The Intern Diaries: Week Seven plus

The realization is dawning that as July ends, the interns will be starting to leave.  Crystal, who’s going to Hong Kong and Macau to visit family, and Lindsay, who’s heading back to Texas, will be the first to go.  And I’m wondering how the others will experience their leaving.

It will be good practice for them, given that they are likely to see their colleagues come and go in their future jobs.  At least this isn’t a downsizing!  Speaking of which, there’s talk of an increase in distressing reactions to being downsized – sabotage, mostly of the technology sort.  Just the sort of behaviors that the non-coherent, short term thinking person is more likely to actually do.

But for our coherent, self aware bunch, I expect their future work life to be more productive and positive.  They understand that temporary setbacks shouldn’t be turned into permanent ones by letting stress overwhelm and alter behavior in a negative direction.  And they act on it.  Even in a down economy, coherent people are naturally attractive to employers.

And now I know that internship has long reaching effects on careers.  Lauren, our Spring intern, just wrote me.  I was concerned that with the job market so poor, she would be locked out, but no, it sounds like she got a job that not only fits her, but which will allow her to help others get a good school fit!

She said:

It is a sales/client services position. First part is I have to call potential students and give them information about Ashford and evaluate them to see if they are a good fit for the school. Once that process is over, I help them enroll and will be their guide through their first course. It should be a challenging but fun position. I just finished my 2 week training course and will start officially on Monday.

Congrats and good luck, Lauren!  They are lucky to have you!  And psssst, just between us, we are about to launch the Role-Based Assessment for careers!

The Intern Diaries: Week Three

Another amazing week with the Super Six.  Watching them become a subculture is fascinating.  They work intensely on their own, then pair off, then they cluster.  They draw each other in and something wonderful happens.  You can see the attachments as if they were drawn in the air above their heads.  And because they are all so very Coherent (such a special quality, we have begun to capitalize it,) this crazy entrepreneurial world we inhabit doesn’t faze them, even when we are approaching warp speed.

After only two weeks, during which the first five were oriented, given assignments, put through our standard four hour consultant/agent training, and let loose, we asked them to present their projects at our weekly management meeting.  (Our sixth, only being with us for two days operated the technology – they integrated her into their subculture right away!)  And present they did, PowerPoints and all.

So what did I learn from them this week?

Most of the time, Role trumps age and experience.

In plain English, who you are is more important than what you’ve done.  Yes, I did know that in the intellectual sense.  But it never ceases to amaze me, and amazement is the substrate within which you get new appreciation.  You no longer just know.  You *know*.

Are You Taking Any Prisoners?

As a coda to the conference on women entrepreneurs, last night there was a gathering at the Innovation Center in Philadelphia to hear the results of a survey on the same subject.  I was still on a roll from the previous day, which was a flashback to my first consciousness-raising group in the early 70’s.

As I went on about finding alternative ways to do business when you get blocked, Gloria Rabinowitz, the managing director of Golden Seeds in Philadelphia, an angel venture group that supports women entrepreneurs, said to me  “I like your ‘take no prisoners’ attitude.”

So I have to ask myself, why do I not take prisoners?  Are women expected to?  I haven’t ever been accused of ‘emotional blackmail’ but I guess that would be the equivalent of prisoner-taking.

So here it is, the whole truth, albeit according to me:

If you take prisoners, you take on burdens and distractions.

You will become the imprisoned one.

And my simple advice, whether you are an entrepreneur or not:

Take No Prisoners.

ABC’s for First-Time Entrepreneurs

I’m thinking about tomorrow’s event at Fox School of Business (Temple University) – Where are the Women Entrepreneurs?  I’ll be on the first panel and will doubtless be expected to come up with some sage advice for the young women there.

Since this is an academic environment, I’m thinking ABC, so here’s a sneak peek:

A – Admit you’re a beginner.

