Tag: Career

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Career Libby

Ex-Boss, Future Boss?

I had lunch with my old boss yesterday. I like her so much…she’s super smart and I feel privileged that she wants to continue our relationship. Actually, I’m friends with all three bosses I had at that organization; however, I am not in touch with the bosses I had in the two subsequent jobs after that organization…interesting, I think. Was it the organization or the people? Maybe it was the organization that attracted the people.

In any event, I have been able to maintain this important relationship which has had incredible positive outcomes for me. I’ve learned so much, including: the importance of data in decision-making, how you can – and should – still consider the emotional side, delegation is not a weakness, and that having a good team can make all the difference. As a supervisor of staff, I have tried to emulate all the good things she showed me. Even in the jobs where my relationship was not positive with my supervisor, I was able to help and support other folks I worked with. Since then, their careers have grown and completely eclipsed my own. That makes me feel so good – to know that I played a role (not “the” role necessarily – clearly they had something all on their own!) in their professional growth and development. It is important – for both yourself and others – to support staff and co-workers who are coming up through the ranks. We cannot be afraid of another’s success, that they may somehow outshine us. The truth is that by making everyone on your team stronger, you reap the rewards, both personally and professionally.

– Libby Bingham

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Book Reports

The Stories We Tell Ourselves

One of my favorite books is Crucial Accountability, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler and David Maxwell. I read it after I heard one of the authors speak at a conference last year. What I liked best about the book was that it takes all of your good intentions and helps you put them into action. The whole premise is that we need to address the gap between our expectations and reality, though we seldom do. We’ll complain about where our colleagues fall short and we grumble about what our spouse forgot to do, but we rarely address these issues with the person involved. We’re happy to tell everyone else, but it’s too scary to talk about it with them directly. We’re nervous they won’t see it our way, we’re afraid they won’t like us, we don’t want to be seen as too demanding…the list goes on and on.

In talking about how to address these issues, the book suggests changing the stories we tell ourselves. When a colleague of mine totally blows off a meeting with me without any heads up, it’s easy for me to tell myself that she’s rude and doesn’t respect me. The suggestion made by authors, however, is to ask yourself why would a logical and rational person would behave this way. It’s perhaps another way of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, but with a bit different angle. I’m not a particularly unlikable person, and we do have a culture of respect in my office, and really, if I’m honest, her blowing off the meeting probably has very little to do with me. If I ask why a logical and rational person would totally blow off my meeting, I come up with a whole list of other possibilities: she was running late and wasn’t in the building yet, she got caught up in something else and lost track of time, or – gasp – maybe I didn’t communicate how important it was for her to be there and she didn’t make it a priority. These are all things that I could see happening to me, who I consider a fairly logical and rational person.

Now sure, there are ways to avoid these things, but I think there are two important things to remember. One, we’re all doing the best we can. No one wakes up in the morning with the sole purpose of destroying my day – they’re doing the best they can and sometimes a priority for me isn’t the same priority for them. Two, shit happens. It just does. And the best we can do when it does happen is apologize and do what we can to make it right. And make sure we make it to the next meeting on time – maybe even a few minutes early.

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Career Libby

Nice to Meet You!

I just had my ten year work anniversary…what?! Out of that decade, almost 7 of those years have been spent working from home. I go into the office occasionally, but not on any regular kind of basis. This arrangement works well for getting my job done, as well as doing what I need to for my family. When I do go in, I see the people I need to see, and my office friends that I don’t necessarily need to see but want to see. I also see a whole host of people that are completely new to me…and me to them! (You should see some of our stare-down-face-offs in the elevator; we’re on high alert here in the Nation’s Capital – “see something, say something”.) I’m a friendly sort and usually end up being the first to say hello and identify myself. I typically get one of two reactions: a blank stare and a “nice to meet you” or a wide-eyed “oooohhh…nice to meet you.” I’m not sure which is worse: not being known at all or being known by reputation. I’m not saying my reputation isn’t earned (love me or hate me, I think, are my two general camps), but it’s disturbing when it somehow follows you like a ghost. I mean, catch me in action before you make a judgment, people!

In that spirit, I’d like to offer a bit of advice for people working remotely. Face-to-face relationship building becomes more important than ever – whenever possible, show your face! Meet a colleague for coffee, go in and pick your boss’ brain for an hour, attend a non-mandatory meeting. And maybe a smidge of advice for you office folks working with colleagues who are outside the office? Try to involve your faceless co-workers in non-traditional ways – share a bit of office gossip in a virtual water-cooler situation or maybe try to meet them on their own turf for a post-work happy hour drink. I’ve had many opportunities to build a relationship with folks over the phone or email that was been strengthened with just one short, informal interaction (and there are some folks I would prefer to ONLY have a virtual relationship with!!). Whichever side of the equation you sit on, it’s important to put a face to a name, actions with a reputation, the personal with the virtual. To be fully satisfied with being a teleworker, it is important to become fully vested in both the status AND the people. I’m hoping this recipe allows me to embrace my semi-anonymity for the next ten years!

