The Intern Diaries: Week Six

What a week!  All six interns are now Certified Role-Based Assessment Consultants!  Week six and they are more than just onboarded – they’re integrated into our life, as a team and as the individuals that they are.

There was an article in the paper this morning advising workers to ‘brand’ themselves to make themselves layoff-proof.  Not a bad idea but it happens naturally when you, the management,  (a) know people’s Role,  (b) recognize and respect them for it, and (c) don’t force them into tasks they aren’t suited for and, therefore, dislike.

So herewith are their brands, at least as I see it:

Tristan is the techno-suit.  All the nerd stuff and he still dresses for success!

Rebecca is the journalista.  Give her an idea and she turns it into a piece of writing that fits the column width!

Kyle is the ‘give-it-to-me-I’ll-get-it-done’ guy.  I need it, I get it – does it get any better?

Crystal is the campaign planner.  Her favorite place is the conference room, favorite tool is the conference room whiteboard!

Kartik is the organizer.  And re-organizer.  If there is an efficiency to be had, he advocates for it!

And Lindsay is the deal broker.  She knows what’s going on and she knows where we want it to go, so she figures out how to make the contact happen!

Maybe I should have titled this ‘Six Weeks, Six Brands’.  I didn’t know how long it would actually take, given that they are new to the business environment,  but this is just about average for Coherent hires who are given Role-appropriate work scopes.

I’ve said it before: hire for Role and Coherence and you’ll get productuvity and teamwork.

Learning From Interns

It’s like having a learning lab.  Not for them, for us. They apply online, take their Role-Based Assessment and we know where they’ll fit.  Then the surprises start.

Take Lauren, the Action Mover/Communicator.  Could there be anyone more suited to talking to customers and getting them what’s good for them?  So I figured she must be majoring in marketing or communications.  Was I ever wrong!  Some well meaning counselor convinced her that she should stay in accounting after she expressed her doubts.  No matter that she didn’t really like the work, though of course she is smart enough to do well in any course.  She’d already invested time, and her parents’ money, in the accounting track and it was the prudent thing to advise her to continue with it.

I knew she would be fantastic at any task involving connecting with people in a meaningful way and quickly getting what was needed.  And I have not been disappointed.  In a few months I’ve seen her do all manner of amazing things.  Even though I knew it was in her DNA – that she would inevitably do these things and do them well – it was like watching a bud bloom.

Now her internship is coming to an end and I wish I could get her and the counselor in the same room and remind them that real life is not always like in books.

Now that I think of it, this internship thing is just like speed parenting.

Arrogance, Greediness, Fear – Oh My!

If the economy isn’t improving, neither is the stuff of the headlines.  Downsizings are bad enough: some can’t be helped and some are probably long overdue if the company is to achieve adequate productivity.  It’s the ones where the golden parachutes are opening and nothing’s trickling down the food chain that sadden me.  And of course there’s always Bernie Madoff.  And Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.  And the suicides – German billionaire speculator Adolf Merckle  the latest. Gordon Gekko must be chortling in his celluloid grave.

Arrogance, greediness, fear – oh my!  The lions and tigers and bears that threaten to bring our world to collapse are on the prowl.

They are a cycle because they are cut of the same cloth: the greedy denial of reality, the arrogant illusion that you are the only one of importance in the world.  You can’t have the infantile arrogance and greediness without the fear that leads to worse and worse decisions.  And the evidence says it’s rampant in what e think of as our leaders.

Arrogance, greediness, fear: it’s always a down cycle when these rule.  The things that go bump in the night reside inside.  Time to out them.

You Can’t Change Change

Someone asked me today to write about managing change.  I know it’s a popular topic but when he said it, it sounded so absurd to me.  Manage change?  The very nature of change is that it’s unpredictable.  I think what he really was asking was about how you manage your *reaction* to change: what you do when change happens, rather than maintain the illusion that you actually change the direction of the change.

So here’s my advice:

First, give up the illusion that you control the changes in the universe, or even your little corner of it.  All you can control is your reaction to it.  React with fear and it will feel like you’re in the middle of an ocean with huge waves of change crashing over you.  Keep paddling toward home, toward the vision and values that guide you, and keep your eyes on their beacon.  Things will calm down and yesterday’s change will be today’s acceptable reality.

