Tessa White - The Unspoken Truths for Career Success: Navigating Pay, Promotions, and Power at Work

2023 Tessa White

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ISBN 978-1-4002-3601-5 (eBook)

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Epub Edition JANUARY 2023 9781400236015

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To Kevin, my biggest fan from the beginning and the one who said this was not only possible, it was what I was intended to do. To my children: Zac, Jantzen, Hannah, Whitney, Kayla, and Gentry. They never gave me a hard time when I locked myself in my office for weeks and put Mom duty on the back burner for a season. Lastly, to Stephie. She likes to remind me shes the only friend left who could put up with my ridiculous work schedule. Our morning run to McDonalds before the writing day started was the only time we could play together, and her sacrifice must be noted.

CONTENTS

My daughter was the one who convinced me to post on TikTok. She was sure that my career advice was something that would resonate with the millennial generation. As skeptical as I was, I gave her the green light to post a few videos. Then I all but forgot about it. Three days later my son called from California and said, Mom, my girlfriend just called and swears she saw you on TikTok. Is that even possible? I logged in and found that I had ten thousand followers. Two years later, I have over a million followers on my social channels, and I receive more than two hundred messages a day from individuals scattered across the career spectrum. It has blown my mind.

Moving from the corporate side of business to helping individuals navigate their workplace has been one of the most natural transitions of my career. In fact, my husband tells everyone that on our first blind date together, he asked me career advice and immediately dubbed me the Ask Tessa hotline. It must have been good advice because he hasnt let me out of his sight since that night. He has been my most ardent supporter.

I was lucky enough to start my career with Stephen R. Covey at the age of twenty-two. He changed my life in more ways than one. His teachings on life and leadership shaped me and helped me navigate my own murky career waters as a single mother of three young children. If you hear undertones of his work in my book, youll know why. I considered him a mentor and his principles a lifesaver to me.

My last corporate role was at Vivint Solar (now Sunrun), a company made up of about four thousand young millennials. There were only about a dozen of us that were over forty. I loved my time there and it helped me tap into the needs of a younger generation and see firsthand how they absorbed information.

From Vivint Solar, my teaching style evolved and is made up of quick, actionable nuggets. I realized that people didnt need someone sharing grandiose frameworks and philosophies. They were clamoring for learning snacks rather than a full meal, quick answers and scripts to use in common workplace situations. My book reads more like a CliffsNotes version of a career bible.

I cannot promise that after you read this book youll shift from career burnout to job nirvana. After all, if we are growing, our jobs will inherently challenge us. But if you utilize the tools, scripts, and techniques Ive outlined, it will make a meaningful difference to how others at work (and especially your managers) perceive you. In turn, the relationship you have with the workplace will change for the better. You will reclaim some workplace satisfaction and begin stacking victories in your own career corner.

I owe a debt of gratitude to those who lifted me through this process: first and foremost, my husband, Kevin, and our six grown children, who let me lock myself in my office for a year to write this. I also owe Wendy Keller and Jenn Dorsey the equivalent of a firstborn child, for the heavy lift they both gave to the project. Without them, there would be no book. And lastly, my dear friends and colleaguesBryan Christiansen, Jeremy Sabin, Steve Littlefield, and Loki Mulhollandall geniuses in their own right and contributors to the content and ideas.

Ive been promoted. Ive been affected by a reorganization and Ive been fired. Ive gotten the job. Ive not gotten the job. Ive negotiated a great pay package and I have undernegotiated and learned that all of my coworkers were paid more than I was. At different times I have been labeled a top performer and an average performer. Ive been called a micromanager. Ive also been called the best leader I ever had in my career.

Ive taken risks that have paid off and gotten me promoted, and Ive had epic failures. Ive had some of the most wonderful mentors and managers I could have wished forincluding working with Stephen R. Covey in my first career role. And Ive had managers that made workdays feel as if I were walking through mud for ten hours straight.

You and I really arent that different from each other. You have a similar list of ups and downs already building in your career, and many of the difficulties youll encounter will chip away at your overall job satisfaction. They may even cause you to seek a new opportunity, a better job, a better boss, or a better work environment. But no matter where you land, your list of workplace frustrations will be there.

I know Im not the only one who has felt that something has to give.

My own tipping point took my breath away. We knew our daughter was not doing well and that suicide was a possibility. It weighed heavily on us. It wasnt the reason I took a hard look at my work life, but it certainly was a factor. I was balancing the needs of several grown children in distress while working as a senior executive at a fast-paced company that we had just taken public and was still growing at an astounding rate. To say that I was overwhelmed and burned out is an understatement.

The decision I made to temporarily walk away from my job was deliberate but still one of the hardest ones of my career. I remember walking into the CEOs office at the end of the day, having scheduled time to talk when others would not be around.