My P&G Story #12: What’s your dream job?

16 Aug, 2017

Desi Jagger's Blog

My P&G Story #12: What’s your dream job?

A new manager had joined our team. He knew we felt uninspired. On his first day, he took us out of the office for lunch (yes, it’s possible even when you work in an industrial estate with noisy trucks and dusty warehouses).

We had prepared a business summary and expected questions like “How can you drive double digit growth this year?” We were surprised when our new manager didn’t mention a word about business and instead was curious about our lives:

“If you weren’t working here and you could do anything, what would you be doing?”

No one in the company had ever asked us this question. There was an unspoken taboo on sharing ambitions for work and life beyond P&G. What if the company doubted our commitment and stopped supporting us?

The taboo was broken. Our manager shared his dreams and we shared ours. We got to know the human element of our each other, the one that had been hiding behind name badges and job titles.

Each time we reviewed my work plan, he would ask:

“How will this [possibly not very exciting] project contribute to your future ambitions?”

He reframed even the most mundane projects as an investment in my dream career. I still didn’t love my job, but now it had a higher purpose – I was learning skills that would be helpful later, I was overcoming challenges and becoming more resilient. As a result, I respected my manager and worked twice as hard for him.

Get unstuck by setting a higher purpose for your work. Besides not getting fired, how is delivering brilliant work helping you develop?

Are you stuck in a boring and meaningless job that you just have to do right now? Coaching can help you make the most of it by connecting it to your overall purpose. Explore how by booking your free consultation now.

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Photo credit: Kuramathi

I'm Desi Jagger

I help Changemakers to trust themselves and focus on what matters most.

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My P&G Story #11: The 3 unexpected benefits of my sabbatical

28 Jul, 2017

Desi Jagger's Blog

My P&G Story #11: The 3 unexpected benefits of my sabbatical

I had decided to leave my safe, well-paid corporate job and I thought:

“I might as well take a sabbatical now. Who knows when the next possibility might arise?”

Like most people, I wanted to take a break, to do a bit of travel and spend time with my family.

Unlike most people, I didn’t want to launch a business, ‘find myself’ or learn something new. Instead, I wanted to forget about work, to lose myself and to unlearn some of what I had spent the last 7 years learning at P&G. Mostly, I wanted to do absolutely nothing at all. This change of pace brought about some unexpected benefits.

BENEFIT 1: I GOT MY FIRST CLIENT

HOW I GOT IT:

I completely stopped talking about work. It was tough – everyone wanted to know why I had left P&G and what I was going to do next. It was really tempting to share my dreams, to analyze my fears, to recall each step of my journey. But I stayed strong and didn’t indulge them. Eventually I relaxed and started living in the moment. I was surprised how much there was right here, right now. The magic lay in the balance between my P&G past and my training and development future. I relaxed and opened up and when, out of the blue, a man from Bahrain asked me to become his coach, I accepted the opportunity.

I got my first client by living in the here and now.

BENEFIT 2: I DISCOVERED THE ‘BEING’ MODE

HOW IT GOT IT:

For a whole month, I did nothing. I stopped planning. I didn’t invite friends out. I didn’t go to yoga. I just woke up and let the day unfold. After seven years in a demanding and dynamic job, doing nothing was not just difficult, it was horrifying. I had nothing to accomplish and therefore no way to justify my existence. When I completely stopped doing stuff, I thought there would be nothing left. But there was. It was called ‘being’ and it had been there all along, buried under deadlines and often useless actions.

‘Being’ allowed me to be proud of who I was inside. It was a welcome break from having to prove myself by constantly ‘doing’. Now I can choose which mode I want to be in and switch when I need a change of perspective.

I discovered ‘being’ by intentionally pausing ‘doing’.

BENEFIT 3: I GOT MY CONFIDENCE BACK

HOW I GOT IT:

I had joined P&G straight out of university. The company was all I knew of the working world. It was P&G that taught me the principles-based thinking by which I operate to this day. It was P&G that equipped me with the one-page template which I still use. It was at P&G that I met some of my best friends.

During my sabbatical, I actively un-learnt the P&G ways. I sought different perspectives. I ripped off the ‘P&Ger’ label and tried the opposite of everything I used to do. I played being the opposite of who I used to be. I remembered who I was before I started work. I reconnected with my natural strengths, some of which had been suppressed because they didn’t fit with the corporate values.

