Business Acumen

I've been thinking a lot about my first year at my previous job a lot lately.

Because one of the things that kept popping up out of probably one of the smartest guys I've ever worked with was his drive to constantly build his business acumen.

Sure, I understood what the words meant, but admittedly 5 and a half years later I still don't feel that I've gotten to that same point that he was at. To me it was like he was chasing something that couldn't be caught.

Within a year he was moving on to something better - and I missed him as a coworker, but I knew he couldn't stay in such an easy position. He was bored and unhappy. I was bored and loved getting paid for doing barely anything. I got in to a routine and I left "well enough" alone.

I worked with people I never felt really challenge me. Rarely did I ever learn on the job, and although it was fun and easy going most of the time - I'm starting to now realize what I was missing out on.

In my new position, every day I am impressed.

People that surround me get things almost immediately. They communicate effectively and concisely.

There is no time to waste. There are deadlines to meet, stress levels are high, and every day feels like a battle.

Every day in my last job felt like a retirement home in comparison. Waking up, reading the newspaper, checking what's on the menu for lunch and dinner tonight. Maybe watch a couple of old movies on Turner Classic and then get in my prime time law and order. Yes. That is what it will be like to be old.

The problem is that I've been stuck in a position for so long dealing with people who (sadly) I believe are at or below my level that I've got a lot of catching up to do. Not only do I have to learn the language (the company has their own online acronym dictionary), I have to take up a critical role within this company down here - after never being with the company before, this being midway through my 5th week with them.

The learning curve has been steep. And I've said to everyone I've shaken hands with, "I'm here to help out. I'm a sponge and I'm going to soak up as much as possible as quickly as possible."

Because no one wants to take time out to train the "new guy" and get him up to speed. In my last job we had books on how to learn the job we did. There was nothing for me. It was, "Get in, get your hands dirty and learn as you go." I've heard that's how training has been for everyone - but in this type of environment I'm not so sure.

So today, one of the things I was impressed by was the level of communication. And sure, it was just employees talking to one another - but it reminded me of my 8th grade English teacher, Mr. Schultz. Who talked to us using what I like to refer to as "big words". And how using more descriptive/precise words would help us out in the future someday. Unfortunately for me that someday is yesterday and to this point I haven't implemented any of the vocabulary I've learned over the past 27 years.

So my face turns bright red when I'm sitting in the middle of a meeting table, my senior manager in front of me and the room being filled with all of her direct reports - the 4 top managers at the factory. She poses a question directly to me, which I had an answer for. But...it sounded stupid. That's the only way I can put it. I gave her part of the right answer (where another manager picked up from) but in comparison to everyone else that was speaking at the meeting I sounded like a 5th grader in a college lit class. I'm sure no one else other than me took it that way (they were all buried in their blackberrys anyway) but still, there's no reason I should feel that way.

As an example (and maybe this is standard at your office, but at my previous one it was not) here are some vocabulary words I heard in the meeting today:

-Indignant
-Prescient
-Galvanize
-Tertiary
-Inflammatory
-Languid
-Reticent

I don't know if any of you use these words in your daily dialogue, but I sure don't. So maybe that's one part of this "acumen" thing I've always wondered about.

One might say it's piqued my curiosity on the subject. Or at least I can hope to avoid feeling "stupid" in front of people in the future.