The last 12 months have been a journey of reflection and learning following some poignant lessons on how not to manage my career.  For lack of a better term, my career has gone sideways.  Sideways Trajectory is my voice to share these experiences and my leanings as I empower myself and commit to doing something meaningful.

Why sideways?  It’s difficult to move forward when you’re not sure what the end-goal is, and standing still is the equivalent of professional suicide.  So I’m going sideways to find new opportunities.  When I find something that resonates I’ll move forward on that path. 

I’m not a leadership professional or an expert in any field.  Just a regular person with experiences others might be relate to:

• I’ve worked in start-ups that have failed, and successful companies struggling to maintain their culture and identity through periods of explosive growth.
• I’ve had jobs I’ve loved so much that I’ve jeopardized personal relationships, and jobs that have been mind-numbingly boring.
• I’ve had great managers that have modeled the type of person I want to be, and selfish managers more concerned with climbing the corporate ladder than leading their team to succeed.
• I’ve seen a few things done well and a lot of things done poorly.

My goal is to publish one article each week – to write regularly and to write well.  This will be a journey in itself.  Writing regularly will be challenging and there will be times the creative juices don’t flow.  Writing quality content that people want to read will be a bigger challenge.  I start with writing what I have to say…

Photo: Hanging out at Monte Cecilia Park, taking photos of trees. The two paths leading in different directions resonated with me and the idea behind “sideways trajectory”.