Bryan Power
speaker
121 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Bryan Power’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
But always trying to keep that path, I think is probably the consistent theme that's shaped me.
Well, I think it's become more clear. You know, my first job out of college was a recruiter. My standards then were like, I just want to be in a role where I'm talking to people and there's a lot of energy. I don't want a job where I'm thinking by myself. But like, it wasn't much more complicated than that when I was 22.
I think as I got older, you know, and more experienced, I realized I really experienced success as a we, not an I. So my motor comes from groups that I'm associated with, whether that's team or company or my hometown or sports teams that I root for. That's when my meter really ticks up. If it's about me getting an accolade or a better grade in class, I've just noticed it's not the same gear.
And so that has led me more to roles where I'm able to impact the people around me so I can personally feel that success because it's like when we do something together. And so the people function is really an enabler of that. We accelerate organizational success versus do something ourselves the way a sales org would or a product manager would create and ship a product.
And so I've found that that desire to work together with others and be a team player on a great team, that's what's reinforced this idea of the people working in that part of the business.
Yeah, I think they're two different things. Number one, getting into a specific type of company or another team in a company you work at, I think people underestimate just persistence, like real persistence. Taking a year to try to get into a company versus sending three emails. I found that the professional endurance to overcome some of these things, I'm particularly thinking about recruiting.
Like when you recruit someone really good, It could take a year, but people tend to have a much shorter timeframe for when they expect success or move on to the next thing. So if you want to work at a really great company and you know the company it is, be mentally prepared for it taking a long time and then find your connection points. You know, I think another really important concept.
This was kind of emerged in the fifties is the idea of weak ties, which you hear more about. It was actually a study on how people found jobs. What they discovered was in this famous study, it's the people you kind of know that are your way in. It's not the people you really know or don't know. It's your roommate's friend that you've met three times.
They work at this company and they're happy to pass it along. So you have some level of social capital, but they're not like your tight And so activating that part of your network is really important. It takes a lot of hard work to get someone who kind of knows you to do something for you. But that's for sure where the connection points are.
So your second question was about moving up into leadership. I think the more experience you get, people can get trapped into what's next versus understanding how they get things done is going to have to change as you move up in the organization. you really have to learn how to do things fundamentally differently.
When you go from being someone who in their day job does a certain thing to getting worked on through other people, which is what being a manager is, you have to completely reframe how you think about solving problems. And then again, when you now are a leader who is managing people who lead teams, you have to go through a whole other loop. Like you're not managing the team anymore.
So the process of unlearning and then learning new things, you want to have time to really reflect on how you're doing things versus just how do I get promoted or what's the next thing I want to be a part of.
I think when people become that like manager where they need to delegate for the first time, It's very rare they get it right the first go. But they usually do one of two things. They either keep managing too much so they continue to do what they used to do. And that stands out right away because most people don't want to be micromanaged and it stands out like get away from me.
But what equally happens is people don't manage. They just give so much space that the team is no longer really moving at the same pace or level of quality that... It should, you know, and I think people oftentimes trip themselves up there because they don't want to be a micromanager.
And so they overcorrect to like leaving everyone alone, avoiding difficult conversations, not giving people the information they need to get to the next level because they want to be liked and not be seen as adding pressure.
And so I think you go one of these two ways and then you find your way back to what's the right balance of providing clear direction, training someone to do the right way, giving them feedback when they're not doing it the way that they should, as well as giving people the space and autonomy to grow in their role.
Like ultimately, good managers find that that equilibrium and know how to go both ways. I think when people first start, they kind of know how to do one. Except in the rare case, it's very rare people can do both really well. And so just being self-aware of yourself, like where are you going to end up? Are you going to be too accommodating? Or are you going to be too assertive?
You probably have a point of view on yourself when you're making that transition. And it's to really practice the one that's a little less natural to you and make sure you're building up both of those capabilities.
I think I won't pick the boss because the boss is going to play a role no matter what. You're going to get feedback. But how do you think through this problem? What's helped me is identifying people early on that you're coming up with the organization with. They're kind of like your work friends. You see things the same way. You can finish each other's sentences.
That can give you a great space just to work through what you're going through. But then I've also found finding someone who is successful in a very different way from you This is the person, it can be somewhat of a symbiotic relationship. You can kind of contrast your strengths and their strengths.
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