I’VE BEEN DOWNSIZED: CHAPTER 1

What’s your brand?

After being caught in a corporate downsizing last week, I struggled to stop my head from spinning, get my feet back under me, and pull together a resume.  I spent hours, then days, staring at a computer screen, typing, then revising, then scrapping the resume all together.  It was complete frustration.  How could it be that I had spent 10 years leading large, complex projects; managing global, cross-functional change management initiatives; and crafting successful marketing and communication strategies, yet could not create a powerful resume for the person and brand I should know best.  And then it occurred to me.  Get back to what you know.

As an accomplished problem solver, I know there is not a single, magic formula for solving complex business problems.  However, there is one thing I would never do when presented with a challenge, and that is the very thing I did last week.  I sat down expecting to solve a problem and sell a brand without a full understanding of the brand I was trying to sell.  I had to get back to what I know.

Step one:  Soak time

One thing I learned is that nothing can prepare you for how it will feel to lose a job as part of a corporate downsizing.  You may think you have prepared yourself for what may come. You may be a strong person.  But regardless of what you think you know, it will be shocking, gut wrenching, and make you question everything you know about yourself.  So, give yourself time to soak.  Process your emotions.  Consider your options.  Let your friends and family tell you how wonderful you are.  And, hold off on that resume work.

Step two:  The epiphany

On day four, it became so clear.  The emotions of the previous week had been too strong for me to think like myself.  I asked myself what I would do if a client approached me with a complex problem to solve.  I knew that I would not try to work in a pile of papers, mess and confusion.  So, I went to work setting up a proper home office, complete with pictures of my children and reminders of all I have accomplished.  Finally beginning to feel like my logical self, I set up a project board using our large, glass patio door and a set of colorful window crayons (courtesy of our eight-year-old).  This project board is much cooler than the white board I had in my corporate cubical. 

Computer- check!  Pens- check!  Stapler- check!  Printer- check!  Pictures and degrees to remind myself I’m valued- check!  Project board- check!  Time to press on.

Step three:  The project plan

If there is one thing I learned in graduate school, it’s that you cannot solve a problem until you know exactly what it is.  So, a problem statement was born:  “I do not have a job”.  It was simplistic, yes, but powerful none the less.  With a problem statement in front of me, the emotion was stripped away and I began to think like an experienced project leader.  How many times have I told a new project leader the hardest part of leading a project is getting started?  You eat the elephant one bite at a time.  Break your project down into phases with measurable milestones and goals, which can further be divided into tasks.  This project was no different.  My project objective?  To find an even better job.  A new career!  One that I could really get passionate about.  Things were looking up!

So, what’s your brand?

Of course, a key milestone of my project plan was to create a compelling resume.  One that would strongly reflect the value I would bring to my next employer.  I still didn’t know why it had been so difficult to create a resume that reflected a decade of experience and accomplishments.  So many co-workers and managers had reached out to me to express their dismay, confusion and sadness at my departure.  They told me what a tremendous asset I had been, how it would be difficult to move forward without me.  And then it occurred to me that I should ask them why.  To ask them which words came to mind when they considered what the Kristina Marsh® brand is. 

And this is the start of the next chapter in my journey.  Using brand drivers that have been crafted and validated not by myself, but by the people who have worked with me, for me, and as supervisors over the past 14 years.  Kristina Marsh® is professional, insightful, creative, intuitive, accomplished, capable, strategic, results-oriented, driven, a leader, a problem-solver, a communicator, a mentor, a change-management leader, and a marketing process expert.

Stay tuned for chapter two of my journey.  I have a feeling it’s going to be good!

Kristina Marsh is an experienced and accomplished marketing, communications, and business process specialist.  Want to connect?  You can reach me at klmarsh74@gmail.com.