Finding the Angle on a Difficult Situation

I have been in my job for less than three months. About a month after I started, my work group, which consists only a few people, received responsibility for the external market research report management and dissemination function in our company. It makes sense that we should be doing this, so that in itself is not a problem, and in fact may be a good thing for the continued life of my group in these times of downsizing.

This additional responsibility has strapped the management of my group, resulting in little attention being paid to the new employee, me. While this does not make me happy, I see an opportunity on which to keep focused on if I want to stay positive and forward-thinking beyond the boundaries of my current job.

So, I haven’t received much training, haven’t been included in important conversations (through no fault of my own, I truly believe) and at times have no idea even what questions to ask. I take a moment and project myself interviewing for my next job. The question is asked of me “Describe a difficult situation you have experienced and the steps you took to handle and resolve it.” I take a deep breath and remember this situation I’m in now.

My answer: “Soon after I started my job, my work group took on an added responsibility that initially didn’t involve me. The learning curve was steep and much work needed to be done to determine how to handle this new function. There was no time or resources for my training. At first it seemed like it would be a matter of a short time until time and resources would become available. Soon though I saw that more proactivity would be required on my part, not only for my own good, but for the group’s and by extension the company’s good too. I began asking more questions, which led to even more questions, the answers leading to answers that were much needed. I documented what I learned. I became a valuable member of the team much sooner than anyone realized or would have anticipated. My manager and coworkers stopped viewing me as just the new person and more as a valued team member. That would have happened anyway, if I had received training and had the normal introduction to my job. But this situation gave me opportunities to learn about my job, coworkers, and myself in ways that provided me with added problem-solving skills and confidence in myself. I found that diving into the unknown can be stimulating, exciting and fun. And my respect for my coworkers grew, which helped me to trust them and in turn for them to trust me.”

Perhaps a long-winded answer, but that’s what I keep my focus on now in this challenging and uncertain time. Look past the difficulty. As Stephen Covey advises, begin with the end in mind.