Sunday, April 25, 2010

Corner Office, Interview with Rachel Ashwell, founder of the home furnishings retailer Shabby Chic; New York Times, 4/25/10

Corner Office, Adam Bryant; New York Times, Interview with Rachel Ashwell, founder of the home furnishings retailer Shabby Chic: What’s Wrong With Saying ‘I Don’t Know’?:

"Q. What turns you off in interviews?

A. One thing is a kind of arrogance, the “yeah-yeah” people who think they know everything. I’ve seen people who just think they know it all, and then it happens over and over again. And that’s where I just think, “Oh no.” Because that, to me, is a character quality. It comes from a place of fear and wanting to please, or maybe thinking that you know everything.
I think the words “I don’t know”’ — in a positive way — is a little phrase much avoided, and I don’t really know why. I just turned 50 and there’s still plenty I don’t know and that’s something that I often tell my staff. If you don’t know something, it’s just so much better to say so. Guessing can cause all kinds of problems. But the point is not to be passive either, and to take responsibility and go find out what it is. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/jobs/25corner.html?scp=2&sq=corner%20office&st=cse

Corner Office, Interview with with Bill Carter, partner in and founder of Fuse, a youth marketing agency; New York Times, 4/18/10

Corner Office, Adam Bryant; New York Times, Interview with Bill Carter, partner in and founder of Fuse, a youth marketing agency:

"Q. So, what kind of leader are you now?

A. I think that I’m fair, because I try to be honest and direct in a helpful way. If you want people to be at their best, and if you want the whole company to be on the same page all the time, you need to be willing to communicate directly with people. In our office, what we’ve achieved is that being direct is not a personal attack.

I did learn that, to some degree, in my college lacrosse experience. When my coach was coming down on me or somebody else, it never felt like a direct attack. Now, it felt awful, but I never thought he was being mean-spirited about it. I never thought he was doing it for any other reason than he wanted us, as a team, to be on the same page and to be the best that we could be.
Q. How has your leadership style evolved? What do you do more of, or less of?

A. One of the things I do more of now, and probably a better job of now than I did 10 years ago, is being really present in our office when I’m there. I think many senior people, C.E.O.’s and presidents of companies, both small and large, obviously spend a lot of time outside of the office. What I used to tend to do with the 50 percent of the time that I was in the office would be to go into my office and shut the door, literally or figuratively, and delve back into the real core responsibilities of that day or that week. And I might as well have not been in the office. I wasn’t interacting with other staff, both senior and junior staff. I wasn’t gauging anything that was going on in the staff, learning anything new, or understanding the challenges that people were facing.

I’ve learned that when you’re in your office and you’re in that position, the best thing you can do is spend at least 50 percent of your time in the office communicating with as many staff as you have time to communicate with. Holing yourself up in your office is not the way to learn about what’s happening in the organization. The information doesn’t flow up to you when you’re in a closed-door situation like that.

I think that if you look at your core responsibilities a little less literally, you’d probably want to spend more time with your staff, because what are most C.E.O.’s really in charge of? Well, they are in charge of setting strategy. They are in charge of creating the best work environment. They are in charge of finding the best talent. How can you possibly do that by isolating yourself in your office and only communicating with people from accounting or your outside legal counsel or the majority of the people that are probably the ones e-mailing you?

Your junior staff people are not e-mailing you. And if you don’t go down the hall and talk to that person, you’re not going to know the real challenges."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/jobs/18corner.html?pagewanted=2&sq=corner%20office&st=cse&scp=4

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Corner Office, Interview with Jilly Stephens, executive director of City Harvest; New York Times, 4/ 11/10

Corner Office, Adam Bryant; New York Times; Interview with Jilly Stephens, executive director of City Harvest:

"Q. Do you remember the first time you were somebody’s boss?

A. I was working for a big international charity. I was in Romania and was leading a team of international surgeons and nurses and engineers, and we were transitioning the leadership role to me. The person I was taking over for turned to me and said, “So, what would you do in this situation?”

It was tough. I can’t recall exactly what we were dealing with, but I remember that my response was, “Well, I think we need to get some more information and we need to talk to these people.” Which is what we did.

I think that was the lesson very early on. You may have a hunch about what’s happening or what’s going on. But you really have to take the time to talk to people and find out. And oftentimes your hunch is wrong.

Q. Other lessons?

A. The thing that comes immediately to mind was the first time I was responsible for implementing the results of a strategic plan, and was faced with the inevitable resistance from people who didn’t like the new direction.

