"The ability to rapidly learn, apply and execute is a common trait among high achievers," Jerry Bernhart summarized ina recently LinkedIn post. Amazon's Jeff Bezos has said that speed is the only sustainable competitive advantage of businesses, so why wouldn't this also be true of leaders?
If this is true, how do you demonstrate learning agility in your career? I contend that it might be best demonstrated by unconventional (and traditionally under-valued) career paths that spanned industries, roles and responsibilities, company sizes and types, locations, and different capital structures. When you see variety like this coupled with success, you see the results of learning agility.
I have wondered how my career might have progressed if I had stayed in one industry segment, one customer segment, one functional discipline, one company type (VC-baked growth companies or big enterprises), or even one city. But considering that it is impossible to A/B test, what I have concluded is that my diversity of background provides me:
- a more holistic strategic perspective to decision making and implementation,
- makes me a better business person, and
- has taught me to how to ramp up fast to make an impact.
Hopefully, it has also helped me create opportunities for others to grow as well as I strive to be a hospitable leader.
Thinking about your own career, where have you best seen your own learning agility develop?
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career advice
Amazon is a very successful company and is admired throughout the world. In a few short decades, it became a top globally-recognized brand and has influenced countless other businesses to rethink their approach to innovation. Amazon Web Services (AWS) the cloud computing pioneer, is the fastest enterprise software company in the history of the world.
So, what lessons do Amazon’s Leadership Principles and daily mechanisms hold for those who are actively or passively looking for their next career move? A lot.
CUSTOMER OBSESSION: The foundational Leadership Principle at Amazon is a relentless pursuit of understanding durable customer needs and then driving solutions to address those needs. Anyone who has worked there or studied the company knows about the “flywheel” where connected customer needs (for selection, low prices, quick delivery) feed off each other to create customer loyalty. Would be job seekers should apply the same discipline to their search. Rather than applying to every role they see or trying to be “everything to everyone,” they should focus on their ideal customer profile, in this case, a hiring manager at a particular type of company that has needs they can best fill. When you read job descriptions, look for the problems they cite or imply in the description. What are they looking to accomplish? What are their barriers to success? What problem are they trying to solve with this hire?
For ideas on how to do narrowing down, I recommend professor Steve Dalton’s The 2-Hour Job Search (thank you, Gina Riley, for the original recommendation). For those who are in the thought leadership business, see David C. Baker’s The Business of Expertise (thank you, Drew Neisser for that recommendation) and The Thought Leaders Practice from Matt Church, Peter Cook, and Scott Stein (thank you, Marc Wolfe for that recommendation).
WORKING BACKWARDS: The most famous Amazon mechanism is the working backwards process. It is codified in a PRFAQ, which outlines in a fake press release format what you propose to do for that customer need you identified. You can do the same thing for your career. Sit down and write a press release announcing your appointment for your next job. As you might have been taught, start with the headline and the “customer quote” (in this case, the hiring manager’s quote) that outlines why you were such a great fit for their needs. This sounds easy but is very hard, and that is the point. It forces you to think deeply about what you bring to the table, what needs you solve, and why you are better than any alternative (including the “hire no one and try to do the work with the folks you already have” scenario, which is very common). This will give you confidence when networking, applying or interviewing for new roles as you can articulate your value proposition.
For more information on how to write out strategy in this way, see chapter 6 of my book, Well Made Decisions. I also recommend Colin Bryar and Bill Carr’s Working Backwards.
LEARN AND BE CURIOUS: If you find yourself out of work and considering the next steps, don’t forget to apply this critical leadership principle. Take the time to get a new certification, take a course, or learn a new skill. Build a website, start a blog, train for a 5k, dive deep into a technical topic, and add to your toolkit in a way that not only bolsters your resume, but gives you a sense of accomplishment. A job search, especially an active one, can drain your energy, and so many days, you can feel like you aren’t making progress. Focusing on learning daily gives you back that agency and prepares you well for what is next. When you do land your next appointment, you may find it was something that you were not qualified to do before you jumped into learning!
How else are you applying Leadership Principles to your career plan?
Here are five pieces of advice that I have for women succeeding in the careers of their choice, no matter who has gone before them.
Speak the Language of Business: Imagine learning to play softball. You learned to throw, catch, and run. But you never learned how to keep score. How good of player would you be? Not very good. The same is true in any pursuit and in business the score is kept in financial terms. Every aspiring leader should learn how to read and interpret financial statements. They should understand how their work impacts not only expenses, but revenue and ultimate enterprise value. They should lead with that in conversations with leadership as at some level of the organization you will no longer be reporting to a creative or technical professional, as perhaps you were early in your career. You will report to a businessperson and will need to speak their language. The more you speak it, the more you will be ready for larger influence.
