What a week

There are times in life where you just have to look back and wonder at how it all just seemed to work out. This time last year, I was in Gatlinburg, wondering when I would find a new job and if one of the three interviews I had done over the past couple of days would pan out. I was sitting comfortable on a small stash of cash and knew that my part time job would keep me afloat until at least June, but I had no desire to just sit around at home for months on end. I wanted to be out and working.

Now, one year later, things are so different. I’ve had a great year, working my new job, helping people and earning a great deal of respect in a very short period of time… and it all has paid off like I would never have believed.

Wednesday, my boss asked me to go with her into our director’s office. The three of us sat down and the door closed. Ten minutes later, I walked out a manager. Fifty-two weeks to the day after I started the job, I would officially be a member of the management team. Unbelievable. When I left Lexmark less than two years ago, this was what I had hoped to attain, and it was finally coming true.

When I left, I went to improve my skills and to move myself up off the bottom rung of the work chain. Yeah, when it came to employees, I was respected at my previous work places, but i wanted more than what I had; wanted to do more than what I had been given. Now, I have that opportunity.

I start out with two employees, guys who were my coworkers until the official announcement yesterday. They are both good guys and I think things will go well. At least, I foresee no issues caused by the change in our relationships.

There are a lot of things that I would like to accomplish, too:

• Create an analyst roundtable, where all the analysts in our division can come together to gripe, learn and grow in their jobs. A place where we can spend an hour or two, every couple months, learning new skills, brushing up our application knowledge and finding out about new technology that could effect how we do our jobs.
• Mentor my employees. Both guys are very intelligent, but haven’t been given the chance to shine like I know they can do. I want them to get outside of the department more and to become known as people who can help our customers be more effective in their jobs.
• I want to design our next generation point of sale system. There is no reason that we can’t do it, and do it really well. A year and a half from now, I want to see touch screens in dozens of restaurants and our user community in love with the technology.