We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jamie Seeker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jamie, really appreciate you joining us to talk about a really relevant, albeit unfortunate topic – layoffs and getting fired. Can you talk to us about your experience and how you overcame being let go?
For my experience, getting fired was not the beginning of something I had to overcome but merely something that happened in the middle of my own personal and professional growth process. To understand, we’ll have to start a bit further back than the firing itself. It all started with a change in leadership at my then-job. We were once a tight-knit, healthy team of leaders that respected each other and worked well individually and together. It soon began unraveling from the inside and my colleagues were dropping like flies.
Unfortunately the new boss didn’t simply come in with a new personality or different way of doing things. She came in with a mission different from our company’s and values that didn’t align with our established culture. New perspective we could have learned from and adapted to. But unfortunately this new culture was kill or be killed, survival of the fittest, and the healthy communication and trust that we once knew was gone in a heartbeat.
Directors were leaving or being fired and it was getting so noticeable that corporate VPs came out to see what the heck was going on at our location. Through a series of my own obstacles at work, I made a decision early on that I was going to stick it out and do my best to do my job well, mediate, submit to the new authority and try to be a peacemaker for the remaining team. But I was determined to give my all and leave it all on the table. Not just in my professional role but also relationally with my new leader.
Eventually my number came up and I was next on the chopping block. It didn’t happen overnight, so by this time I had peace knowing I had done everything I possibly could to make it work. When I was getting fired, I had no idea what the reason was going to be and I asked her (because no reason was given). I even told her that I’d like to be a good, effective employee in my next steps so any feedback she could give would help me to learn from this experience. When she looked me in the eye and said, “No,” it was all the confirmation I needed to accept that it was my time to go. I no longer belonged there and that was ok.
As a believer, I relied on my faith so my next steps were fairly easy because I knew my prayers had been answered. Of course at the time I was praying to get through the situation but God’s solution was to pull me out of it. I found out shortly after that I was pregnant and took some time to reset and refocus my priorities. After my youngest son was born, I got to see what the whole stay-at-home-mom life was like. As a working mom I always wished I could stay home! But I found that once I was home, I knew I was made to work. So after some time I landed right back to work managing a small business. That was the start of a life-changing journey to becoming a business owner myself, that I would have never gotten to live out if I hadn’t gone through the rest.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I founded Seeker Solution to help small to medium sized business owners who are stressed, exhausted, and tired of putting out fires, take back control of their lives. We do this by giving them the steps needed to reduce their hours and step out of the day-to-day workings, giving them more time for themselves and their family, while the business still continues to grow. The outcome is achieved by outsourcing their operational needs to us through our solutions.
If the need is to create culture, the solution is Human Resources. If it’s to manage money, the answer is our financial solution. Our strategic business planning solution achieves goals. We develop leaders through the learning and development solution. We find customers through our social media solution and we drive results through our operational process solution.
I launched Seeker Solution with the mission to sharpen a business owners’ personal skills and abilities, help accomplish their entrepreneurial vision, achieve their company’s specific objectives, and accelerate their company’s growth. It has been so fulfilling to witness this with our clients.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Acceptance is a big part of the process. I could not control my circumstances so I first had to acknowledge and accept the situation I was in. Once I did that, next I had to decide what to with what I could control. The only thing I had any say over was my own response to my circumstances. So once I owned my own actions and decided I wasn’t a victim, it made doing my job and doing right by the people I worked with much easier to accomplish. Then I kept doing it even when it was hard. Even when I didn’t feel as if they deserved it. Even when I felt like I could never succeed. None of that seemed to matter because I accepted that I couldn’t control anyone else or the circumstances. But I could control how I responded to them. So striving for excellence everyday is the third thing that helped me on that journey. Back then that could look different from day to day. But what that means to me is when I look back, I never want to think, “I could have or I should have…” Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today. That is the one thing that gave me so much peace when my time was up. I knew I held nothing back and I did what I believed to be right. Everyone got the best I had to give that day and that was truly enough!
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The number one challenge I’m facing as a business owner is getting new clients. But I must say I’m relying on the knowledge I honed back in my early days of professional development and I am following those principles. That is: 1. accept the things I can’t change. 2. recognize that I am not a victim and that I can control my response to my circumstances and 3. strive for excellence every day.
I can’t control if/when companies need our services but I can certainly control how I respond to that. I continue to implement initiatives to be found by those who are looking for us and reach those that may not even know they need us! Then I show up everyday and strive for excellence and know that it will pay off.
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