Mine for Gold: You open your eyes to a dim light. You feel around your surroundings which are cold and hard to the touch. Once your eyes adjust however, you realize that you are in a mineshaft. A glint on the wall tells you that you are in a gold mine. You have the tools you need, if you choose to use them to mine for gold. A lot of professionals don’t realize that they are in a goldmine. That their employer, their colleagues, their college classmates, and even their neighbors or fellow parishioners can open doors for them and help their learn and grow. LEARFIELD is a leader in media, data, and technology in college sports and between my 2500 colleagues and our network of connections, there is probably no one in the sports landscape more than a few degrees of connection away. Not that getting to them would be easy in all cases, but the gold is there. You are the same. Even if your personal network doesn’t inherently a lot of potential for your chosen career path, you have access to reporters, industry influencers, and academics. Thanks to social media, these friends-you-have-not-yet-met have never been easier to access, especially for those who know what they want and can offer mutual value.
Be (Your Best Version of) Yourself: As Oscar Wilde apparently said “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.” I have seen of late this adage being used to describe selfish and disrespectful behavior or those who act as if the world revolves around them and everyone must change to accommodate their sensibilities. That is not what I am talking about. I think each of us should reflect deeply on who we are when we are at our best, how we want to contribute, and what we want to be known for and live into that future version of yourself. Academy Award winning actor, Matthew McConaughey, recently spoke at our company conference. He describes his hero as himself 10 years from now. I think we all have that hero and if we can pull them into focus, it helps us prioritize and make good choices today. He joked that his “tomorrow me” would appreciate if “today me” programmed the coffee machine. What else might your “tomorrow you” appreciate? Staying out of debt, maintaining a relationship, getting an education, and the like all require delayed gratification. It may require managing the expectations of your “today friends and family” to what your “future self” needs and wants. Billie Eilish’s title song on her new album speaks to this. The chorus explains how she has changed her mind about a relationship because “I’m in love with my future. Can’t wait to meet her.” I am sure that if you get your future in focus, you will feel the same.
Learn to Write: Take a business writing class. Write often. Have others critique your work. Read books and articles that in your field that give you a sense for the vocabulary and culture of your industry. Practice, practice, practice. Writing is the single-most important thing a leader should be able to do to think deeply and communicate clearly.
Marry Wisely: I know this sounds like retro advice, but I can tell you without a doubt that the most successful leaders of any gender or persuasion that I have had the pleasure to work with closely or admire from afar had spouses or partners who made sacrifices, took on disproportionate responsibilities at home, and allowed for a degree of career flexibility that made upward mobility possible. In short, they had a home community that provided them security and practical support. I am not the only one who has spoken about this. My husband, Tony, has been instrumental to my success in countless ways. I am not alone in this. Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the late Supreme Court Justice talked of the support she got (and gave) to her tax attorney husband. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, spoke of the power of having a resourceful spouse. Indra Nooyi, former PepsiCo CEO who serves on Amazon’s board, has spoken to it when she said that balancing work and family is a “constant juggling act” and it’s often “the people around us — like our life partners — who make this juggling possible.”
This article is an excerpt of an article originally in Authority Magazine written by Ming Zhao.
I was asked recently what three character traits that have contributed most to my success have been strategic thinking, a sense of urgency, and positivity.
Strategic Thinking: I can see around strategic corners and find ways to maximize or improve anything we are attempting to do. This was well illustrated recently by a rebranding exercise I led for one of our business groups. We were all in agreement that the current way we talked about and positioned the business offering was slowing down adoption, but it wasn’t clear the path forward. Through facilitated discussions, we arrived at a common view of a new for a new business name. I called it giving the business a “handle” that was easier to pick up and carry and share. This led us to a structured naming exercise that resulted in a new brand approach, well received by our stakeholders. I was able to facilitate this by asking questions and broadening the view of the group to the range of challenges we were facing and how best to optimize our outcomes.
Sense of Urgency: I am not naturally patient person, which is something I am working on. But in a business context, I think this “fire in the belly” has helped me set the pace for our teams, pushed teams to experiment more (with incomplete or imperfect information so that we can learn faster), and helped shape the industries of which I have been a part. I served for several years for the Avixa board of directors on their Leadership Search Committee. This trade and industry association, like the industry it serves, has been predominantly male for a many decades. There was a lot of energy about getting more gender, racial, and experiential diversity on the board, but the question was often one of timing. Is this the year to put forward this female candidate over her male counterpart? Together with others on the board (both women and men, I am proud to say), the sense of urgency was contagious and we started making changes. I recently saw a picture of the ribbon cutting ceremony for Avixa’s largest trade show of the year and among the board members holding big scissors were as many women as men and the pipeline for chairman of the board now include several women. Truly, this is a career highlight for me. This is how a sense of urgency can lead to long-term change.
