There is so much value to be had in fighting for your spot at the table and finding your voice in a strategic conversation. I had the pleasure of being able to sit at the table with a my department, the COO and the CEO every Friday to talk strategy. I was an idiot for taking it for granted for even a second. I learned so much about personalities, work styles, leadership styles, the reasoning behind decisions whether logical or not, how my leadership makes decisions, how much of their decision making is influence by their own biases. I figured out what it took to get them to say yes to an idea, and saw how easy it was for them to say no to even the greatest idea if it was presented poorly.
Now, I don't even know where the table is. In a larger company, it could takes years - even decades - to find a place at that table. I feel like the teen who got stuck at the kids table for Thanksgiving and will be there forever, pending a larger table or a family members absence - neither of which are in sight.
So what do I do now? Do I kick and scream until they slide to the side to make room for me? If anything, it might just prove my placement at the kids table.
Instead, I plan to take an approach that has been trending lately in resume writing and job-finding (really since 2009, but even more so since Millennials hit the job scene hard in all of our innovative spirits) - I will identify the space that is empty, the gap that needs to be filled and argue that I am the only obvious choice to sit in that spot at the table.
But how?! Well I haven't done it yet, but I'll tell you how I'm going to start:
1) Identify the other members at the table that would and could advocate for my placement there.
2) Gather intel from resources in #1: how are the meetings are run, what's talked about, who's involved, what kind of decisions are being made, do they find the meeting effective, do they come away with action items to be delegated to me.
At this point, I might discover that I have no place at the table and then I need to figure out if it would make sense for learning purposes to be involved in a limited way - for example is the table is really a conference call, I would see if it would be worth it to listen in but maybe not necessarily participate. If even that is not necessary, maybe it's time for me to find a different table.
After all the information is gathered, I can build my case and present it to my advocates. From there, I will ask for their opinions, feedback and see if it's something 1) They can take to the decision maker and advocate for, 2) I need to take to the decision maker, and use them as references if necessary, or 3) It's time to give up the fight.
No matter what happens, when I do finally get a seat at the table, I will know that I earned the right to be there and can speak with confidence.
_____
Update: Executed perfectly on plan. Got some great feedback, felt like my voice was heard and I have some great advocates. Still... time to find a different table.
It's that #EntryLevelLifeStruggle
