Earlier in my career, my mentor used to coach me on my demeanor
and maintaining my composure. 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. b This can
be dangerous when you are in a leadership role. b 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. 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.
He didn't just tell me it was an issue, he also gave me solutions to
help correct the behavior.