Positivity: I am not always happy (as my teenage children will attest), but I am always hopeful. I can see the silver lining in the clouds on my best days, I can be an encouragement to others who might focus on problems so much that they can’t see possibilities. I recently was talking to someone who experienced a disappointing loss at work and after talking it through she saw it as a “making room for something better.” In business there is a lot of failure and loss. If not, you are doing it wrong and not experimenting enough or taking enough risks. How you deal with that failure and loss, personally and on teams, is critical to the resilience of the organization and how well you take care of customers over the long haul. I consider feedback a gift, even if it is hard to take, as we are all on a journey of growth.
This article is an excerpt of an article originally in Authority Magazine written by Ming Zhao.
The past 48 hours have been a big one for me. I had an op-ed piece on the anniversary of Title IX featured in AdAge, I was quoted in an Adweek article, I was a featured executive on Titan 100 (after being honored earlier this spring in their inaugural Georgia awards program), and a CMO Spotlight podcast also dropped.
It is such an honor to be able to advocate for topics like equity in sports, career development, and decision making and to be able to draw attention to the amazing work of my colleagues at LEARFIELD. I am hoping that these pieces are useful to the readers and listeners and help inform their own plans!
In my recent interview with Thrive Global, I was able to share some career advice that I have found useful. This included the advice to not wait for permission to get the experience that you want for your own development and that of your career.
Have you ever witnessed “analysis paralysis”? A lot of business leaders are faulted with cautiously procrastinating decisions until the “best” choice is in full view, and in doing so they become a competitive follower, miss the market opportunity, or create other cultural challenges in their organization.
Leaders will delay letting go an employee who is struggling, wreaking havoc on the company and customers, demotivating other high-performers, and delaying the chance to get someone in that role who will help create real growth and advancement.
Leaders will delay investing in a new market or technology for fear that the return will not materialize, only to find someone else beat them to market forcing them to a play a game for which they did not dictate the rules.
Leaders will observe things about the culture that when replicated at scale will keep the organization from achieving its highest performance (eg, things like lack of honest candor, lack of accountability, misaligned priorities). Letting it go until it demands correction (or takes the sacrifice of the leader themselves to regard).
Leaders might be hesitant to delegate to their teams and employees, communicating a lack of trust and throttling the capacity and velocity of the organization as they are personally involved in too many decisions. I have seen leaders of multi-billion-dollar corporations get involved in picking out the color of lobby furniture, selecting the IP telephony system, or the brand of copiers in the offices, to the detriment of the decisions that only they could make.
Why? Why can leaders behave in these ways that sabotage their businesses?
Ironically, it is because of a false sense of self-preservation that leads to these acts of self-sabotage. Let me explain.
Every business decision, above a certain scale and level of complexity, is a career decision. If you are the one allocating resources and setting priorities (which I would argue is every leader’s responsibility, starting personally and expanding to teams and organizations), then the pressure is on to make the “right decisions.”
All eyes are on you, it would seem, and the organization, shareholders, communities, and customers are counting on you!
That kind of pressure can narrow your focus, can dial up fear, and can cause leaders to try to control what they can. But this is generally the opposite of what is called for in these situations.
The role of the leader is to enable their team to be successful, satisfying the needs of customers. This means having the right talent, making the right resources available, and building a culture of high-velocity learning that differentiates your business long-term.
In my new book, Well Made Decisions, I hope leaders find the tools and most of all, the confidence, to lead their organizations in different ways. By focusing on the process and anticipating and monitoring implementation, only then can they achieve success for their teams, their organizations, and ultimately their careers.
This article originally appeared on wellmadedecisions.com.
Proud to have been able to share some of my experience with Gina Riley for the March issue of Authoritii5.0 Magazine. Read the article here.
“Unless the job means more than the pay, it will never pay more.” – H. Bertram Lewis
Melissa Craig-Fink is the marketing and operations manager for Panther Residential Management who manages traditional and non-tradition multi-dwelling residences in several eastern US states. Throughout her career in marketing - working for brands like Quizno’s, Sports Clips, and the Ritz Carlton, and now as a department of one in real estate - she knows the challenges of balancing strategic and tactical priorities on long-term and short-term horizons. Here are some lessons she has learned that will help any marketer and business leader be successful.
Take Risks
“When I worked at Quizno’s in franchise marketing, digital advertising was a new concept and the marketing team was nervous to jump into that space,” Fink recalls. “It is funny to say now because I am a raging fan, but at the time we were not all convinced, and the marketing team was reluctant to manage the project.” This was over six years ago when many were still experimenting. “Although I was not very hopeful that digital would drive customers to our doors the way our traditional outreach had, I agreed to do it.” The rest is history, she said. The program was a success and she was forever changed as a marketer. “My mindset now is that everything is moving towards digital. Now, my role is primarily online reputation management and digital advertising. Roles that I wouldn’t have believed would exist just a few years ago.”
Be Prepared to Change
“Your market changes every quarter,” Fink explained. “You need to look regularly at your customer base, talk to your on-site teams and get fresh eyes on the changing demographics, and then shift your strategies.” This is true of any business, but especially in highly dynamic markets like residential real estate. For instance, Fink has had success targeting around universities for changing student populations.