Q. What was the context?

A. It was this medical charity. It’s an aircraft that’s converted to house an operating room, and you fly into developing countries to do surgery to restore sight. The strategic shift was recognizing that we’re never going to end global blindness like this. We need to go deeper into the communities where we’re working.

That was very threatening to the people at the organization who existed just to move this plane from country to country. What I began to experience in the leadership role was a lot of resistance, even down to refusing to go to the place where everyone in the entire organization was gathering from around the world to figure out how we were going to implement this.

I just realized there and then that, well, they had their opportunity to get on board and we’ve done everything we can to help them get on board. The organization has to move on and it looks, unfortunately, as if it’s going to be without them.

Q. What was the lesson from that experience?

A. You’re not always going to bring people along. Maybe they just can’t get with the new direction. It’s important to give them a moment to sort of realize what’s coming, give them a moment to understand it, to get on board, and really work closely with them to encourage them to get on board. But if it appears they can’t do it, then the organization has to move on. The organization really has to come first.

Q. How would you describe your leadership style?

A. I’m somebody who likes to support staff, to have in place things that our staff needs to do a really fantastic job. One of the ways we do that here at City Harvest is to have really clear expectations. The staff have clear objectives that they have to meet throughout the year...

Q. Was there a job you had as a teenager that prepared you the best for leadership?

A. At 17, I worked as a horseback-riding instructor — taking groups of people, often with children, out onto beaches, onto highways. Looking back on it, that was a big deal, and it was a lot of responsibility. We had to pay careful attention to make sure everybody was just doing the right thing, that everybody knew what they had to be doing and that they were doing it the right way.

Q. How do you hire? What questions do you ask people?

A. I’m looking for people who can express concisely what it is that appeals to them about the job they’re interviewing for. That’s always quite an interesting opening question, and I’m always surprised at the number of people who can still be answering it 15 minutes later.

I’m looking for people who are passionate about whatever job it is that they’re applying for here at City Harvest, and that they’re passionate about our mission: to help feed hungry New Yorkers.

Q. What’s it like to work with you day to day? Do you do a lot of all-hands meetings?

A. I’m more low-key. I do walk around. I’m introverted by nature, so I’m not somebody who’s holding sort of big rah-rah meetings. I love the idea of having a big bell outside my office that we can ring when we get a big donation, but it’s just not me. But I do spend time talking with people.

Q. A lot of managers are introverted, yet they’re expected to be extroverted in leadership roles. What’s your advice for them?

A. Find what fits for you. My predecessor here ran fantastic all-staff meetings every month that were just jaw-droppingly good. She was just so magnetic. I realized pretty quickly that wasn’t a mantle I should try to shoulder.

What works for me are these small group things, and we’ll come together as an organization maybe quarterly, usually around something significant like the beginning or the end of harvest season, which is the time when we raise most money and most food. Then I’ll spend time with people informally. But that big rah-rah meeting, I just can’t pull that off. I’d love to think I can, but I can’t.

Q. What’s your best advice to people who are becoming managers for the first time?

A. It’s important that you communicate clearly with people who are going to be reporting to you, that you be as open as possible about who you are, what they should know about you, what they should understand about you, and how you like to operate.

I remember learning that very early on in my own career — having to sit and think about what I needed to let people know about me. I even said to people that I’ve been told that I look angry a lot of the time, and I’m usually not. It’s just my face, so just don’t be put off by that.

Again, just be very clear about what you expect of the people who are going to be reporting to you. Meet with them regularly. Help keep them on track. Understand what it is they need to succeed. That’s it.

Q. What is your best career advice to somebody who’s just getting out of college?

A. Take a gap year. As someone who’s traveled the world extensively and who has nephews and nieces growing up in Europe where the gap year is very common, I just think it’s invaluable to get out there and experience the world and experience other cultures, because you’ve got a lifetime of work ahead of you. I just think to draw on that year of spending time outside of your immediate world is a good thing to do."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/business/11corner.html

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Corner Office, Interview with Andrew Cosslett, chief executive of InterContinental Hotels Group; New York Times, 4/4/10

Adam Bryant, New York Times; Corner Office: Interview with Andrew Cosslett, chief executive of InterContinental Hotels Group:

"Q. How do you hire?

A. If I’m recruiting people for very senior positions, I will delve quite extensively into what makes them tick. I will look into how many times in their life they’ve been seriously tested emotionally, physically, where they’ve had to stand on their own feet and deal with something that they couldn’t be prepared for. That could be in the business context. It could be in the family context, social context.

