A New Beginning...

Today, I woke up fully immersed in my new beginning.

After saying my goodbyes to colleagues, hugging them, and promising to stay in touch, I spent some time reflecting on my time at Capital One.

My mind had been preoccupied with how to end my tenure well there for the past few months. I had people to care for and work to carry on. The last item on my to-do list was to reflect on what I've learned from my experience, specifically those things I want to take with me into my next chapter.

Here are the key takeaways from my journey at Capital One:

1. Complain well: It's important to let people know when you don't have what you need to be successful. There's an art to complaining well that conveys two important things: 1) you understand what needs to be done, and 2) you understand what's needed to do it. By learning to complain well, you show others that you're operating at a deficit, which gives them an opportunity to help you get the resources you need. Even if you don't end up with the resources you need, there's at least a record of you overcoming that deficit to still make something happen. It's never beneficial to move mountains in silence because then everyone thinks it just occurred naturally.
2. Specific, public praise: It's important to find ways to give people praise for their work in ways that they can learn from it. When you give praise, pinpoint what that person actually did that deserved praise and the impact of their actions in public. By doing this, you show gratitude for their contributions and also signal to the broader group the standard you are trying to set.
3. Blame vs. ownership: It's easy to accept blame when something goes wrong but not ownership. Blame is being willing to say it is my fault something didn't happen. Ownership is saying it is my responsibility to make sure the thing gets fixed and doesn't happen again moving forward. Ownership is about being active in problem-solving. Blame is about judgment. Great leaders spend all of their time looking for ownership. No one likes the person who only seeks to find blame when something goes awry.
4. The 1/10th Rule: The amount of information you need to make a decision is a tenth of what you need to convince someone else to make a decision. It's harder to get things done in large organizations because there are more people to convince to move in the same direction. It takes more effort to build consensus than to make a decision. Though this is a lesson from a large organization, it still applies to anything you do where you're trying to move someone else to do something different.
5. Have fun: Work is so much more than the tasks to be done. It's who you connect with, the memories you make, and how those things make you feel. The best teams are those that enjoy the journey more than the result.

It was a great time at Capital One, and I'm excited for what's next in my life.