Being responsive is critical to Panther’s business and to Fink’s role as a marketer, as future tenants are likely to be referred by today’s tenants. “People shop for apartments online, but not just on our website or properties, but in their friends’ social feeds, review sites, and places where we can only loosely influence what is said and shown about our properties,” she explained. “We try to be very responsive, answering positive or negative reviews within 2 hours and inviting those with complaints to speak to us directly.” This level of responsiveness requires an openness to change. “Our leasing agents have been nervous about invited angry customers to speak to them personally in the past, but that is how issues are resolved and negative reviewers turn into positive fans.”
Managing through emotional reactions is the key to finding actionable insights. “If you are defensive, ask yourself why,” she suggested. “If you can take the emotion out of it, you can remain empathetic to the complaint and find an opportunity to fix problems.” Alternatively, “you can defend yourself and make the assumption that the thing that people have complained about is not an issue, but if you see the anecdotes piling up, chances are you have a problem.”
The Answer Might Be Simple
Prior to her joining the company through acquisition, Panther lacked a marketing team. “A lot of things were blamed on the lack of marketing,” she recalled. “If we had just assumed that, we would have made some mistakes. For instance, in one of our properties, they noticed that lease booking and property tours were down and the cause was not obvious but was being attributed to lack of awareness. “Instead of just blaming brand awareness and jumping into a promotional campaign, I visited the properties and shopped the comparable properties close by and in the price range,” she recounted. “Sometimes the problems were so obvious it was comical. I would suggest that we needed to update the colors in the model, provide customer service training to the leasing office, or make simple changes and those began to make a big difference.” Simple changes that made all the difference.
These observations can happen physically on the property or in an analysis of the data. “In the franchise world, everything had tracking codes and I could create reports to show what was working with the IT department,” she said. “In apartments, I had to create the reports, work with vendors to create them, or uncover the data that existed in our current systems that no one had been utilizing.”
“Model homes are key sales tools for apartment leasing and sometimes there isn’t budget for a major refresh of an apartment, but even in those cases there is a lot we can do.” One model in Memphis hadn’t been updated in a while and had a large number of faux plants. “It looks cluttered and dated and it didn’t reflect the brand well,” Fink recalls. “We removed those plants, decluttered other decorations from the space, changed out the bedding and shower curtain and it looked modern and fresh.” Not all changes have to be expensive or extensive. “It can be as simple as swapping out the welcome rug,” she joked. “Ultimately there are judgment calls, but over time your judgment can inform you how prospective customers would be comparing their property to others in their price range and in the area.” This is true of other businesses and industries as well. The change you need might be a simple fix that no one had done before.
Think Big and Start Small
“Sometimes having a shoestring budget can cause you to think small, but if you get creative you can accomplish more,” she offered. “At Quizno’s, we were able to do an unbudgeted sponsorship of the Nashville Sounds baseball stadium. We chose to do this because we had multiple locations within a 5-mile radius of the stadium and were testing a geotargeting digital platform that would drive traffic.” There were short-term and long-term benefits to the campaign. “Once we decided it was worth recommending, we got owner buy-in and found creative ways to fund it. It worked so well, they rolled it out to other regions, even larger marks like Denver."
"If you continue to think big, you can often find ways to afford it. But if you limit your thinking, you will never know what could have been accomplished.”
“Always test small. In the businesses of retail franchising or apartment complexes, I always test in one or two locations or by segments,” she explained. The same held true in her time in franchise marketing. “If you start big doing a portfolio-wide roll-out, you don’t get the work the kinks out and fix things first.” With the growth of digital marketing, there is an assumption that data is more readily available than it might be, so finding things to test that can be measured is key. “Marketers are in the data analytics business,” Fink observed. “You must learn how to slice and dice your data into a format that is legible and actionable.”
“Innovation can happen at companies of all sizes and business models,” she said. “Larger companies might have more resources, but if there is a management buy-in, even small companies can do creative things.”
Fink had her concerns going from larger companies like Ritz Carton or Quizno’s to smaller companies like Panther Residential Management, but she has since concluded that “all businesses need an open mind and strategic thinking,” so she continues to find ways to think big and start small.
This article was originally posted on Forbes.com
A lot has been written and tried with regards to content marketing, account-based marketing (ABM), and advertising in all of its forms. New regulations, like GDPR, are sending marketers back to the drawing board to craft campaigns and mechanisms for communication with their customers and going into a new year, it is a good time to step back and think about the idea of relevance. Drew Neisser, founder and CEO of Renegade, is an author, podcast host and advisor to CMOs and leadership teams on having courageous and courteous strategies. He has some insights that will help business leaders rethink the basics.
