Ascent AeroSystems’ Post

Put your superpower to work AT WORK!💼💪🏻   Are you stuck in a job where you're just going through the motions, lacking inspiration and only doing what's in your job description? ☹️   Well, it's time to break free and discover your superpower! You know, that special skill or ability that may not necessarily align with your defined role, but can that give you a competitive edge and bring more excitement to your work life. Let's dive into the steps you need to take to find your superpower and rock🤘🏻your work life:   1️⃣ Dig Deep: Take a moment for some soul-searching. Think about what truly lights you up inside. What activities or tasks bring you joy and fulfillment? These little hints will lead you straight to your unique superpower. 
2️⃣ Seek Insights: Don't be shy! Have open conversations with your colleagues and mentors. Ask for their honest opinions about your strengths and areas where you excel. Sometimes, others see our talents better than we do ourselves.   3️⃣ Share Your Brilliance: Share your insights and skills with your colleagues and boss. Be a guiding light, offering support and actively participating in collaborative projects where your unique talents can shine.   4️⃣ Team Up: Break down those departmental barriers! Look for opportunities to collaborate with colleagues from different teams or departments. Your superpower can complement their skills, leading to strong solutions and a deeper sense of teamwork. 
5️⃣ Be the Change Agent: Use your superpower to challenge the status quo and drive positive change within our organization. Your fresh perspective and can inspire others to think outside the box and embrace new approaches.   Remember, each and every one of us has an incredible superpower just waiting to be discovered. Embrace it, own it, and let it shine! Are you wondering what’s YOUR superpower? I can help, let’s chat. Ciao for now, Luca

🤩 You gotta have fun! I know this is a “professional” platform, and you’re not only representing your own brand but also the company that signs your checks and the people who work for that company. ✅ However, you’re more productive when you’re having fun. You're better to be around, and people want to work with those who bring positivity and energy to their roles. 👨⚕️ In today’s fast-paced world, it's crucial to find ways to have fun and be fun, even if you’re doing something as serious as... 😉 Remember , if your team is happy, you'll see results. So, let’s make our workplaces not just efficient but enjoyable! P.S. Don't let peoples 💩 👖 responses, attitudes, or I'm better get to you! Keep doing you, you'll find your people!

**I want to hear from you.  What was the most fun you ever had at work?** Fun is one of my top 5 life values - so this is truly important to me.  I have talked to hundreds of career changers and leaders - very rarely does the topic of fun at work come up as a priority.  It’s like everyone has decided work and fun cannot coexist.  But, I believe they can.  So humor me with your stories of jobs or work projects that were fun for you.  Leave out the drunken debauchery and share the stories about the super fun personalities, creative ways a hard task was made more playful, silly work rituals, or fun getting-to-know-you activities. Extra credit if you tag one of those coworkers in this post, so they can feel appreciated for being a part of bringing fun to work!

Here we are. Kicking off another week. My team has a challenging, yet exciting week ahead. We are taking on something in house that has historically been outsourced and we are ready for this! My goal is to make it as successful as I can by doing a few simple things: 1. Provide feedback respectfully Creative work takes vision, passion, drive, and skill. It's easy to criticize. It’s hard to create. Provide thoughtful feedback, free of subjectivity. 2. Leave the ego at home We’re all here to make each other better, our work stronger and our customers happy. 3. Provide safety and trust Don’t let personal agenda, ego and competitiveness get in the way of working together toward shared goals. Time to get to it! Let’s lift each other up and create amazing things!

What gets your juices going?  What’s the spark? I recently joined a work reunion with some colleagues from way back. The conversation meandered around.  “What was your big moment? ... the conversation when everything changed ... or the day you realised that ...  what do you believe is your biggest achievement?” Almost inevitably  it got me thinking about what set me off down the career and life path that I have enjoyed.   It made me think of the work content and activities I liked, and stuff I disliked.  It caused me to reflect on the decisions made when I went one way rather than another. However, what springs to mind more than anything else is the positive energy of being part of a competent, passionate team who are motivated, committed  and determined to achieve ... whatever the challenges are.  That’s work, and play, at its best for me.  Being part of an A-team on its game. Whether it was getting an acquisition across the line, a major change programme delivered, setting up a state of the art distribution facility for success, launching a new retail concept, discovering new ways that delivered more with less, ... or getting up a snowy mountain. It’s the team that made the work exciting, worth doing, as well as making it happen. There was always a team that helped get it done. Behind every great personal achievement is a team that put you there. That’s why I do the work I do to help people, and their businesses, achieve more.

I rarely post anything here, mainly because I work with internal processes. This year I have been part of creating a new editorial development department and have learnt a lot. Here are some of my take aways from 2023: ✍ As team lead, (you have to) do the boring stuff. Protect your team at all costs. The documentation, administration, being the messenger. Hate to say it but we are the middle (wo)men. It's our job to keep the team in a safe space where magic can happen. ⚔ Cross-functional in its true sense is where the real magic happens. When you experience it, you just know! Organizations need to organize this to make it become more than just a buzz word. ⛓ Working with development means you have to keep several groups of users in mind. Duh! Of course the users of the output reigns supreme! But if you focus solely on them - and ignore the group that makes the input - you're not releasing the whole potential. This is hard work! But fundamental for sustainable change. Ok, it's gets a bit watered down when you try to keep it generic. But truly this has been a satisfying professional year. Thankful for all the great people I had the pleasure to work with, and learn from. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 🎄

Never downplay even your smallest of accomplishments. You learned a program on the job that you have never used before to cut down the amount of hours it takes to maintain a specific process. You will undermine this task as "it's part of the job". But honestly, you created a more efficient process that no one before you in your position had the foresight to implement. Give yourself a break, and celebrate this as much as you can. Because ultimately, all that matters is what you get out of a job.

Let's have some fun today! I'll start... 🤔 What was your first job like? I'm super curious to hear your stories. What did you learn from it? What parts did you absolutely love, and what bits... not so much? One of the coolest things about our first jobs is the chance they give us to learn—not just about the work but about ourselves and how to work with others. Every job, no matter how small it seems, helps us grow. We learn new skills, sure, but we also learn how to solve problems, help our teammates, and make our customers or clients happy. And you know what's really awesome? The friendships we make. 🤝 Getting to know our coworkers isn't just fun—it's also a great way to learn from each other and grow our knowledge. Every person you meet knows something you don't, so imagine how much you can learn just by listening and asking questions! Remember, every job is a step on the ladder of your life. Even if it seems simple or challenging now, it's building you up for the future. You're learning, growing, and becoming stronger with every task you tackle and every new friend you make at work. So, let's share and celebrate our first job experiences! They're more than just memories; they're the building blocks of who we are becoming. Can't wait to hear your stories! Let's grow together.

I don’t want to be number one; I want to be number effective. Yesterday in church, Pastor was talking about the kind of people we need in our lives, and he mentioned collaborators: people willing to work with each other to achieve results. He made us understand that you can do great things even if you’re not the pioneer of a particular organization while in that space. You can become a part of an existing organization and still thrive. This led me to the thought that every employee should see themselves as a collaborator. Whether you’re a CEO or an employee, you should be passionate about doing your quota effectively. How? Don’t do it as if you’re merely working to make money for someone else while you earn, but do it with diligence because you know that you can achieve great results; You can contribute to the success of the company and be a part of it. You can call it teamwork, but it starts from an individual mindset. So when Pastor said, “I’m not asking to be the number one, I want to be number effective,” I understood that effectiveness and impact are stronger than a title. As much as you’re working towards gaining the title, be keen on how much work and impact you can make in your space. Happy New Week!