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Today, in 5 Minutes or Less, you’ll Learn 👏

The newsletter tells the story of Ian, a senior creative leader laid off after his company underwent a significant restructuring, and the steps to rebuild his career.

Ian’s Story

Ian has been a creative leader in tech for 20 years, helping companies scale and mature UX organizations. He’s done many essential and significant things for business, which earned him the respect of his peers, seniors, and especially his teams.

The Painful Impact of Change

A series of financial stumbles, higher interest rates, and an economic downturn contributed to his company's share price falling. The work environment became fear-driven and highly political. Jobs were cut, roles redefined, costs were cut across the company, and priorities remained unclear.

After laying off half his team, Ian worked harder to achieve more with fewer people as he was asked to innovate and leverage new technologies to keep the company competitive.

The dysfunctional workplace dynamics, combined with the extremes of activity and unclear job expectations, imbalanced his work life. He became burned out.

From Passion to Exhaustion

The work he loved most, raising the bar on design quality and establishing a craft-focused, customer-centric design culture, wasn’t relevant to the company. Ian was laid off.

Two months have passed, and he feels weak for not being more productive in finding out what he wants to do next. Signing on to collect unemployment benefits this week was a wake-up call to get over his funk and get a new job. But his tank is empty, and he’s done pushing UX boulders up a hill daily.

Avoiding Fear-Based Decisions

If Ian were to take on a head of design role with a new tech firm while coming from this place of fear and negativity, it would almost certainly lead to disappointment.

Taking a leadership role only to pay the bills will work out poorly. Why? Leaders have values that drive their behavior. If your values are misaligned with those of the company, no amount of technical skill, hard work, or design best practices will prevent you and your function from being victim to marginalization by a business decision that was out of your hands.

The Struggle to Find Direction

Have you ever left the design of your career to recruiters, headhunters, employers, and referring friends? Delegating finding your next job to others is a risk based on hope.

Hope isn’t a strategy!

Ian’s story is mine and many other creative leaders. I knew I would never cross another corporate threshold badged, fingerprinted, and face recognized again the third time a tech company riffed a product design organization I’d helped create and led. My heart broke the last time it happened, and I didn’t know what to do next.

My coach helped me figure this out faster than if I’d tried to go it alone. But first, I had to rest and recover enough to find my spark and reignite my passion.

🤑 How to Apply This

The Importance of Rest as Renewal and Self-Reflection

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Ian’s taking time to recover and restore his equilibrium. He’s planned a few activities to help find his spark again. The book Sacred Rest by Dalton-Smith describes the seven ways to rest.

Which type of rest do you need more of?

1. Physical Rest - To allow your body to recuperate from sleeping and napping.

2. Mental Rest - To give your mind a break from constant cognitive activity by taking breaks from work or practicing mindfulness and meditation. 

3. Sensory Rest - To reduce exposure to sensory stimuli by spending time in a quiet environment, turning off electronic devices, or taking a break from noisy surroundings.

4. Creative Rest - Taking a break from creative and problem-solving activities.

5. Emotional Rest - To alleviate accumulated stress and fatigue by talking to a supportive friend, therapist, or coach. 

6. Social Rest - Taking a break from social interactions and spending time alone, having quiet time, or reducing the frequency of social engagements.

7. Spiritual Rest - To nurture the spirit and soul, including spiritual practices, spending time in nature, or reflecting on personal beliefs and values.

💥 The Short Of It

Like a muddy glass of water, if you let the water settle, the mud will sink to the bottom, and the water will become clear. 

This holiday season, please stop and rest. 🤗 

That’s it for this week!

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With ❤️ from Sally

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