Listen Like Your Life Depends On It (because it does)
Before we can make sure companies are as good at listening to their customers as they are talking at them, we must “start with the reality that just about every product or service is moments away from being disrupted by a competitive offering,” Neisser said provocatively. “That sense of urgency needs to inform how brands approach their listening activities. It needs to be a company-wide priority, not just the responsibility of one department.” There are numerous ways to conduct this research. “Customer satisfaction surveys, brand health tracking, in-product rating, and social listening are table stakes,” he said. They are necessary but insufficient. “These necessities will help identify shortcomings in your product and service offerings that you must address ASAP and let your customers know that you’re at least trying to be responsive,” he added. But defensively listening for problems or risks will not lead you to major breakthroughs. “Here you’ll need to do a different kind of listening,” he continued. “One that requires genuine creativity and foresight, reinterpreting what you hear, discarding the obvious for the courageous.” Insights that lead to focus in your communications and the direction of your product development are the ones that are your long-term lifeline.
Ask Whether Your Content Deserves to Live
“Sadly, most branded content is not cutting through,” Neisser observed. “With more than eight of 10 marketers embracing content marketing, the increase in blog posts, videos, emails, webinars, social shares, and podcasts, among other formats, has dramatically outpaced the hours in the day for actually consuming this stuff.” Marketing organizations don’t want to be left behind their more verbose competitors often drive towards consistent and predictable communications that keep their brand in the forefront of their customer’s mind; thus the “content calendar” is born. Neisser advises customers in a different direction entirely. “Content calendars typically push brands into a puddle of mediocrity,” he said. “Rather than focusing on creating truly inspired content that is unique, engaging and imminently sharable, marketers become slaves to their self-imposed schedules, rushing out content that is of little interest or value to anyone.” Instead of inspecting and interrogating each post or asset for its value, the brand keeps pouring announcements out assuming they are valuable.
“These calendars are brand-centric, not customer-centric since no prospect or customer is going to ask on any given Friday, ‘Oh, gee, where’s that email from brand x?’ unless, of course, your content is extraordinary.”
“Content calendars may mask the absence of a true strategy, one built around an insight that helps prospects reimagine how a particular product or service could change their work lives,” Neisser offered. If you don’t know how your product or service will change a customer’s life, then they may not want to hear from you yet. Not all the content you produce is deserving of the attention you are asking your customers to pay.
Zig When Others Zag
“What is working in marketing is what’s always worked in marketing – a courageous strategy that sets up an artfully told story,” he offered. “One expression is courage is to zig while others zag. For instance, Airbnb recently sent me a travel magazine.” That’s right a print magazine at a time when many are saying print is dead.” It is an interesting and unexpected choice for a company born digital, but it made an impression. “I spent an hour devouring the fascinating experiences shared from cover to cover,” he recalled. “This magazine is a vivid expression of Airbnb’s unique promise to provide an immersive and indigenous travel experience.”
This unexpected approach can turn up in more than just your marketing campaigns. It can be a differentiating feature in the product itself that stems from the customer insights. It could be a way of doing with the company that makes it easier or faster. It could be the style and voice of the brand that helps it stand out in the marketplace and be more relevant to its target customers. It’s the “Blue Ocean Strategy” that helps brands create distance between them and their customers and even create new categories.
Decision By Committee is an Invitation to Personalize
Metrics like email open rates or click-through conversions can be misleading, even when you think things are trending well. “Marketers are shifting how they measure the effectiveness of content campaigns as marketing automation and account-based marketing software make it easier to track engagement,” he said. Whether in B2B or B2C selling environments, “most are able to track a prospect’s journey from awareness to interest, to readiness based on their interactions with content.”
In the consumer world, individuals are increasingly relying on peer reviews and social recommendations and in the B2B landscape, “we are definitely in the era of the decision by committee and as a result, the customer journey is more complex and convoluted than ever.” Traditional “journey-tracking can lead to false positives.”
Consider this example:
A CMO could express interest in an e-commerce platform by watching a demo but her colleagues in IT, finance, security and merchandising may have a completely different solution in mind. Six months into the process, the CEO could suddenly jump in and essentially restarts the investigation. Generating another new lead for sales. In this example, the buying committee is likely to take over a year to make a decision and the CMO is unlikely to able to control the process, even if they are the original sales qualified lead and might sign the agreement in the end. The enlightened B2B marketer is prepared for this situation, creating all sorts of tools and resources that address the proclivities of all the participants. For example, they could create an ROI or TCO calculator for the CFO, a security report by a respected 3rd party for the CISO (chief information security officer), a functionality comparison chart for the merchandiser, a service program overview for the customer experience team, a strong customer reference for the CEO, and a peak under-the-hood with third-party developers.