Then I put both sides of me together – the P&G lessons, skill and experience and my natural talents and values. A new confidence emerged – one that was stronger and not limited to one organization.

I got my confidence back by separating my identity from my job.

Looking back, I realize I don’t have to wait for a sabbatical to experience these benefits again:

I choose to live in the here and now. Daily meditation helps me with this.
When things start to get out of control, I intentionally stop ‘doing’ and switch to ‘being’. Asking myself “Who am I being in the face of this challenge?” usually does the trick.
Whilst my personality is a big part of my work as a coach, I constantly remind myself that I am not my job. I haven’t fully mastered this, but I am working on it.

If you were taking a sabbatical now, what benefits would you like to experience?

How can you get these benefits whilst working?

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I'm Desi Jagger

I help Changemakers to trust themselves and focus on what matters most.

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My P&G Story #10: How I got my confidence back

26 Jul, 2017

Desi Jagger's Blog

My P&G Story #10: How I got my confidence back

People are often surprised to hear that I became more confident after leaving P&G. Didn’t I feel prouder saying “I work for P&G” than “I work for [some unknown] company”? At first I did, but during my sabbatical I discovered that true confidence doesn’t come from the organization I work for, no matter how supportive that organization it may be.

There were many awkward moments during my post-P&G sabbatical. The most awkward (and frustratingly, the most frequent) one was introducing myself. I could no longer use my usual line “I’m Desi, I work for P&G”, so instead I said:

“I’m Desi, I used to work for P&G.”

For the past seven years, I had been a ‘P&Ger’. Leaving the company had left a big gap in my identity. It was like jumping out of the mother ship and floating silently away, stuck in space yet belonging nowhere.

One day, whilst waiting at the bus stop, I heard a small child proclaim “I am Alexander.” And I that’s when it struck me. Children don’t put their life on hold, waiting to join a company so they can finally receive an identity. They live with the identity they already have, the one they got at birth.

But surely such simple introductions were for kids. I was, after all, supposed to be an adult. For the next week, I put my adult status on hold and experimented with a child-like introduction:

“I’m Desi.”

(*holding breath*)

90% of people didn’t even ask me where I worked. This opened up space for other topics – like the countries where I had lived, my Ashtanga yoga practice and my upcoming holiday. I began to recognize the values that underpinned my identity – freedom, discovery, perseverance. I realized I was still living these values even outside of P&G. The company, therefore, had been a contributor to my identity – rather than being my identity.

This liberating thought led me through a process of letting go:

I acknowledged P&G’s contribution to my life – it had taught me about marketing, business and developing people.
I was grateful to have started my career in one of the best companies in the world.
Finally, I peeled off the P&G label and separated myself from the company.

Redefining my identity as internal rather than external gave me a new air of confidence. This confidence was stronger because it depended only on me and my choices, rather than on other people or organizations. It took me a long time to get this confidence and now that I felt its benefits, I vowed to never let it go.

Get unstuck by peeling off the labels. Who are you, at your core?

What labels are you sticking on yourself? Coaching helps you uncover your true self and (re)gain confidence. Discover how by booking your free consultation now.

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I'm Desi Jagger

I help Changemakers to trust themselves and focus on what matters most.

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My P&G Story #9: When I let my team member go

18 Jul, 2017

Desi Jagger's Blog

My P&G Story #9: When I let my team member go

I was recruiting team members to deliver a new hire training. Ana was perfect for the job – enthusiastic and with a quirky perspective. When I asked her to join the team, she was thrilled and committed right away. Job done, I thought.

I was wrong. Despite her initial eagerness, Ana was impossible to pin down. She dropped out of meetings in the last minute, didn’t deliver the work we had agreed and generally wasn’t taking the lead on her project. Her excuses were varied:

“My manager asked me to meet at this time”

“I have a big deadline tomorrow”

“Once I’m back from holiday, I’ll get started on it…”

I didn’t want to appear inflexible, so I adapted our team meetings around her. I also didn’t want to seem pushy, so I had a few friendly chats with her and reminded her of the importance of delivering on time. I was cautious this could set the wrong example for the rest of the team, but I reassured myself it was a one-off.

Ana still wasn’t delivering and I found myself rationalizing on her behalf. That’s when I realized all the excuses came down to one simple fact: the new hire training was low on Ana’s priorities; so low in fact, it was about to fall off the paper. I was stuck between maintaining the relationship with my colleague and getting the work done.

