A New Name Tag

Picture This: You stand in your closet, dressing for success. You want to make an impression, you want to look confident. But not so buttoned-up that you come across as rigid, because you want the audience to relate to you. Do you go with your tried and true? Or step out of your comfort zone?

I tend to wear navy, black, and beige. Not power colors. Just mine. But a year ago, I walked into ILTM North America wearing a floral dress.

A speaker name tag. My own company’s name on it. My first big industry event on my own.

Then someone asked what I do. And I stumbled. I did not have the language yet. My script had been the same for 30 years.

If I am honest, I still stumble sometimes. I still catch myself saying “we” when I talk about Valerie Wilson Travel.

The Wider Lens

Year one has had real highs. I love marketing. Designing the logo. Choosing the brand colors. Opening my first box of business cards and thinking, this is real.

And real lows. A client I really thought I would land and did not. That one was humbling.

But the hardest part has not been either one. It has been the quiet. The loneliness. No one to bounce ideas off. No one to challenge me. I have executive coaches. But that is not the same thing as a team. Or colleagues.

For years, so much of my job was done by the people and the brand around me. The pushback. The second opinion. The name behind the ask. None of it was in my job description. I never had to name it because I never had to do it alone.

And here is what I have come to realize: this is not just my story. I see it in every handoff. The next leader inherits the title, the office, the client list. Not the invisible work the people around them were quietly doing.

Nobody writes that work down. So, nobody hands it off.

This is what I call the, “Unfinished Job”: the work that never makes the job description, so it never makes the handoff.

It becomes noticeable when a respected leader retires. When a team gets restructured. When someone moves into a new role. Or when someone leaves to do something on their own. That is when the org chart changes. But the support system that made the role work does not move with it.

Three Things I Learned

1. A title is not the job. The job is everything the title quietly depended on. My name tag told people I was a speaker. It did not show the work it took to get there, or how lonely it had been.
2. Missing it is how we finally see it. I did not know how much I relied on my colleagues and their pushback until no one was there to challenge me.
3. Asking is a skill, and it is mine to build. For years, the name behind the ask was bigger than mine. Now I am learning to ask, out loud, in my own name. A year later, my pipeline for 2027 is growing. And I am still learning.

The Wondering

If you stepped out of your seat tomorrow, what part of your job would the next person only discover once they were doing it alone?

Who around you is doing work that has never been written down?

And if you are the one stepping into a new seat, what are you assuming came with the title?

Give It Five Minutes: Write Down the Unfinished Job

Grab a blank page. At the top, write: “What nobody wrote down.”

• List the people you rely on most. Next to each name, write one thing they do for you that is not in anyone’s job description. The pushback. The second opinion. The open door. The name behind the ask.
• Circle one. The one that would be hardest to replace.
• Act on it this week. Thank that person for it, by name. Or write it down, so it can be handed off.

Then notice how much of your job was never really yours alone.

My Intention

I am learning that the Unfinished Job is not a gap to hide. It is a list to build. This year, I intend to name the invisible work I once took for granted. And I intend to build the support system I am missing.

And the next time someone asks me what I do, I intend to answer without stumbling. Or at least, to stumble forward.

So, what is the part of your job nobody ever wrote down? I would love to know. kwwinc.com/contact

With Curiosity,

#KeepWonderingWhy #KWWInc #LeadershipDevelopment #AuthenticLeadership #ThoughtLeadership #TheUnfinishedJob #TheOSShift #GenerationalReadiness #SuccessionPlanning #StayCurious