Marketing might call it an MQL and then sales talks to the person and might even reclassify it as an SQL, only to have unconverted lead months or years later and the finger pointing begins. This is where ABM can play a role as it “helps resolve this age-old dilemma since it requires both Sales and Marketing to agree on the prospect list. From there, ABM allows for tracking of various engagements.” These can be business specific. “For example, at least one ABM system integrates FedEx shipping data, so a salesperson knows exactly when a package arrives and who signed for it thus allowing them to plan exactly when to make the follow-up call.” Others tie closely to social listening systems and provide multiple points of insights. “Assuming the target list was truly qualified, ABM makes it a lot easier for both Sales and Marketing to track what’s generating what kind of responses and when,” Neisser observed.
The more you know about your customers and their decision-making process, the more you can tailor your content and create a cadence of storytelling that isn’t by rote but is highly relevant to your customers.
This article was originally posted on Forbes.com.
As a student and practitioner of career planning, I am always in search of the definition of a successful career. What enables success and how is it defined?
I was reading Amy Poehler’s book, Yes Please, recently and stumbled across her brilliant definition.
"Career is the stringing together of opportunities and jobs. Mix in public opinion and past regrets. Add a dash of future panic and a whole lot of financial uncertainty. Career is something that fools you into thinking you are in control and then takes pleasure in reminding you that you aren't. Career is the think that will not fill you up and never make you truly whole. Depending on your career is like eating cake for breakfast and wondering why you start crying an hour later."
I think she touches on something that each one of us has to wrestle with in our careers: is it going to be our life’s main dish (something that defines you) or is it a nutritious vegetable (something you do because you need to)? Or, for the lucky ones, is it dessert? Something you choose to do because it is sweet and makes the whole meal better?
It was a pleasure to talk with Angela Mezzetti from Women in Leadership about owning your career. Check out the recording of our fun conversation: Own Your Career and Find Balance.
Most important things in life should be done as fast as possible and as slow as necessary.
Wise people know when to push and when to pause.
“Have the guts to own your career,” said Art Gensler, the founder of Gensler, the largest architecture firm in the world. “Refuse to play the victim. You have one life and what you do for a living makes up a large part of your time. Make the most of it. Make it joyful and rewarding. Develop a sense of purpose for what you are doing.”
Looking back in the early days of my career, I think about the lessons I learned that have helped me throughout my career. Now that I’m the CMO of Leyard’s international business and vice president of marketing and product strategy at Planar, I’m sharing those lessons in the hopes they will help new employees as they enter the professional workforce.
Congratulations—you’ve graduated and landed your first professional job! There are still many lessons to learn, even if you are starting your career in the discipline you studied. While every office environment is different, there are some things that are important no matter where you work. Here are the top four things I wish I would have known on my first day on the job so I could have done my best work every day, from the very first day.
You are there to do a job
Unlike some roles in which you trade your time for a paycheck even when customers aren’t present, an office job is different. Even if you work hourly, you are expected not just to be there, but to accomplish real work every day. If you are unclear about your job responsibilities and what is expected of you, ask your manager. Observe the respected leaders of your company and their approach, and see how you can model your behavior and habits after theirs.
One of my first jobs was in a retail clothing store, and my boss was an exceptional mentor. She taught us the old retail mantra: “If you have time to stand, you have time to sweep.” The same is true in an office environment. Don’t wait to be told. Find out what you are responsible for and keep yourself busy and focused on the goals of the company.
Understand how your work matters
It’s not enough to just keep busy. You must also understand how your work contributes to the business. Learn who benefits directly from the work you do, what internal and external customers need, and how the business makes money. Having this context will motivate you to excel in your responsibilities, make better decisions and make everyone (including yourself) more successful.
A chief financial officer once told me that even if you do not have an interest in finance and accounting, it is important to know how the score is kept in business. Not knowing would be like playing in a soccer or softball game and not being able to read the score board. Learning to read the score board and how your own activities put points on that scoreboard will help you better understand the value of your work to the company.
Work at the office
Even if your employer has a flexible work-from-home policy, I would advise you to show up to the office. While it may be convenient to avoid the commute, it’s important to get to know your co-workers, for them to get to know you, and to learn from your peers. It is too isolating to be at home, even in today’s modern world. Out of sight is out of mind is something you want to avoid while building your career.
The exception to this is if you are in a field that requires working at the clients’ place of business. If being on location is the best way for you to satisfy customers and grow the business, then by all means, do your work there. Just be sure to regularly connect and update your manager and colleagues so you can continue to build those important relationships even when you are out of sight.
Early in my career, I made a point of visiting my boss at the beginning of every day to check in and tell him my plans for the day. This won’t work with every manager, but if you have a relational boss, this kind of face time could have a positive impact on your productivity and the trust you build with the team.
You build relationships in the office
Get to know your co-workers by showing genuine interest in them. Ask questions. How long have they worked here? What are their responsibilities for the company? Do they have advice for you as you start out on the job? If possible, find a mentor who can serve as a resource for understanding the company and its specific job roles. Building your network within the organization will help you to quickly learn and establish yourself as you work toward your first promotion. Just be sure your interactions aren’t distracting—hanging out at the water cooler all day will not help develop your career!