I asked myself:

“What is the most important factor in delivering this project?”

From all my years of leading the training team, I knew the answer was dedication. Whilst Ana was smart and generally hard working, she was not dedicated to our project.

Keeping her on the team wasn’t fair to the new hires who deserved the best training. It also wasn’t fair to the rest of the team who would have to pick up her slack in the last minute. It was going to be a difficult conversation but I knew I had to do it.

“Ana, how are you feeling about the new hire training?”

“Well, I like the project but I am overwhelmed right now.”

“Alright, so what would help you?”

“Hmm… maybe I can step out for now and join the team in a few months when I have more time?”

“I think dropping this project is the right thing for you so you can concentrate on your top priorities. It is also the right thing for our team because we need everyone giving 110%.”

I had feared Ana would be upset when I let her go. Instead, she was relieved – and so was I. My team had to do a bit of extra work to compensate for her absence, but we had more than enough time – and dedication – to do it.

Get unstuck by aligning your priorities with your team. If they don’t match, the work won’t get done on time, well, or at all.

Feeling overwhelmed by your to-do list? Coaching helps you to identify what’s most important and to focus on it without feeling guilty about the other stuff. Prioritize yourself by today booking your free consultation.

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I'm Desi Jagger

I help Changemakers to trust themselves and focus on what matters most.

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My P&G Story #8: Now is perfect and perfect is now

11 Jul, 2017

Desi Jagger's Blog

My P&G Story #8: Now is perfect and perfect is now

Just a year after I started working at P&G, I was asked to join the team that trains the new marketers. Me? But I’m quite new and still learning myself. On the day of the training, I was really nervous. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. My colleague nudged me over to the front of the room. All eyes were on me. What could I possibly teach these new hires?

Quite a lot, it turned out.

I may have only known a little bit about marketing, but they knew even less. I delivered some of the best-scoring training and – once I managed to shake off the nerves – I had a lot of fun. This was the beginning of my people development career. Looking back now, I wonder when this beginning would have happened if I had waited for the ‘perfect’ moment to train the new hires.

Get unstuck by jumping straight in. You’ll never be 100% ready so what are you waiting for?

Are you waiting for the ‘perfect’ moment? Coaching can give you the confidence to go for the opportunity. Jump straight in by booking your free consultation now.

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I'm Desi Jagger

I help Changemakers to trust themselves and focus on what matters most.

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My P&G Story #7: They took my idea and ran

5 Jul, 2017

Desi Jagger's Blog

My P&G Story #7: They took my idea and ran

I have a confession to make. I usually write my stories about how I get unstuck in work and life. But today is different. Today I have an unresolved story and I would like to hear your advice on how to get unstuck.

This is a very old story which bubbled to the surface as I was listening to this Fizzle podcast about the difference between stealing and borrowing ideas. Essentially, stealing is replicating something and pretending it’s yours. Borrowing, on the other hand, is building on a concept whilst crediting the original author.

The brand I was working on had gone stale. We treated each product line as a separate entity, which was confusing for consumers and inefficient to manage internally. We needed a new mindset altogether, not executional tweaks. I proposed a portfolio strategy to manage the brand as one entity, leveraging the different product lines in a way that linked together and made sense to consumers.

I shared my portfolio strategy with my manager who appreciated the fresh thinking and said she would discuss it with our director. Many drafts and iterations later, I presented it to the regional team and they were impressed. I was proud and excited…

…until the regional deployment day. Connected via video conference, the local teams (mine included) watched eagerly as the regional team deployed their new strategy.

It was pretty much a copy of mine. The same table. The same words.

At first I was glowing – my work had become the new regional standard! I impatiently awaited the moment when they would mention this thinking came from me and my team. But this moment never came. My team shook their heads in dismay. But not a single one of them, not even my manager, said a word during the meeting.

When I shared my frustration with my manager, her response was vague: “the right people know the work you’ve done.” When I asked for her support to rectify the situation and get me the recognition I deserved, she labeled me ungrateful and immature:

“You should be happy that your work will make an impact on the whole of Europe. So what if your name isn’t on it?”

