The Lion's Pride Volume 9 (January 2018) | Page 24

I didn’t have any practice with writing or composing professional
emails; nor did I have any experience with public speaking. I didn’t have
any experience with communicating with others in job coaching nor
providing feedback without sounding like I was putting that particular
person down. The long list of skills I needed to work on felt
overwhelming. I wanted to succeed but I didn’t realize that in order to
do that I had to learn. I had to study, using trial and error to stretch
myself.
Without realizing it, I started to do those things. I went to my co-
workers and leaders for feedback on my work, and I was thankful they
took time to invest in me. I would write emails and papers for them to
proof-read before hitting send to hundreds of people. They would spend
time with me in rooms as I practiced presentations and lesson plans to
teach training classes. My mentors went through countless resume
reviews, mock interviews, and even mock coaching sessions in order for
me to learn how to give feedback in the correct ways. I started to
understand how to play the game. Their investment in my learning even
let me to mentor others and to be that person who taught them how to
provide feedback or to help with a mock interview. But, after a few
years of all this work, I still found I was lagging behind others in my
progression to move forward in the company. My employer would hire
people who were fresh out of college with absolutely no work