Sally Reynolds has been an administrative professional for 15 years and has worked for the same company for 10 years. As the ultimate multi-tasker, she has had the chance to experience all aspects of her company - both the internal and external workings. It came as no surprise when her boss approached her about moving into a position that would maximize her knowledge and let her use some of her great skills. However, the position was a completely different role than that of executive assistant - it was inside sales.
Her new position would not be sales 100% of the time. She would still be doing a portion of her existing job - a job that really was going a bit stale because Sally had so well mastered her workload and could get things done in record time. In fact, she was going to not only keep her current salary - which was high because of her years of seniority - as well as get commission on the sales she helped to close in this expanded position.
On the surface, it appeared to be the ideal solution for Sally. She was rather bored with her job. Always looking for other things to do, working on something until every little detail had been refined, etc. She felt she would be excellent at sales because she had tremendous knowledge about the products and services, good relationships with the customers and vendors, and exceptional work interaction with her fellow employees. Yet, there was something stopping Sally from diving in headfirst: how would this affect her future positions?
What would happen if she did not do well in this new position? Would she be able to bow out gracefully, or find herself on the streets looking for a new job? In addition, how would this affect her existing relationships, good or bad?
How would she represent this new position on her resume? Would it affect how potential employers would view her skill set? Might they think she was overqualified to be in an administrative role? On the reverse side, would they think she could/would do far more than a new position required and cheat herself out of some money?
Was Sally ready to start something new? She will, in fact, be a new employee in this role. There will be many new tasks to learn and undertake. No longer will she have the comfort of doing everything on autopilot as she had done for so many years.
Where did Sally's personal life fit around this new position? She had worked long and hard to find balance with her current job and her personal life. Would the potential extra income compensate for the impact this would have on her outside of work?
Sally was stuck as to what to do. She decided to get the advice of a counselor who had her assign a percentage to each area based on how big of a concern it really was. She ranked them as such: 1 = 15%; 2 = 5%; 3 = 40%; 4 = 50%. By doing this, Sally was able to see that the balance between her personal and work life was very, very important to her. Thus, if this job was going to influence that substantially, then the position was probably not for her. While she did like the idea of doing something new, she began to wonder if doing something new might (Cindy, the rest of the sentence confused me however Debbie understood it so maybe we can word it differently for people like me!) lie away from the office. She had talked about teaching scrap booking workshops on the weekends so maybe embarking on an entrepreneurial endeavor would fill that void.
What did Sally do? In the end, she turned down the job for the reasons just mentioned. Her concerns never centered on making more money. They all focused on her quality of life and maximizing her skill set. If you were faced with the same opportunity, what would be your concerns and how would you rank them? Think about it. You just might find some unexpected answers to your opportunities!
Her new position would not be sales 100% of the time. She would still be doing a portion of her existing job - a job that really was going a bit stale because Sally had so well mastered her workload and could get things done in record time. In fact, she was going to not only keep her current salary - which was high because of her years of seniority - as well as get commission on the sales she helped to close in this expanded position.
On the surface, it appeared to be the ideal solution for Sally. She was rather bored with her job. Always looking for other things to do, working on something until every little detail had been refined, etc. She felt she would be excellent at sales because she had tremendous knowledge about the products and services, good relationships with the customers and vendors, and exceptional work interaction with her fellow employees. Yet, there was something stopping Sally from diving in headfirst: how would this affect her future positions?
What would happen if she did not do well in this new position? Would she be able to bow out gracefully, or find herself on the streets looking for a new job? In addition, how would this affect her existing relationships, good or bad?
How would she represent this new position on her resume? Would it affect how potential employers would view her skill set? Might they think she was overqualified to be in an administrative role? On the reverse side, would they think she could/would do far more than a new position required and cheat herself out of some money?
Was Sally ready to start something new? She will, in fact, be a new employee in this role. There will be many new tasks to learn and undertake. No longer will she have the comfort of doing everything on autopilot as she had done for so many years.
Where did Sally's personal life fit around this new position? She had worked long and hard to find balance with her current job and her personal life. Would the potential extra income compensate for the impact this would have on her outside of work?
Sally was stuck as to what to do. She decided to get the advice of a counselor who had her assign a percentage to each area based on how big of a concern it really was. She ranked them as such: 1 = 15%; 2 = 5%; 3 = 40%; 4 = 50%. By doing this, Sally was able to see that the balance between her personal and work life was very, very important to her. Thus, if this job was going to influence that substantially, then the position was probably not for her. While she did like the idea of doing something new, she began to wonder if doing something new might (Cindy, the rest of the sentence confused me however Debbie understood it so maybe we can word it differently for people like me!) lie away from the office. She had talked about teaching scrap booking workshops on the weekends so maybe embarking on an entrepreneurial endeavor would fill that void.
What did Sally do? In the end, she turned down the job for the reasons just mentioned. Her concerns never centered on making more money. They all focused on her quality of life and maximizing her skill set. If you were faced with the same opportunity, what would be your concerns and how would you rank them? Think about it. You just might find some unexpected answers to your opportunities!
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