Kari Jones: Yeah, look, I think lots, plenty. And I was thinking, well, what would what would be the one that I would want to share. And I think there’s still ones that you are work I’m working through.
You know that a little bit nearer, but I think the one that I really wanted to share with you today was was really around the opportunity when I was at Air New Zealand, was I got the opportunity to step into the GM, the acting GM role for data and analytics.
And great opportunity. I really thought that I had made it, and I got to do the role for nine months, but ultimately, didn’t get the full time role. And was absolutely gutted. It was absolutely it was really wrenching. You feel like you feel a failure, right?
You feel like I’ve put all of this effort in. How could people not see how much effort I’ve put in? I’ve, you know, I’ve really pushed hard, I’ve driven for results. I’ve, like, got stuff done and but I didn’t ultimately, ultimately get the role.
But and I think for me, I didn’t know what mistake I had made in order to not get that role.
And it wasn’t until my new boss, Lionel Lopez, who actually was successful in getting the GM role, when he came in, he was able to provide me with some feedback and feedback that he had gathered bravely and courageously from other leaders around the organisation, and he was kind enough, not bold enough, kind enough okay to sit me down and give me that feedback.
And that feedback was blunt and it was hard, and it was a bitter pill to swallow, and it was very much around Kari, your colleagues have said that you are aggressive and bruising to deal with, and and I was like, wow, that hurts.
And because I just thought I was getting stuff done, and I just thought that I was really showing the like, the characteristics of what it looks like to be really delivery focused.
But what he, you know, explained to me, and what he shared with me, and the journey that I went on as a leader, as a result of that feedback, was really understanding it’s not just about being so single minded.
It’s about how you go about doing doing your work. It’s about how you bring other people with you. It’s about how you make people feel as they as they’re working alongside you.
And as a result of that, that feedback, I got to do some, you know, a lot of hell, you know, a lot of coaching. I did a the Hogan’s Dark Side assessment, which was just one of the best assessments for me personally.
And it really made me realise that my energy, how I bring myself, with this high level of drive, you know, can be perceived by others really differently, and so I have to really watch and think about how I bring that energy, because when it’s overplayed, it can look very different for different people and so, and I think that’s how that was showing up, as you can be results focused, but you have to go at the pace that the organisation wants to go at, and you can’t be so far out in front of everyone else, it’s just becoming really painful and really frustrating for for me and for the teams that you’re leading or the people that you’re working with.
So really gave me an opportunity to reflect on, you know, bringing the joy back to work actually doesn’t always have to be super serious all the time.
You can, you know, you can, you know, you can have a laugh, you can have fun, and you can still get stuff done. And those two things aren’t, you know, mutually exclusive. They can, they can sit in the same space.
So there was, it was, it was like I said. Lionel Lopez, he wasn’t brave, he was kind.