Following this advice will help you to quickly become a valued member of the team. It won’t be long before you are no longer the new person in the office and you will be in a position to show hospitality and help other employees get to know the organization and their colleagues.
This article was originally published on the Leaders in Heels blog.
Looking back in the early days of my career, there are several things I wish I’d known. Now that I’m the CMO of Leyard’s international business and vice president of marketing and product strategy at Planar, I’m sharing lessons that would have been helpful when I started my career, in hopes they will help recent graduates as they enter the professional workforce.
In most professional environments, email is the most commonly used communication tool. While you have likely used personal email for many years, there are different protocols in the work place. These 10 guidelines will help ensure you are communicating what you want to communicate and how your message is being received.
1. Never use email to criticise or gossip
Never say something on email that you don’t want printed and put on the company bulletin board. Never gossip or take a harsh tone in email. Assume every email will be read by more than the recipient – before you hit send, would you be comfortable sending it to everyone in the company?
2. Never use email to discuss a heated or controversial topic.
Because you can’t read an email and determine the intended tone, it is not a good medium for discussing sensitive things, being sarcastic or delivering feedback. A good rule of thumb is that if there are more than 3 replies in the thread, it is best to take the conversation off-line to a meeting (in person or at least on the phone). You can reply to the thread saying, “It looks like this topic is a good one for us to discuss further. I suggest that we don’t continue in email, but rather schedule a call or meeting. How would tomorrow at 3 PM look for you?” Plus, a measured response demonstrates maturity and self-control, which are always good in the workplace.
3. Use proper language and full sentences
Do not use text slang (do not use LOL, BRB or the number 2 in place of “to” or “too”). In some offices, using this shorthand in messaging applications (like Lync or Skype or WeChat) is okay, but not in email. By using proper grammar and spelling, you are showing that you are professional, intelligent and do not take unnecessary shortcuts.
4. Respond to every email
Unless it says that no response is necessary, reply to all emails addressed to you. It can be with an answer or with more questions. It can be with a simple “thank you” or a message of completion to a project request. If you want to acknowledge the email, but don’t yet have the answer or have anything to report, reply back saying when you will respond. “I wanted to say that I got this request and have begun work on it. I expect to be done on Tuesday and will let you know when it is complete.” Keeping it short is fine, and often preferred. Responding to emails is a way to make and keep commitments while building trust.
5. Set your out of office when you are away
When you are on vacation, travelling for business, or even away from your desk in meetings (if they last longer than when people would expect a reply from you, which varies by job and person), set your out of office message. Most email programs allow you to set your out of office for a particular time and deliver different messages to internal and external parties. Keep it short and professional. Say how long you will be out of the office. Tell them you will get to their message as soon as you can, but they should expect delays. Offer them an alternative contact for immediate assistance, if one is available. Never disclose personal information in an out-of-office intended for external parties (i.e., “I’ll be partying on the beach in Miami for Spring Break”).
6. How to use the To: line: strategically
If you want someone to take action or the email is addressed to them, put them in the TO line. Most emails should be to one person or to a small group where all of the roles are clear and be sure to clarify who you need to respond to which aspects. For example: “Kevin, I am copying you so that you can help me estimate the costs. Gary, can you help me greet our guests at 2 PM tomorrow?”
7. How to use the CC: line: judiciously
Include people in the CC if they need to be aware of the discussion, but are not active participants. If you are sharing good news or a compliment, feel free to copy in that person’s manager. Avoid the temptation to copy the world in on emails, especially if the content is bad or difficult. (And remember it’s often better to handle difficult news in person rather than over email.)
8. How to use the BCC line: carefully
Blind carbon copies are often used to complain or as a way to “cover your tracks”. My advice is to be honest and do not use it to be sneaky. In general, I don’t think it is a good form of communication and I don’t use it. The times BCC is acceptable is sending company-wide email to avoid unnecessary reply-alls, or if someone introduces to you to someone else via email. For example, a good use of BCC would be if Bill thinks you should know Sue and sends an email suggesting you have coffee sometime with Sue. You can move Bill to BCC to thank him for the introduction (telling him you are moving him to the BCC), then remove him from the conversation you and Sue as you figure out when to schedule the coffee.
9. How to use “reply to all”: rarely
Replying to all is rarely a good idea. It clogs up emails and makes people look like amateur communicators. The exception to this is when someone is trying to schedule a meeting or brainstorming to build upon each other’s ideas. But even then there are better ways, such as using the busy/available tool in the calendar.
10. Don’t forget how to write a letter
I like to send hand-written notes. It is bit old-fashioned, I know, but because it is rare, the gesture is genuinely appreciated. I have gotten thank you calls and emails from folks who received a thank you note and felt compelled to respond. It is a great way to build relationships.
This article was originally published on Leaders in Heels.
According to former president at SRI who helped launch hundreds of innovation projects and companies, here are four things a CEO must be able to do:
- Articulate a clear value proposition. In the first few sentences or minutes of a pitch to an investor or a customer. If it takes pages, it is too nuanced and not strong enough.