And the ones who are the best, I’ve found, are the people who have had to confront something very difficult, and they’re the people you can rely on when the going gets really tough because they’ve been there, and they know what they can do...

Q. How do you test yourself?

A. I just have lunches with general managers of hotels. And because they know me and I’m trusted, they know they can speak very straight. The culture we’ve built in the business is one of great trust and openness and candor. And they know that they’ll only get rewarded for being open. The only people who suffer in I.H.G. are ones who don’t come up and say what they think and what’s on their mind.

In business, the big prizes are found when you can ask a question that challenges the corporate orthodoxy that exists in every business. In every business I’ve worked in, there’s been a lot of cost and value locked up in things that are deemed to be the way we do things around here, or they’re deemed to be critical to — in the hotel world — a guest experience. So you have to get talking to people and ask questions. I just keep asking people, “Why do you do that?”...

Q. What’s your best career advice to somebody who has just graduated from college?

A. Leave home. Go as far away as possible from what you know. I think you’ve got to be tested, and you’ve got to test yourself. So my best career advice would be life advice. Go and find out who you are and what you can deal with and put yourself in some positions that will be distinctly uncomfortable. Forcing yourself out of your comfort zone is a great learning in life.

The second would be: keep asking questions. There’s a lot of perceived wisdom in most industries that haven’t hasn’t been challenged for years. The trick in business is not to care too much. Because if you care too much, you won’t ask questions and you won’t challenge because you’ll care too much about your position and what someone’s thinking about you.

I was always relatively cavalier in my early career because I always thought if I don’t make it in business, I’ll go and do something else anyway. I always have given 100 percent to everything I’ve done, but I’ve always had a slightly maverick side that actually stood me in great stead, because it enabled me to ask those difficult questions and be the burr under the saddle.

The third one is: have a sense of humor. It’s a lot easier to get through most things if you’ve got a smile on your face. It doesn’t have to be a chore. So just lighten up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/business/04corner.html

A civil senator; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4/4/10

Jeffrey Lewis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; A civil senator:

"On April 4, 1991, Pennsylvania lost a favorite son, voters lost a U.S. senator who put their interests first before the politics of the day, and the nation lost a moderate Republican who understood, valued and cared about rebuilding this nation's human and physical infrastructure. John Heinz understood that bipartisanship, civility and integrity were the roots of legislative success and political longevity.

With the passage of the national health care legislation, the bitterness, unpleasantness and animosity displayed by members of Congress in some ways is reminiscent of the Congressional battle over passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

In an April 1978 speech to the American Association of University Women, Sen. Heinz shared his concerns over why the ERA was not moving forward. His comments reflect the mindset of a passionate, caring and thinking Republican legislator who clearly understood the pulse of the American people and today his words still echo the issues Congress cannot overcome:

"The stubborn battle over the ERA reflects a growing malaise in American society, and one that concerns me greatly. If I am right, it should be a grave concern to you and all Americans. We are losing our tolerance of diversity, our understanding of different circumstances and points of view, and good will toward those who reflect those differences. I think the reason for this failure of spirit, is a lack of confidence; a lack of confidence in our leaders, our institutions and even ourselves. We Americans have always been renowned for our ability to meet and conquer tough problems..."

What John Heinz discussed then is unfortunately still true today. He was elected in an era when civility was woven into the fabric of the legislative process. Name calling, if it did occur, was left to the backrooms, not a public forum and certainly not the floor of the U.S. Congress. No one, Republican or Democrat, would have tolerated the callous disregard for the presidency of the United States.

During Sen. Heinz's era, respect for the legislative process was paramount. These legislative colleagues certainly disagreed on many issues before them, but neither their race nor their religion, ever entered the public debate. It was always about the substance, the strategy and your ability as a legislator to convince your colleagues.

In a speech to the graduates of Wilkes College in May 1979, Sen. Heinz shared his definition of leadership:

"Real leadership, whether it is political, economic or moral, involves persuading people to do something now that will bear fruit in the future. But too many people live only in the short-term. Instead of clearly seeing what is demanded of us in this changing world ... of learning from the past, instead of charting a new course for tomorrow, too many Americans are allowing themselves to be manipulated into quarreling with the past and denying the realities of the future.... Americans risk losing the future and missing the great opportunities that lie before us as a nation."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10094/1047478-109.stm