Earlier in my career, my mentor used to coach me on my demeanor
and maintaining my composure. a This is something I have struggled to
change both personally and professionally. I used to be a very
reactive person and get angry when something went wrong. a This can
be dangerous when you are in a leadership role. a This type of behavior
held me back from being promoted, it made my employees afraid to
work with me and, at home, it made it difficult for my kids to talk to
me. My mentor taught me how to assess the situation first, figure out
just how bad the situation really was and think of ways to deal with
the situation to come up with a solid solution that didn't involve
getting angry. a It has taken years for me to work on this and I still
struggle at times. In my role now, as an HR director, I have to keep
my cool and help employees with their problems - it's my job. I am so
much better now both professionally and personally with this. I am
more mellow and I think before I speak. I am so glad that I had a
mentor who was able to take the time to help me be better at this. a
He didn't just tell me it was an issue, he also gave me solutions to help
correct the behavior.
