Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Richard R. Buery Jr., president and chief executive of the Children’s Aid Society: Before Making a Big Splash, Learn to Swim:
"Q. What’s your strategy for finding mentors?
A. I’ve gone to people for various reasons — because they had an interesting job or because I admired their work or I heard them speak — and said: “You don’t know me, but this is who I am. This is what I’m doing. I’d love it if every few months I could come and have lunch with you, ask you some questions, and give me your feedback until you get bored or until I stop calling.”
And what’s been amazing to me is that no one’s ever said no to that. I don’t think anyone’s ever said no. It’s made an incredible difference in my career.
Q. What lessons have you picked up from your mentors?
A. Some are just around the importance of how you communicate messages. At Children’s Aid, one of the new challenges for me is that it’s much larger than other things I’ve done, both in terms of the number of people, but also our geographic reach. I’m used to roles where if I wanted to talk to everybody, I could actually talk to everybody, and that’s no longer possible. So just the importance of being clear and concise in your communication — not 10 messages, but two or three messages repeated over and over and over again in every way you can and every opportunity you have."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/business/12corner.html?_r=1
No comments:
Post a Comment