This week’s letter is brought to you by my good friend Tino. Tino is an industry veteran with 15 years of experience in UX, honing his craft and leadership chops at Invivo Communications, Klick and now Flipp, where he’s currently the Director of Product Design and Research.
Dear Dave,
How can work be energizing when everything around us feels so uncertain?
As a new Dad, I have been thinking a lot about the importance of balancing my energy between work and life. Going into fatherhood, I assumed that there would be a season where my career would wind down so that I could be more present with my daughter. I believed that to balance my energy, one thing must be sacrificed to make way for something else.
But instead, I’ve learned that this is not how energy works at all.
Working in the tech industry — or even just being a citizen of planet Earth — can feel really challenging these days. Between softness in the labour market, corporate mandates to do “more with less,” and the existential uncertainty that has come with the AI transformation movement, we are met with new obstacles on a daily basis and are made to feel that we are not enough. It’s easy to come home feeling deflated at the end of a hard work day.
When my daughter was born, there was an initial period where my world started to slow down. I didn’t need to be a big shot boss or an AI design guru — I only needed to be present. For my daughter, that was enough. It made me think more about how I was showing up for her. Was she an “energy lightning rod”? Could she feel how I felt about myself? And if she could, what did I need to change to be my best self every day?
We all have people in our lives that are important to us. If not a child, a spouse, a parent, a sibling, or a friend. We get what we give in these precious relationships, and so the daily practice of showing up well really matters.
You spend most of your waking hours at work. The energy you cultivate at work, positive or negative, has a profound impact on how you behave outside of work in your daily life.
I wanted to come home every day feeling excited and optimistic, gradually becoming the best role model I could be for my daughter. I wanted her to know that our work is not something to be dreaded, but part of who we are.
So unintuitively — without even realizing it — the month after my daughter was born, I started pouring more energy into my career again. The exact opposite of what I had planned.
I started building new relationships at work. Building team-first frameworks for how PMs, Engineers, and Designers could navigate AI-enabled ways of working. Establishing a daily thought leadership writing habit on LinkedIn, to remind myself that I have a unique perspective that is worthy of sharing.
In other words, framing difficult situations as fun problems to be solved.
To remind myself that I am more than enough, despite what recent industry narratives wanted me to believe.
While each new day is an exercise in practicing these behaviours, lately I’ve found there are more good days than bad. I’m more excited to wake up in the morning. I make time to read stories to my daughter using funny voices. Surprisingly, I laugh more at my wife’s bad puns. I know I’m becoming the person I want to be, slowly but surely.
Is there someone in your life that you want to show up for in a better way?
From trying to keep my dog from licking my daughter’s face,
Tino