I was sure that the lack of acknowledgement did not come from bad intentions. As people contributed to the idea, everyone felt involved. This was the kind of project that created reputations and that led to career advancement. After months of hard work and mind-stretching, I watched the promised rewards evaporate into thin air.

I was stuck between the pride of standing up for myself and the fear of being judged… Should I politely ask the regional team to acknowledge the work came from me? What if I air my frustration with our director? Would it be childish to send an email telling everyone this was my idea?

In the end I did nothing.

As a result, I got no credit for my work. I didn’t become famous and my career certainly didn’t advance on the back of it. Instead, I cultivated a regret which still consumes me today. So I reach out for your advice:

How should I have gotten unstuck in this situation?

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I'm Desi Jagger

I help Changemakers to trust themselves and focus on what matters most.

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My P&G Story #6: “Your idea already exists”

28 Jun, 2017

Desi Jagger's Blog

My P&G Story #6: “Your idea already exists”

Seeing marketers (myself included) struggle at retailer meetings sparked a brilliant idea in my mind. I would create a commercial training for brand managers to help them understand how retailers operate and how to best interact with them.

I shared my idea with a few people and they liked it. When I presented it to the commercial director, he said that Jenny, another brand manager, was already working on the same project. My idea would be a duplication of work and duplication of work, naturally, was on P&G’s blacklist.

I was disillusioned. Maybe I wasn’t such a genius after all. I worked hard to improve my idea so it would be better than Jenny’s (or rather, what I imagined her idea to be, since at this stage I didn’t know anything about it).

I had taken a tiny piece of information and created a negative story around it. Without an outlet, the story kept building up. What if her idea was genuinely better? I wanted to talk to her but what if I would give away too much of my idea and she stole it? I wondered how far ahead in the planning she was. Her name popped up in my inbox and my heartbeat rocketed – was she going to announce the launch of what I believed was my idea? In this case, she wasn’t, but what if she did tomorrow, or the following week? I couldn’t live with this anxiety.

This ignited my courage to speak with her. I showed Jenny my work and she loved it! She said she couldn’t wait to attend my commercial training and she would be delighted to help in any way she could. It turned out she was working on something totally different and there was no duplication.

Sigh of relief.

My idea was mine again. I just wished I had spent the previous two months implementing it rather than fighting imaginary battles in my mind.

Get unstuck by clarifying the facts. This may require having an uncomfortable conversation but it’s totally worth it.

What conversations are your avoiding right now? Coaching can give you the confidence to ask the right questions. Take the first step by booking your free consultation now.

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Photo credit: LaVladina

I'm Desi Jagger

I help Changemakers to trust themselves and focus on what matters most.

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My P&G Story #5: When I drowned in data

21 Jun, 2017

Desi Jagger's Blog

My P&G Story #5: When I drowned in data

In my first month at P&G, I was asked to do a business analysis. I had no idea what that meant but I enthusiastically took it on.

I locked myself in the quiet room, I opened all the data files (and in P&G there were a lot!) and I soon found myself drowning in information. Sales figures by month, by product by retailer for the past 3 years. Financials. Awareness for each campaign. My gaze jumped frantically from number to number in a temptation to deep dive into every angle and correlate every metric. I felt like Alice in Wonderland, stuck in the rabbit hole – out of control, falling fast through the dark.

Two weeks passed and I had all the data and graphs I could ever dream of, but absolutely no clue what I was going to present. I panicked. I was clearly rubbish at data analysis and now my manager would find out…

I finally came out of the quiet room and asked our commercial manager for help. She had a knack for simplifying things.

“So what’s the story you’re trying to tell?”

Story? I thought I was supposed to update senior management, not entertain kindergarteners.

She led me through a funnel of questions, each building on the previous one instead of my scatter-gun approach. “In one sentence, how is the business doing? What is driving that? Which particular retailers, products or time periods are involved?”… We had started to peel the onion.

In 15 minutes I made more progress on my business analysis than I had in a month. I realized I had been stuck in the trees and so I couldn’t see the whole forest.

Get unstuck by looking at the big picture. What’s the story you want to tell?

Where in your life do you get distracted by details? Coaching can help you see the bigger picture. Start your own story by booking your free consultation now.

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I'm Desi Jagger

I help Changemakers to trust themselves and focus on what matters most.

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My P&G Story #4: Are you a ‘human being’ or a ‘human doing’?

