The brief you were given when you took this role was more optimistic than the commercial system you inherited warranted. You knew that within the first month. The question you have been navigating ever since is how to close the gap between the expectation that was set and the reality you are operating inside.
That navigation is exhausting in a specific way that does not appear in a performance review. It is the cognitive load of simultaneously running the operation, managing the commercial reality as it is, and managing the narrative about the commercial reality in a way that preserves your credibility and your relationships while the gap between the two slowly closes. Or does not close. Or closes in some places while opening in others.
The ecommerce directors and heads of digital I have most respect for are not the ones with the cleanest track record. They are the ones who inherited the most complicated situations and navigated them with enough honesty to eventually change the conditions rather than just the narrative. That takes a kind of professional courage that the industry does not talk about enough.
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