- Prove they’re passionate about the customer.
- Demonstrate their ability to build a winning a team.
- They must know how to execute
I’d add a fifth one and that is
5. Be strong enough to say “no” to good ideas to remain focused on the great idea that will lead to substantive results and breakthroughs in the market.
These are things that professionals in any position should strive to do.
Disney, famously, calls their employees “cast members,” recognizing the role that they play in creating the experiences in their theme parks, in their movies, and in their stores. The job of “casting director” has been long considered a key one in the movie and entertainment industry, where these experienced professionals have the tough job of finding people who fit the director’s artistic vision. This could be finding someone with the right look, the right voice, the right celebrity, at the right price, with availability, to bring the vision to life.
Avoiding unethical or illegal discrimination of protected classes or physical characteristics, of course, all of us who hire would do well to think about our own vision for our team and consider some of the things that casting directors might when they fill their cast list. Beyond the experience that might be on the resume or the work samples or portfolio that the candidate might represent, there are other aspects that can be key to the hiring decisions that borrow from the casting director’s playbook. I call these the Four P’s of thinking like a casting director.
Personality: The energy that people bring to situations can help them succeed or fail in certain roles. Sometimes described as “presence,” casting directors look for people who can successfully play the characters they are seeking to fill. Does the person command respect? Can the person play the quiet, supporting role? The same is true of hires in industries outside entertainment. Too much energy and restlessness, can spell disaster for more detail-oriented roles. An introvert might be exhausted by a position that requires constant interaction with team mates or customers. Even the amount of team work required in a role might differ. A cameo part might not require the actor to be that “coachable” or “easy to work with” when a role on an ensemble cast might require a lot of those characteristics. Judging for this in an interview can be incredibly difficult, but is immensely more so if the hiring manager has not identified the ideal profile for the candidate. “What are you looking for?” and “How can you test for that?” are great questions to ask. There is a host of resources available on behavioral hiring, like Effective Interviewing! (which is an elearning, book, and classroom style training program in competency-based interviewing) which may be of use.
Purpose: The “job objective” has long fell off the professional resume, but it is good to understand the career objectives of the individual before hiring them. The casting director might inquire as to why the actor famous for stand-up comedy is looking to read for a serious role. Or why a Hollywood blockbuster actress, might choose to do an independent film. Knowing the individual’s career goals and aspirations can allow their career path to align with the companies goals for many years. When Anne Hathaway was cast in the movie Les Miserables, she was tapped not only for her acting skills, but also because of her personal passion for the cause of disenfranchised women, something that she spoke of regularly in her press interviews for the film. The more candidates can relate and be excited by the purpose of the company, the mission of the firm, the content of the job, and the promise of the career path, the better for all parties.
Platform: Some actors are cast for roles because adding their name to the marquee or to the project, brings along a fan base and connections that would be unavailable for an unknown actor. The same is true for hires outside entertainment. Companies are often looking to bolster their reputation or brand by hiring a recognized expert well-known in the field. Even new college grads might bring with them networks within their university, club affiliations, or community service connections with value to their new employer. Experience sales people, certainly, are valued for the long-standing customer relationships that they can bring with them to their new employer. Candidates looking for new roles in any discipline are well-served by thinking about their own reputation and network in their industry, their city, or the like and how that might benefit their company. Hiring managers, or casting directors, are well-advised to think about the platform that their new hires represent and how to best leverage those for the good of the individual and the company.
Price: Of course, there is an economic element to hiring as well. Can the budget of the film afford the actor with the biggest fan base? Can the more senior, experienced candidate be afforded? Can the organization afford the onboarding and training investment required in a more junior, early-career candidate? There are trade-offs on both sides. Casting directors are working within a budget. So are hiring managers. And that budget not only includes the expense of the employee, but the value of the work product to the organization. A casting director could come in under-budget and help produce a failing film by not having the right caliber of talent. Likewise, any hiring manager can overpay for candidates as they try to find the right fit. I recently saw a Leonardo DaVinci exhibit at the San Diego Air and Space Museum which recounted a letter he sent in 1482, at the age of 30, to Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, where he indicated his knowledge of bridges and weaponry. An early resume or cover letter, it has been called. I think it does a great job of creating value for the kind of thing DaVinci brought to his future patron. It is good for hiring managers and candidates to keep in mind the economic value of the role and to make sure they are finding the right fit on that front as well.
There are many other things that casting directors must consider when making their determinations. It is a hard job that is fraught with controversy at times and I imagine the ones who are good at it make it look easy. Those of us tasked with building high-performance teams, can learn from the examples of great ensembles who work together to deliver great performances and the professionals that work behind the scenes to ensure the right people are in the cast.
This article was posted on LinkedIn Pulse.
“Feedback…it’s the breakfast of champions” – Dharmesh Shah