13 Jun, 2017

Desi Jagger's Blog

My P&G Story #4: Are you a ‘human being’ or a ‘human doing’?

I committed to doing nothing for the first month of my sabbatical. My objective was to disconnect from the structured and often uncreative corporate world. This meant no alarm clock, no calendar and no planning. Whilst at P&G, this had been my ultimate fantasy – to just chill out without any responsibilities or targets.

But when this fantasy finally materialized, it was pure hell. Every morning, I woke up in panic, frantically patting the side table in search of my phone. Had I missed my alarm? Hundreds of potential plans swirled around in my mind, from the friend I needed to call to the most efficient way to combine grocery shopping with a visit to my grandma’s house. School, university and work had all taught me to be a diligent planner and had rewarded me for completing tasks and achieving results.

Now that I have no plans, I might end up doing nothing. And if I’m doing nothing, then who am I?

I am nobody.

What emerged from this malaise was a surprise.

As I withdrew from ‘doing’, I began ‘being’. And by that I don’t mean ‘not doing’. I mean existing, being there in the moment, wearing exactly what I was wearing and feeling exactly as I was feeling. I mean having an identity built on character. But wasn’t ‘being’ something I did by default? In the background? It turned out it wasn’t. ‘Being’ was an active state, one I could choose to turn on or off. ‘Being’ was a complement, rather than an alternative to ‘doing’.

Thanks to this discovery, today I have an extra gear in my gearbox. When I can’t solve a problem by ‘doing’, I switch gear to ‘being’… and vice versa. This helps me see things from different perspectives and opens up options I had never considered.

Get unstuck by switching from ‘doing’ to ‘being’.

Unsure how to ‘just be’? Coaching can help you reconnect with yourself and give you tools to switch between ‘doing’ and ‘being’. Be brave and book your free consultation now.

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I'm Desi Jagger

I help Changemakers to trust themselves and focus on what matters most.

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My P&G Story #3: How I got my first client

6 Jun, 2017

Desi Jagger's Blog

My P&G Story #3: How I got my first client

I never planned to work as a freelance coach. In September 2015, I left P&G and went on sabbatical with the plan of becoming a full time trainer in another big company when I return. But during this 3-month break something unexpected happened… and it changed the course of my career.

Whilst on sabbatical, I banned myself from talking and even thinking about my passion for training and developing people. The temptation oozed out of every coffee cup I shared with friends, every meal my grandma prepared, every street encounter with acquaintances:

“What are you going to do next? Have you got a job lined up?”

Everyone had an opinion, a comment about the fact that I didn’t have a job to go back to. It was as if they carried part of the responsibility for my choice. Some were jealous, some were excited for me and others couldn’t hide the terror in their eyes. It was really difficult at first – I felt like I owed them an explanation. After being asked the same question twenty times, I had developed a routine and this predictability took the edge off.

But the loudest voice of all wasn’t that of my biggest critics, it was my own. That voice would hover above me, waiting for a quiet moment to rain down its fears and orders:

“You should at least make a plan. Why don’t you read a book on training design? You forgot to contact that capability manager, you’re probably missing missing out on a job opportunity right now…”

It was a constant internal battle but with some discipline I eventually I switched off from work. I felt light as a feather. I could talk about leaving P&G without feeling guilty or worrying about the future.

And that’s when it happened – my first client found me.

I connected with a Canadian woman who had heard my story and wanted some advice. I listened to her dilemma and asked a few questions. At the end of the conversation, she said: “I would like to hire you as my coach. How much do you charge?”

What?! Where did this come from? I had decided to focus on training and to possibly explore coaching at a later stage. I wasn’t ready, I didn’t have a website and I had no clue what price to charge. I panicked and told her that I’m happy to have another chat with her (for free, of course). Perhaps sensing my self-doubt, she didn’t come back. The following week, during a similar conversation, a man from Bahrain asked me to be his coach. Opportunity was knocking on my door, again. This time I opened the door and let it in.

I wasn’t searching for my first client. I was simply ready to be found.

Get unstuck by preparing to be found. Pick an hour, a day or a month to clear your heart and mind from the hot topics in your life.

Need help to switch off? Coaching is a great way to de-clutter your mind and give yourself permission to let go. Take the first step now by booking your free consultation.

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Photo credit: Gerlos

I'm Desi Jagger

I help Changemakers to trust themselves and focus on what matters most.