Diana's Best Day


August 3, 2022

Diana's Best Day

By title, I am the Director for Strategic Projects at Northwest Lineman College. By craft, I work with a bunch of super talented, benchmark project managers who help bring great ideas into reality.

When I sat down to think about what my best day at work looked like, I struggled a bit. No matter where I have worked, or what I have been doing, I have always noticed there are two versions of the same place. Some people love where they work, and what they are doing, and then on the flip side, in the same work environment and sometimes even the same department, there are folks who are unhappy and frustrated. I never could quite figure this out. I know when I’m excited and passionate about what I am doing. I know when I feel really good about my work and going to work, but with these other factors, I couldn’t pinpoint the best place to work.

And then I realized it wasn’t the place that makes your best day, it is the people. I think from the time I was young and heavily involved in team sports I was most excited, most engaged, and most passionate when I had the opportunity to be my best self; when I received genuine appreciation for my hard work and my individual contributions added to the success of the team. I had expectations that this is how my work career would feel too, and I spent a lot of time chasing that environment. It wasn’t until much later in life that I realized those feelings weren’t going to be handed to me. I wasn’t going to just walk into my work team and find folks with the same mindset or same goals. I was going to have to surround myself with the right people and keep the right attitude. I was going to have to embrace the team and the people and the culture and work my hardest to contribute.

Back to the question- what does my best day look like in my career/craft? It looks like a group of people who want each other to be their best and do their best. It looks like me cheering on my teammates, and my teammates cheering on me. It is me being my best for my team so I don’t let them down, but knowing that if I have an off day, they have my back and I’ll have theirs. It is my continued commitment to being my best version of me, for them.

Diana