The first writing that I ever shared on the internet was in January of 2002, and it began with this same "Raising My Voice" title. It was the welcome page of a site I had created to share my poems, sketches, short stories, and what I called "scribbles", my incomplete ideas. One of those scribbles was:
Self Expression
We are all artists. We spend our lives searching for the medium that best allows us to express our thoughts and our dreams – a medium without boundaries. The lucky souls among us discover their medium.
Writing certainly feels pretty limitless with me. So now I'm returning to my writing, after some time off to reflect and reset.
Leave a Paper Trail
At Microsoft, I had always been a fan of writing things down, encouraging people to leave a more complete paper trail of their thought process. For the teams I managed, I would create a team digital notebook (in OneNote) and encourage everyone to contribute to it. This team notebook would typically include a "scratch" section, where each team member managed their own personal pages where they could write anything they wanted, from tips on the day-to-day work to higher level observations. My scratch space continued to grow as I captured more and more nuggets of wisdom I had picked up along the way.
Teams come and go, and reorganizations would have us regularly rebuilding our team communication channels. So after repeatedly moving my scratch space from notebook to notebook, and after members of my previous teams were asking for continued access to my moved scratch space, I realized it was time for me to "Transcend the Org". So I created an internal blog across Microsoft and began to more formally capture and share my learnings there. Two posts a week for four years (thanks "Atomic Habits" James Clear for that habit!).
Just as teams come and go, so do employees. I had many colleagues over the years that, as they were departing Microsoft, asked me when my blog was going to be public. I always brushed off that request, saying that I enjoyed speaking in the context of Microsoft. Certainly, there was comfort in that. And there was also convenience in that, knowing that I could openly discuss and link to resources confidential to Microsoft.
Transcend the Company
My final week at Microsoft featured an "Ask Jeff Anything" session, my last presentation to the company I had grown up with over 33 years. I gave a brief intro and then opened it up for questions. One of the attendees asked, "why did you choose to make your blog internal to the company?" At that time, I gave that same comfort and convenience response that I detailed above. But a couple of weeks later, that question popped back into my head. And I realized that my standard answer no longer applied.
Of my many Microsoft mantras, "Transcend the Org" is both tried and true. I first uttered it over 20 years ago. "Transcend the Org" was my response to situations where individuals (or entire teams) were being too myopic in their thinking. It is very easy to approach your work thinking about the goals and scope of your own team. And you can be successful doing that. But with an upleveling of your perspective, you can be way more than just successful; you can be transformational. I was on a mission to raise people's awareness of this opportunity, and thus "Transcend the Org" became an oft-uttered phrase for me.
At the close of my "Ask Jeff Anything" session, I brought up a single slide to give everyone an update on one this mantra. The slide showed "Transcend the Org" on it. When I clicked to advance, an animation played that crossed out "Transcend the Org" and revealed my new mantra: "Transcend the Company". I no longer have a voice at Microsoft. But that doesn't mean silence. It means that it's time to find a new venue. It's time to raise my voice. It's time to uplevel the conversation.
Reboot My Blog
After a year of reflection and exploration, I have landed on Professional Coaching as my second career. And given the key role that my blog played in my coaching at Microsoft, it feels natural to resurrect the blog as the "at scale" component of my coaching. So, welcome to Uplevel Pro, where I will be sharing my new insights as well as upleveling my Microsoft writings to the global audience.
Let's do this!
I *LOVE* this! you are now unleashed into the wild - excited to see the impact and community you'll build.