Becoming the Go-To Person

I got a call a week or so ago from someone at my company’s legal department about how hard it would be to get a compliance-related change onto our site. Though I’ve never spoken to them before, they were given my name as someone who could help. My boss once told me that being the person people go to to get things done is a good indicator that you have respect, trust, and a reputation for reliability - good traits for a middle manager.

I don’t get a lot of opportunities like this, and I didn’t want to mess it up.

I immediately notified every team that would be impacted, asked people smarter than me the best way it should be done, communicated the change, and now we’re crossing our fingers it’s going to work.

This is one of those things I can bring up in performance reviews to say “here’s a thing that popped up suddenly and I took care of it.”

It’s making me feel a bit more confident and helping my self esteem. Here are some other ways it’s helping me.

Expanding My Network

I hadn’t worked with the person who reached out to me, but now I’ve had several calls with them, and they see me as helping them, so I’ve got another person in my network. This person is in executive leadership, and I don’t have a lot of people at that level in my network, so the addition is significant.

Learning Where My Gaps Are

There are things my team does for which I didn’t know the details, and now that ignorance is on full display. I’ve admitted what I don’t know, and am using this experience to get a better understanding of our processes. I’m always surprised when someone doesn’t say, “Hey, don’t you know how this works? How did you make it this far and not know these things - isn’t this your job?”

Creating a Positive Team Culture

Assuming this goes well, I will give recognition to the other individuals involved. I’ve learned that recognizing the work of others makes the daily job a better place for all involved. I’m glad I’ll get a chance to do this.

My little assignment is not yet complete, and I’m seeing ways it could’ve gone better. But it’s going well, and I hope to report back a successful finish. Doing so will further solidify the reputation I have as someone others can depend on to get things done.