This one has always served me well since there are so few things I really know how to do.  At least I’m always willing to try.  This should explain why my lifetime highest bowling score is way lower than President Obama’s lowest one.

B – Be willing to learn from anyone who is willing to teach you.

This goes double if you are conventionally smart.  Other people are just as smart but in their own way and you will be amazed at what they know that you never even thought of.

C – Communicate to everyone who you think can help you.

Even if they can’t, they may know someone who can.  And if they don’t, you’ve put your needs out to the Universe.

Maybe in a few more years I’ll learn enough to go from D to Z…

When Visions Meet

Do you remember those sped-up photos of cells dividing and multiplying until they reach the point where they change direction and something new and different emerges?

It’s like that with visions.  When two visions come very close, when they are mergeable in some way, if they are fed the energy of both sources they too become something new – a living, breathing organism of some sort.  Whether that is one being or an enterprise involving thousands of individual organisms acting together is less important than the mechanism: two original, pure visions, each dedicated to bettering the world in some way. coming together in an ecosystem that supports the human spirit, producing revolutionary progress that benefits the far off future.

I think sometimes when it is about to happen, one or both visions are overcome with the fear that they will be engulfed or destroyed by the other and the natural drive to merge them fails.  The trick is not to erect walls to keep fears out but to make them visible for what they are: the hobgoblins we keep alive with our distracted energy.

I’ve just started working on one – I think of it as a VisionMeld – and will keep you posted on my progress.

Found in Translation

Dr. Anna Elisa enjoys her first Philadelphia cheesesteak!

There’s nothing like looking at your work through the eyes of someone else. Especially someone whose language you don’t speak.

This past week our guest at The Gabriel Institute was Dr. Anna Elisa Villemor-Amaral of Kienbaum in Sao Paulo, Brazil, who is our new affiliate.  They’re consultants in executive search, assessment and all that goes with helping businesses succeed through people.  Dr. Anna Elisa is their expert in assessment.  And, compared to me, she is an expert in communicating across the Brazilian Portuguese/Philadelphia English ([please no “yo Philly!” jokes here…) chasm.  Things are always lost in translation, as she bemoaned to me last night after consuming her first Philadelphia cheesesteak with a bottle of Philly’s native beer, Yuengling.

But we have a good start.  Because of the highly technical aspects of our web-based assessment process, getting translation is not a simple matter.  It requires bridging not only language but cultural gaps.

Culture is easier to bridge, imho, especially for the well traveled non-ethnocentric.  Maybe I feel that way because my brain doesn’t seem to retain words it doesn’t have links to or immediately understand, which makes learning new languages nearly impossible.  So it was in the sharing of culture that we connected best.  Divulging our experiences as women, as mothers, as researchers coming later in life into entrepreneurship, we found the connections that are stronger than the frustrations of there often not being quite the right words to say precisely what you mean that the other person will understand fully.

I am happy to report that, as with all good but complex things, more was found than lost.

Meta-Networking

Networking is getting to be a full time job for some, an industry for others.   I was surprised when the suggested curriculum for my Entrepreneurship class didn’t cover it, so I turned one session into Networking 101, and topped it off with getting Adam J. Kovitz, CEO & Editor in Chief of The National Networker and Executive Director of the Relationship Networking Industry Association to sit, share and – well – network of course – with the students.  I actually met Adam through someone I met at Greater Philadelphia Senior Executive Group (with the tag line, “Networking for Life” you know this has to be great) at another networking group the other guy invited me to (not memorable enough, other than meeting Adam, for a link).  But though we’d talked about business, networking and the business of networking, we’d never really gotten down to the real reason we are both networking evangelists, though admittedly I have come to it relatively late.

It was while meta-networking in front of the class (that’s networking about networking) it suddenly dawned on me that it’s a collaborative form of leadership.  We have the potential to lead the world into a new way of interacting, of synergizing, of creating value.  It remains for us to go from the vision into action.

Time to get those promised articles to the people I met these last two weeks…