The past three weeks have felt like three years.

It is one of those times, when the days go fast but the weeks go slow. So much is happening, by the time you realize where you are the day is done. However, because you are experiencing so much in quick succession, when you reflect a few weeks feel like an eternity away.

What have I been doing?

Well, I quit my job of three months, squeezed in one week’s vacation to visit family, relocated temporarily to another state for my new job, and been tossed in the deep end for the past two weeks problem solving ahead of a product launch.

It is a positive experience and already feel I achieved more in two weeks than in my past job. As a result, I am more integrated and feeling positive about making suggestions and trying new things.

Energy creates energy

On reflection, this is my biggest learning over the past few weeks. I wrote previously about the importance of momentum and how difficult it is to build. How wonderful it is while you have it. But it is fragile and there are numerous obstacles that can knock you out of your stride.

How do you make momentum more robust?

The simple answer is to be part of a team. And it is this belonging what I have felt over the past two weeks. It allows problems to be shared, solutions to be discussed and resolutions to be worked towards collectively, best utilizing everyone’s skills.

This creates a positive energy cycle that is difficult to break.

However, what I have described is only one type of team dynamic. One where the ambitions of the company are equally matched by its openness, fostering healthy relationships amongst individuals.

There are other companies where ambitions are just as high, but openness amongst individuals is low with controlled communication channels and delegation of responsibilities.

This results in problems not being shared and so there is a high degree of personal pressure with no outlet for the weight of expectation.

Openness is embedded within the company culture. But what about ambition? This comes from the leadership, setting clear goals that cascades through management to the individual.

Direction is key

I am uncomfortable without a target to aim for. I like the challenge of working out how to hit key goals and solving the problems that crop up along the way. But when there is no target, this is where I get lost.

Reflecting further, I stayed three years in a closed but ambitious organization, but only three months in a company that was open but was suffering from a lack of direction, particularly in the department I was in.

At high level, the leadership knew it had to transition from R&D mode, trying, failing, and falling forward until it had found a product of real value. To falling in line behind that product it had created and mass producing it for the world.

However, this new direction failed to cascade through the management culture, and so there were leaders who handled every issue like it was an R&D project with no sense of urgency. Then there were leaders that were bought in that wanted to put in systems to standardize processes that had not been figured out yet.

This opportunity I did not take

An opportunity for me to be bold and focus on the bigger issues. Rather, than be narrowly focused on less important problems. I didn’t choose ‘bigger prey’ to go after.

It was a company in transition, and I did not recognize that.

Maybe I leapt too early?

I did not take the time to reflect on what was happening. I jumped from thinking it was taking me time to integrate to saying to myself ‘this is not working’.

I was right in saying it was not working, but I did not talk through what was not working. This is what is being part a team is meant to be about and I future I need to share more, without being so consequent.

I need to improve my communication style

I prefer not to talk until I have a clear concept in my head. Therefore, I am resolving to talk with my peers and leaders when I start to have concerns. It is part of my responsibility to being part of an open organization.

I should not be afraid that maybe I won’t make sense, or I come across as negative. It is leaning on key people to bring things that maybe underlying into the foreground. From this, new ideas will be devised, or change enacted that will benefit the organization.

Don’t act in isolation

Do not cut yourself off from the organization. It becomes a balancing act between communicating to work out you are working on the most important tasks. To action to deliver those goals that are key to the company.

And this is perhaps one of the largest differences in working in a fledgling organization, to a more established one. What you are meant to be doing is not clear, and this is part of the excitement and fear that you will experience.

So maybe the startup I was in, was too startup. A new industry, a new organization, a new technology, new people, a key transition. There was nothing for me to latch onto. It is a valuable lesson to learn, one which has taken a lot of time to process through.

So when you experience those internal niggles, take time to reflect, to talk and maybe something good will come from it, rather than let it balloon into a make or break situation. . . .