2020 was a very powerful year in that I not only had the space to reflect, process and dream but also be bold and honest with myself on what I wanted for my life and my family in the future.

One thing was emerging very clearly – I was longing to serve in a bigger capacity and engage in work that felt more meaningful than what I was currently doing. As much as I was a very happy camper at Linkedin (more on that below), there were a lot of whispers that there was likely a different path for me in the years ahead.

In the meantime, I was finding deep meaning in my small soul project as a coach and was longing to do more of that, express myself more fully through my writing and speaking, and partner with more people in their journey to find and express their life’s purpose. I was very close to resigning and transitioning to entrepreneurship.

And while there was a lot of fear in the beginning, I was able to build more courage to make the leap. But beyond fear, there was this question that kept coming up – “What if I meant to serve and lead with empathy and compassion and bring my coaching skills as a product marketing leader and perhaps spend another year or two at Linkedin.” And often, this wasn’t the voice of fear. I remember unpacking this with my coach in December and we landed at “surrender” as my next step and trusting that the right answers will emerge when the timing is right, and I didn’t need to do much work on it.

And then my hiring manager at BetterUp reached out and that was a message I didn’t want to delete and I was curious to explore. For context, BetterUp is an enterprise company that offers employees personalized coaching, content, and care designed to transform their lives and careers – in essence, a mission very, very close to my heart.

A few weeks and many interviews later, I got the offer to join the Product Marketing team to lead their strategy for their DIB solution and help scale coaching to bring more inclusion and belonging in the world and I knew I couldn’t say no to that. I started this past week and am truly blown away by the culture, the mission, and the work that is being done. (P.S. – we are hiring so reach out if you are interested!)

And finally, the last leg of this journey, my last 2 weeks at Linkedin were truly magical. I was fortunate to have had a relationship with my manager where I had let her know I was interviewing before I had the offer. Yes, it was awkward in some ways but I also knew leaving her in the dark and giving the standard 2-week notice didn’t feel right so I took the risk and it was well worth it. I cried like crazy after resigning and it took some reflection to understand what my tears meant. It was hard to leave a place where I felt I belonged, where I learned to find my voice as a leader and lead with my values and knew that I was respected and recognized for that. Prior to my current role at Linkedin, work never felt like home and somewhere I always felt I had to either hide parts of myself or change my style (you need to be more aggressive, less sensitive, etc.) to be someone I am not but my last few years at Linkedin were truly different. The love, appreciation, and recognition I received in the last few weeks were truly healing and my tears were stemming from that and I am so hugely grateful to have had such a powerful exit from a company I was honored to have spent 7 years at.

My biggest lesson from this experience is the power of surrender, of owning your dreams, of planting seeds that align with your values, of doing the work (inner and outer), and then trusting that the pathways will emerge…

Pic Credit – Danielle MacInnes