Skills Repeat

How often do you take time to be out of your comfort zone at work or home?

Do you ever come out of your comfort zone and try something new? I find this exciting and a bit of an adrenaline rush where I can think of nothing else but this new activity I am required to deliver on; also, I need it to exceed expectations.

I started a new role and was asked by the Director of Sales to plan and host an annual sales event. I have never ever done events planning and neither had I attended this event in the past; but I was a programme manager so I had the skills to organise and schedule.

Another challenge, I had 6 weeks to deliver this including event communication planning to ensure global team members knew, when, where and what they had to prepare, access to other global team members who wanted to access this virtually, organising speakers, icebreakers, fun activities and reiterating the sales department targets to global attendees.

PHEW, I delivered it in 6 weeks with resounding positive feedback. I had so much support and help from colleagues that I had never even met before. The mission was clear and everyone was a part of it. Conclusion: No one had attended such an invigorating Annual Sales event ever before- I can’t take the credit, I only made the Director of Sale’s vision into a reality.

I enjoyed the rush even the last minute presentation packs, working with suppliers, working with customers and inviting them to join us, realising at the last minute that I needed to book bus transport as no one wanted to walk 30minutes to the venue and it all came off well. What a great achievement to put on my CV and to remember.

My children felt part of this event too! The day before when we set up the venue with some of the sales tea; I picked my daughter up from school at 15:00 to help. She met the photography team, sound team, the sales team and had a view into my world that she normally isn’t part of. She loved it and still remembers it.

The following day, I left to pick up the girls at 17:00 knowing the event ended at 18:00: my childcare provision ended at 18:00. It is better than saying I can’t be there after 18:00; it just meant that I finished my task and didn’t have to hand over to anyone else. When I came back, they met some of my colleagues, managers and were handed all of the pink option entry passes for the event as they favoured pink then. I had so many comments that they would never have thought of bringing their children the way I did. Also, proud parental compliments about how polite and engaging my girls are.

Have you ever pushed yourself out of your comfort zone? Have you tried anything new before? Now you have read this, do you think that you will try this more?