The dream manager is the one who gives you opportunities, even when you aren’t sure you are ready for them. I attended a conference with my manager when one of those “opportunities” arrived.
We sat in a session to hear someone speak on a new technology that we were implementing. We wanted to see how others used the software and learn lessons from them. As we sat there and listened to this speaker who was an “expert” by all accounts, we realized that we knew way more than we thought.
She said to me, “You are going to speak at this conference next year and share our successes with all of these attendees.” Wait…what did she just say? I felt a wave of panic come over me. All the confidence I had felt a few minutes ago quickly turned into doubt. I knew a lot, but would people think I am some expert to listen to in a session?
Little did I know that we would leave that conference and within 6 months be a top success story for our implementation of this software. No other company had done it to the scale and speed that we had done. How did we do it when others couldn’t? In short, we had to be strategic with everything that we did. We leveraged strategic partnerships, built seven different server environments, aligned with clients, other teams in the company and our management, kept the team motivated and pushed the envelope of a highly aggressive timeline. We were the right team at the right time to create this breakthrough, but none of it would have happened if we hadn’t built the strategy and the relationships first.
As I look back now, it was her vision and strategy that made the biggest difference. Neither of us knew all the answers, but we knew how to tap into our strategic partners and relationships to get things done. We didn’t let any obstacles deter us. I learned so much from that experience and it became my roadmap for how to be strategic with future programs that I led. People may not always think about strategy, but it is the foundation that makes all the difference for success.
By the way, her vision for me did indeed come true. I did end up speaking at that conference and three others. People from other companies wanted to know what we had done to make it happen and learn from us. We had come full circle in a very short period of time. I was interviewed by bloggers and reporters at the conferences (you can google me if you want to learn all about SAP master data stuff! )