up steps to use a particular software program, reading an insightful book, or exploring a variety of subjects, I come out excited and encouraged about what I have learned.

On the other hand, an area that is known to drain energy in my world is struggling with change. While able to adapt to change in many scenarios, there are times when I am hesitant to move forward with something new. If faced with a situation that I do not have experience with or feel that there’s not a reason to change because the current circumstances are working fine, my stubborn Taurus nature may flare up and I may first dig my heels in the ground. When this happens, I become exhausted fighting to keep things the way that they are while knowing the change is beneficial to my life. This has occurred in personal, professional, family, and other areas. How have I handled this? In many cases, I take the time to pause and review the whole picture related to the change. From there, as a friend and coworker recently coined, I become comfortable with being uncomfortable. When I take this approach, it may not always be easy but at the same time I persevere and keep moving in the direction necessary to navigate through that change.

Coming to learn some of these contributors to gaining or losing energy, I’ve realized an important lesson. Being intentional to invest my time in the energy givers and being mindful when energy drainers are creeping into my life allows me to change course and point myself back to what energizes me. Where do you find you gain the most energy? What tries to take that energy away from you? Share in the comments!