The Job I Didn’t Want
Three years ago, I was offered a role I was thrilled about. Mostly.
Half the work mirrored what I'd been doing and loved. The other half was an assignment. A part of the business with a complicated history. Negative perception baked in. The kind of work most people would quietly hope to avoid.
The first months were humbling. I sat with teams who had every reason to be skeptical. And they were. Skeptical of the intent, the direction we were heading, and undoubtedly of me. When I started presenting, I would watch my audience closely. I'd look for the moments when their eyes opened in even fleeting interest. I wanted to know what they valued. What mattered to them that maybe hadn't been asked.
The turnaround didn't happen in a meeting. It happened in dozens of interactions, through the gift of building a team, where we learned to show up, listen, and iterate over and over again in hopes of serving the people closest to the work.
Slowly, things shifted. Numbers started moving in 2024. We hit our targets. We actually exceeded them. And we did it again last year. This year, we're up 27%. In March, I stood in Miami with executive leadership as our team accepted an award for the transformation.
It's far from perfect. The resistance hasn't fully disappeared. Change rarely lets you off that easily. But the trajectory is real, and the lesson is bigger than any single metric:
The part of the job you didn't ask for may be the one that teaches you the most.
If you're heading back after this long weekend into something that carries a little dread, you're not alone. I’ve spent collective years doing the hard thing I used to wish wasn't mine. Those years didn't always feel purposeful. But I wouldn't be ready for what's next without it.