Next Placements

Hi Guys!

I realise that the next week or so is going to be a very exciting one - I am really looking forward to my next 6 month placement. While I will not go into the details here, I am certainly feeling optimistic about the placement. I, like many of you, will be working more centrally, on more strategic projects.

I really think that this will be a fantastic opportunity for all of us, though I do have a "gut feeling" that we will face slightly different challenges. I thought I would write to give you an idea of what I feel my main challenges will be over the next 6 months.

1. Change of Environment: We are no longer going to be in the branch network. If your placement is anything like mine, there will be some involvement with the branches, but I anticipate much less direct involvement. This will mean that we will have to "keep our finger on the pulse", as such, with the day to day running of the bank, and it can be difficult to do so.

2. Back to Reality: Okay, so I just wanted to include a silly reference to the great comedy Red Dwarf, but there is some relevance to my sub-title. Keeping track of the day to day runnings of the bank will be challenging enough, but we also need to maintain the relevance of our work. On a few occasions I have been handed information or a document by someone and looked at it thinking "okay, this is great, but totally useless to the real world." Another common theme is looking at a something and being left with the feeling that someone went to a lot of tine and effort to do this, but it has bugger all use. I want to make sure that any work that I do does not fall into these categories, but it may be tough.

3. Expect the unexpected: Just wanted to use a cliché this time, though this has nothing to do with leaping into the unknown. As we change our job roles, we will have different expectations place on us - I for one struggled to understand what expectations my manager had on me initially. It can be difficult as we will be meeting many of our colleagues for the first time and it’s hard to know what they expect / want.

4. The Learning Curve: I really get the impression we are going to be under a different kind of pressure. Our 6 month probation is up. We have all (I assume!) proved we are not incompetent idiots. So round one is over. Round two is going to them asking us to show what we can do. I look at probation as being a series of tests to prove to them that you are not something. The next six months is the chance to prove what you are. Though we may not always get recognised for the hard work we do, I am pretty confident it is at least noticed.

5. The fun factor: As many of you know, I chose to move countries and lifestyle to take this job. Aside from the initial stress, caused mainly by incompetent letting agents (I'll not even get started on that*), the job has been a blast. I have had great weekends, hard work, lots of variety and met some really 'interesting' people. I hope it is maintained. However, I've done the easy bit settling in and readjusting to a new lifestyle and the novelty has worn off, so that makes me ask myself, "will I deliver in my new role" and "will my new role deliver for me". It’ll be great finding out.


SO, these are my thoughts. I am really excited, but I am nervous about a few things as you can probably guess. All this talk of 'networking' and 'allowing yourself to become an authentic leader' leaves me cold. I just like to socialise and learn. Anyway, why bother saying "authentic"? If I say "I want to be a leader", the authenticity is implied in the statement! I'm not going to want to be a non authentic leader. This minor rant got me thinking - are there any successfull non authentic leaders? Any Suggestions? I came up with

1. George Bush - obvious choice.
2. Kim Jong-Il - debatable, is he actually too successfull a leader?
3. Inspector Closseau - Was he actually a leader?
4. Charles Manson - Was he a leader? I not that comfortable calling him "successfull".
5.Phillip II Spain - He launched the spanish armada. I only included him as I just read an article on it. I suppose the Armada was a success in that they got ships together and sailed around Ireland. The less said about the epic defeat, the better.

That said, it has been great to get a graduate network, and I hope that whatever happens, it will be an authentic experience and not some vacuous promise, just like the one my letting agent made.

Have a great week guys!
Kindest,

Dante


*bloody letting agent delayed my move in date, then tried to charge ME for the cleaning then didn’t fix the toilet or sing for a WEEK and...... I'll stop there. I am trying to get the week off to a great start.