Second, admit you are not the center of the universe any more.  Yes you were, at least in your mother’s eyes, for a few brief moments shortly after your birth.  But humans are social animals and we are all in it together.  Change doesn’t affect you and no one else.  Take comfort in that and reach out to other people.  They are your lifeboat in the maelstrom.

Third, listen to a political slogan on occasion.  With thanks to Barack Obama, get some of that “change we need.”  Because we need change.  Without change there is no innovation, no technology no new toys.  Think of the goodies it brings if you can’t embrace it because it’s the incontrovertable evidence of a life well lived.

The Importance of Having a Curator on the Team

Happy Labor Day to all who are off today.  As an entrepreneur (who at one time in my life was not only a union member, but the grievance chairman for my location!) I’m celebrating my ability to work today.  And mostly, I’m celebrating that at least one of my team is right there with me going back and forth over the web working on presentations with me.

A couple of hours ago I was working on a presentation for a panel on talent management.  I found an old handout I’d used before and sent it to Jackfor his opinion.  He IMed back, “I have something better” and this is what he sent:

Develop and Keep Your Best Employees. Follow The Ten Commandments for Running an Organization:

1. Assume that your staff has the best interests of the organization in their intentions.
2. Be forgiving, even when they make mistakes.
3. Be merciful when they make big mistakes.
4. Be compassionate: don’t place them in tempting circumstances.
5. Be gracious, even to those who don’t return it.
6. Be slow to anger when people disobey.
7. Be abundantly kind and assume people mean well.
8. Never renege on your word.
9. Remember the times when people do something right.
10. Always allow people to repent their error, carelessness or apathy and forgive them.

At the end of the list was my name.  I don’t remember writing it though I have no doubt that I did.

This is the advantage of having a Curator on any corporate team.  Curators are amazing.  They know what’s worth saving and what’s worth tossing out and when they save something they can actually find it.  They’re the corporate keepers of the wisdom and I fear they are an endangered species, allowed to leave organizations without passing on the keys to the kingdom.

The Curator

Thank you, Jack valued friend and team member.  You make this entrepreneurial life so much easier.

Advice to a Young Entrepreneur

I love getting emails like this one from Lissette, a freshman at the Art Institute of Charlotte majoring in Fashion Marketing and Management, especially when I’m feeling like I have something to pass on.

She said:

My reason for writing to you is because im doing a project about my career, which is creating my own shoe line and opening my own store as well. My professor has asked me to interview someone that is related to what i want to do, which is to become a CEO just like yourself. I know you are a busy person but i would appreciate it if you may answer some of the questions that are fundamental to my project and most importantly to my dream career.

These were her questions and my answers.

1) For what company(s) do you have the title of CEO?

Wow – who has the time to be CEO of more than one? Ok, so I sent her my updated bio, which I realized I never updated here. <updates bio>

2) What steps did you have to take to become a CEO? Can you please include any education that may have helped you in becoming a CEO? If you didn’t receive any college education, would you say that it is necessary?

Nothing prepares you to be an entrepreneur like just doing it. I have a lot of education which was necessary for developing our products but for shoe design you need to be artistic and know what women will buy. Hang out with entrepreneurs whenever you can and you’ll pick up a lot of good stuff.

3) What skills do you think one should have to become a successful CEO?

You need to be a Founder. (There are some things on my blog about that.) A huge amount of energy. (I work very long hours most days.) PR is expensive so learn to write well so you can get free PR while you are developing your business.

4) What is your advice in how to start gaining experience?

Do anything you can – make things and sell them. Get other people involved with you.

5) Any additional advice you could give me that could help me in reaching my goals?

Fashion is high risk and you’ll need investors. Figure out how to find the people who invest in this stuff. Read trade journals, Womens Wear Daily (I am assuming they still print it – it was the big paper a long time ago), Wall Street Journal. Save money now! You’ll need it to get started.

—

So now I am thinking, have I taken my own advice? And if I knew then what I know now, would I have done it?

Actually, all the advice I ever got on careers was to get a job that didn’t interfere with being a mother. (Yes, that was a very long time ago.) I was never very good at listening to people who said I couldn’t do something and that’s probably helped more than anything. Without persistence, being an entrepreneur is impossible.

And yes, I would have done it. When the mission is that powerful, there’s no saying no.

I hope Lissette just says yes.