The only constant is change. I’m OK with that
I remember when my sister was born. I exaggerate, I was only one and a half. But I certainly remember the stories the grown-ups told me. One day, I looked my mom directly in the eyes and asked her. “Why did you have another one?” The question certainly surprised my mother, and while I might not have known it then, it completely makes sense to me today.
Change is scary, uncomfortable and inconvenient – for adults as much as for kids.
It’s also true for employers and employees, but more on that in a moment.
Often, as in my toddler experience at the time, we are not the ones who created the change in the first place, making the process of change and its aftermath all the more frustrating. However, change offers us the opportunity to shed that old skin that no longer serves us and grow into a better version of our previous self.
Obviously the toddler version of me did not see it that way, and I’m sure my adolescent and sometimes adult self would agree. But there have been some striking moments of change in my life that have pushed me forward, despite my initial resistance.
As I write this article, I find myself pacing around the University of Minnesota campus. I’m here for my daughter’s annual bone marrow transplant and Alpha-Mannosidosis research visit. Just over a year ago, she received her bone marrow transplant, the treatment for her rare disease that enables her the opportunity to live the most normal version of life.
No parent wishes for a sick kid. That was certainly my case. And while I obviously rose to the occasion and jumped into action as soon as we figured out what her diagnosis was, I must admit that I was resistant to this change. When I was pregnant and envisioned my future life, I naively thought it would be exactly the same, just with one other little human in tow.
Boy was I wrong! From birth, she had to see many specialists and therapists to tackle a number of health concerns. I found taking her to all the appointments frustrating and confusing. Did my child really need all this attention? This couldn’t possibly be happening to me. And if I am my most honest self, I did not want to accept that there was anything wrong with my child, and, in some ways, turned a blind eye to what was happening.
Those who know me know that I am a go-go-go type of person. I never say I’m too busy, I never say I have too much going on. Start a company? Sure! Sacrifice my hobby of dancing to achieve those dreams? Never! If there’s a little room on my plate, I will surely find space. However, this change struck me like an avalanche in a Looney Tunes cartoon. All of a sudden, my time and mind were not my own, my worries were hyper-focused on my little human and everything else melted into the background. Did I mentally fight this transition? Absolutely. But once I finally accepted what was happening, and started to reassess what was important in life, I discovered a greater and deeper joy that comes from family and a deeper appreciation of health and those who care for you.
Accepting change has helped me deal with my daughter’s disease in a much more positive light, and I believe that positivity will help my daughter live as normal a life as possible. That is quite a different place then where we were at the start of this health journey.
Similarly, this mentality has seeped into my professional life. We have all seen a lot of change these past number of years. The COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical strife, presidential elections with immense turmoil, and more. We went from being in person to remote, and the onset of the digital world has shortened our attention span and made us look at the world in a disposable way, all shifting how we create products, sell products, hire and staff and plan for our future. This global change caused many companies to close their doors as the shift was too much. Other companies rose from the disruption, embraced the change, and innovated to meet their consumers and staff where they were.
In the same way I had to accept my new baby sister, and later, my daughter’s sickness, and embrace the new lifestyle we now needed to live, I have similarly had to accept the necessary changes I needed to make to move forward in my business. I have implemented strategies that I would never have dreamed of over the last number of years, from hybrid work to fully remote, creative benefits and packages to creative editorial and reporting throughout our digital platform. I have had to embrace these changes for the benefit of my business and, especially, my employees, and to make our metro areas and the leaders we cover more accessible and more interesting to a shifting digital media consumer.
This change, while difficult at first, has made us a much more cohesive and compassionate team. What has been especially important is how I look at and value relationships as a result of accepting the changes in my life and business over the past year. At Capital Analytics, we say that great words come from great minds. That includes my team. I believe that our great work is done by the great team members we have on staff. We have never looked at our team members like a commodity, and today, they are even more 360° human beings that help toward our goals every day. Understanding each person and their goals and ambitions has never been so important for me to get right.
My team, too, has embraced change. They understand that we need to change our approaches, and how we conduct business, so that we can move forward together, especially when things get painful, whether it be the economy or simple conversations. Keeping an open mind has never been so important. It has helped me be a better leader, and I hope that, in turn, has helped my team.
More than ever before, my experience over the past year has opened my eyes and my ears. I now understand that change is certain. The only way to prepare is to accept it’s coming, then embrace it with everything you have, in every part of your life, whether it’s a new baby sister, a rare disease, or a company’s evolution.
You might not be able to dictate the outcome, but how you deal with change will certainly dictate your odds of success.
