Add a doer to your middle manager

Stories of Role Models

I worked my way up in the IT industry and with 12 years under my belt, I had arrived at middle management roles. 

This is when you let the bachchas be the doers. 

My daughter had also arrived and I was balancing family and work with the practised rhythm of a veteran. 

At work, doing the same things day after day was taking the steam out of me. I wanted to do something that would keep me motivated and happy. 

The assigned role, by itself, did not cut it. Sounds familiar? :)

I have been a compassionate person, who wants to help others and coaching almost suggested itself to me. 

I had evidence too. Colleagues and juniors - who were not reporting to me - would sometimes catch me for a conversation on what to do next. I enjoyed the chats and they found it very useful.

When the world was in lockdown; I got my coaching credentials, over 10 weeks. I was still on maternity leave at that time. 

As a coach, I would be a doer instead of a manager.

I enjoyed it so much that I was ready to switch careers and do coaching for a living. 

I resigned. The way I saw it - I could either do this. Or I could do that.

Notice period started.

As I sat discussing with a close friends, I heard both my head and heart.

The heart said, 'I want to be happy in my work'.

The head said, 'Who would pay for all the expenses? Coaching does not become an established practice overnight'.

As the notice period passed me by, I began to have doubts. 

The head said, 'In the best coaching scenario, I would probably make one third of what my job was getting me'.

The heart said, 'Coaching will let me spend more time with my 2 year old daughter'.

Then the exit interview arrived.

As I was speaking to my management and leaders I realised how much they valued my contributions from over the last 5+ years. 

They knew I did my job sincerely and they could count on my word - they valued it.

They were happy to flex. They wanted to hold on to me.

I then saw the wisdom in what they saw :)

It was an opportunity to continue my hustles between home, work and my coaching interests along with spending quality time with my daughter.

It helped that I could work more from home.

Things sorted themselves out.

Today - I can do my job as a manager **and** I can be a coach-doer at the same time.

Adding a doer to my middle manager makes me happier and even more useful to my workplace.

That is the insight I wanted to share with you.

Subsequently, I also enrolled in a 8 month program and got myself a product management certification recently. As they say, learning should never stop in life even though you are a coach.

More doer-ship for the middle manager!

I had found the path forward.