Growing Better, Not Bigger
Yup, I need to take my own advice
Every day, all day long, I preach the gospel that your career path does not have to be linear. All of my clients will tell you that I encourage them to imagine their trajectory not like scaling a mountain, but instead like charting their own unique and iterative road trip.
And here's where I need to listen to my own guidance.
Even though I've stepped out of working a traditional job at an organization in favor of charting my own path as an entrepreneur, I'm still vulnerable to the pervasive American narrative that encourages us to always, always move forward and up.
In business, that narrative just sounds a little different.
Successful businesses, they say, scale into MORE.
More revenue. More clients. More team members.
How we get overextended
It's a sure sign of success when a business owner can say that they've doubled their revenue, increased their follower reach, or hired a team.
Over the past six years of leading Penney Leadership, I've grown in all of those ways. Each time, I've experienced a swell of pride and endorphins.
But just like when I got a promotion in my nonprofit work, when the initial boost wore off I was left with...angst. Strain. A sense of hustling to keep up with it all.
Then I came across this model shared by author Tara McMullin, which made it all very clear for me:
We are all constantly meeting the job demands or challenges at hand with the resources we have available (people, time, materials, attention, money).
When those things are out of balance—when the demands far exceed the resources—that leads to strain and negatively impacts our work performance.
When the resources match or exceed (!!) the challenges, that leads to a sense of motivation and positively impacts our work performance.
Leaders are responsible for keeping the challenges and resources in balance. They need to either narrow the scope of the job demands or increase the resources to meet what we're taking on.
(I don't know about you, but I've seen far too many organizations that are perpetually straining their staff to take on more with fewer resources. It is simply not sustainable or effective.)
What if I’m a leadership coach who doesn’t want to lead?
I thought that bringing an additional coach into Penney Leadership's practice would ease my strain. And in some ways, it did—I no longer had a waiting list! We could help people right away as they needed our support! And we could collaborate and bounce ideas off of each other.
What took me by surprise is that adding to my team increased my job demand in new ways—suddenly, instead of working out my calendar and goals in my own head, I needed to share them with a team member. I needed to create policies, contracts, and procedures. I needed to communicate and coordinate. These kinds of responsibilities together are called "Coordination Costs." These are, of course, all parts of leadership—and I love leadership!
But in this season of my life, with two small kids and a host of other stuff going on, I'm working with a particular level of capacity and resources.
And so last month I made the decision to move back to being a Company of One—collaborating with other partners and coaches but not having them under the umbrella of my practice.
It wasn't an easy decision. It meant quieting a lot of voices in my head that said things like:
- What kind of leadership coach are you if you can't handle leadership?
- Why are you always wrestling between your professional ambition and the reality/needs of family life? Other people can do it, and you just can't.
But I'm wise enough at this point to talk back to those voices (or at least call some smart friends who can help me frame my comebacks).
What’s the point?
The whole point of running my own business is to have a better life.
The whole point is to let go of those normalized American markers of success and instead stay true to my own personal definition of what it means to be fulfilled.
The whole point is to craft my own way of sharing my talent that is more sustainable for me.
Just like anyone navigating their career path, I need to be reminded of this again and again.
I need to continually tend to the balance of the challenges I'm taking on and the resources I have to face them. When these are in alignment, I can work better, not bigger.
To me, success is:
- Enjoying life (so much more than just slogging through!)
- Providing a strong foundation to support my family
- Following my curiosity to grow
- Earning opportunities to express myself through meaningful work
I'm growing as a business owner and a business, but I don't want to grow bigger. I want to grow better, smarter, more whole. I want to do good work, help people, and have a good life. And staying true to that vision is so much harder than I would have thought.
💭 YOUR TURN → Take a moment to step back from the given version of American success (grow forward & up!) and ask yourself: What truly feels like success to me? Your answer may surprise you.
A big thank you and send off for Coach Jessica!
SO, all of this comes with an update that coach Jessica is transitioning out of her role as a Penney Leadership coach and venturing out on her own business endeavor.
My heartfelt appreciation to Jessica for being an incredible collaborator and coach over the past year and a half! She is one of the most compassionate, curious, and kind people I’ve ever met, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for her.
You can follow Jessica's work here and you'll also continue to see her around the Penney Leadership community as we collaborate in new ways—like co-leading a session at the New England Museum Association conference later this year!
