Today was one of those days- Not great, not horrible but one of those days I need to be on guard for. One of the toughest things to do in a small business, especially if you are far up the food chain, is transition from one role to something different.
The reasoning is pretty simple, if you were up the ladder, you probably have a good handle on things if you've been there awhile. If you have a good handle on things, people will want you to help or do what you used to. It's just "easier" or "quicker" or any number of other terms for, 'we don't know the in's and outs yet HELP!!!'
Now, i'm all for helping, and I will because everyone wears different hats, but the problem is that if you get into this mode at work and don't remain vigilant, you may never get out.
You might wind up doing your old job and trying to figure out how to fit your new job in when you can. That is not the point of your new job. Most people take a new job because they want a new challenge, or some other reason to move from their comfort zone. If you can't give up your old position because you're nervous, or because people just think it's "easier" for you to just do it you are doing yourself a disservice and your company. If you fit the new job in, you wind up doing it poorly and your old job poorly and it just winds up reflecting on you.
Back to what I had to deal with:
People in my office tried to drag me into my old job today, into the minutia that is no longer something i'm in a position to do or frankly, want to do. I'm not as in touch with the jobs since i've been sick, and a lot can happen in a day, let alone a month with all of these projects. I don't have answers to the questions but people still want my approval, want to use me as the fall guy if what I approve doesn't work.
Today some of the staff taking the responsibility of my old position tried to blame me for orders that didn't get placed; the problem was, they were ordered while I was out recovering and unreachable. I had nothing to do with this part of the process, and because they slipped up, they tried to get me to take responsibility. Leading the witness as they call it in legal circles. I'm not great at being a witness, especially one that's being lead. Thankfully, I was able to deflect and avoid the time suck this time of defending myself and working through the process to expose the flaw and work to correct it. This was a pretty easy instance. While i'm in this transitional period, I expect these to get harder.
When you leave a company, and I know this has happened almost every time someone has left where I work currently, everything seems to be their fault. Lightbulb blows out? Last guy to leave broke it. Got into an accident on the way home? Last guy to leave did something to your car. Forgot to place an order? Last guy had the order and threw it out. The interesting thing about my role, is i'm still there to defend myself. It's sort of funny that people see the role as such a huge change and forget. In a lot of ways it is a radical departure, but i'm still the same guy, with the same knowledge, just doing different things at a different desk. That part of me didn't die. I don't have amnesia.
I'm sure you're asking, how do I overcome this, or what steps do I take to avoid this? My answer is; I don't know and i'm going to figure it out and you're along for the ride.
I've got some pretty smart people in my life and I have some VERY clear ideas and some not so clear on what I want to be doing and how I want to do it. We will see the process through with me throughout and i'm pretty excited about it; good times and bad, so comment, ask questions and give your opinions. I want to know what everyone thinks because I don't have the all the answers, I just want to give my account and my opinions and leave the rest up to you, the readers.
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