-Libby Bingham

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Career Karen

Seeing Is Believing?

Karen SeeingisBelievingYou’ve heard the phrase “Seeing is believing.” Well, that’s not necessarily how I live my life. And frankly, I don’t really want to live my life that way.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t discredit it. “Seeing is believing” plays an important role. For example, to truly give someone your trust, they need to earn it. Therefore, seeing them being trustworthy will create a strong foundation for believing they are trustworthy.

Yes, there are areas in our lives that require us to see before we believe.

What I’m referring to is more so about the confidence to not hold back.

My perception of “seeing is believing” limits the wonder of the “what if.”

“Seeing is believing” means I limit my confidence in the impossible, the unfathomable, the unattainable. I limit my worldview to only what is guaranteed. No risk whatsoever??? No way. Can’t. Won’t. Don’t want to.

That would be like sucking every ounce of my passion out of my body!

“Believing is seeing.” Now that’s a sentence I can buy into!

It’s one thing to believe because the proof and facts are presented to you. Sure, anyone can do that! That’s easy.

Show me a meat lovers pizza and, trust me; I’ll believe it’s delicious! Show me a song that’s been already composed by a brilliant musician; yes indeed I’ll believe it’s beautiful music.Show me a winning game plan for an innovative idea; I’ll believe it will succeed.Show me how to improve my golf swing with guaranteed results; yes, I’ll believe you and do what you say.

But to believe in something which requests you to imagine, to visualize, to ignite curiosity, to ponder, to wonder, to stimulate opportunity, to provoke longing, to welcome the “what if” – this excites me! This tells me to broaden my perspective; to listen carefully; to observe intently and to think outside my existing perceptions.

To believe, that I may see, welcomes vision. To believe, that I may see, invites possibility, hope and forward motion. Fantastic!

How does this apply to you? “Karen, it all sounds so nebulous and philosophical. Where’s the meat of it, KT!”

Ok, invisible Cyber Voice – here’s the crux…

I’ll believe it when I see it! – I’ve said that phrase. Many times. But…I don’t like me when I talk that way. I sound like a skeptic. I sound defensive, reactive, guarded and cynical.   Feels like I just nailed up a fence; established boundaries; set up stipulations. Why? Why say it in the first place? Why not engage and explore the conversation? Why so quick to dismiss the notion? What happened for me to react that way? What went wrong for me to now hold this presupposition?

I see it because I believe it! Zowie! Just writing that phrase stirs me up! The confidence! The relentless commitment to not wilt when challenged! To get back up and keep running when you trip over the hurdles! To not buckle when odds are against you! To not quit when the feat seems too great to overcome!

I see it because I believe it! I sound like I’m healthy and don’t carry old baggage around. Life gives us hard knocks, sure. But I don’t want those hard knocks to define me. They are part of my story, sure. But every hard moment ends up being a true gift. It either grows your character or jades your soul.

I’d rather look a fool for seeing because I believe, than to limit my world to believing only if I see.

-Karen Thrall

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Career Gabriel

You’re Never Too Old to Learn

The other day I was unwinding with friends at another friend’s apartment. Amidst the beer and cigarette smoke, an interesting conversation commenced concerning workers’ value and how being able to accurately present one’s value is a critical skill.

This well-spoken and intelligent friend of mine is Conway. Two years my junior, he attends GW and interns with a very well respected think tank here in the District of Columbia. He focuses on economics and global markets, so you can imagine he would be the one to lead such a discussion. We starting talking about the all the hundreds of customers I had seen try on shoes at the retail store where I work. He then began to quantify the number of people with whom I had tried shoes on, the number of hours spent with different types of customers, and how these experiences helped hone my skills to sell a product. Reading people’s personalities and choosing which shoes to bring down to them based on this does take some skill and experience. By placing these statistics next to amount of dollars sold, my value as an employee can be calculated and assessed. This all may have been some buzzed logic conjured up by Conway to make me feel great about myself at that moment, but nonetheless, I still think that there’s a great lesson to be learned.

A firm handshake won’t cut it anymore. Knowing what you’re capable of constitutes as essential knowledge, but knowing how to show that to others is absolutely necessary. So even though I’m two years older than Conway, he was able to teach me a critical lesson in being successful in any aspect of life in our short five minute conversation. And for those to whom this isn’t news, maybe this can serve just as a friendly reminder! Here’s to progress.

– Gabriel Oigbokie

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Career Libby

Be Prepared

No matter what you think of them, the Boy Scouts have a really kick-ass motto: Be Prepared. In my personal life, I’m probably less prepared than most – I’m constantly running out of milk, TP, not having child care plans for snow days… But at work? That’s a different story. I am usually at the top of my game, with planning and preparation as my two most important tools.

Being unprepared is not pretty. This applies to pretty much everything: not reading background documents, not anticipating the right number of people at a meeting, not practicing presentation remarks or even not making contingencies for bad weather. Preparation is more than half the battle – if you want to be considered a professional, you have to prepare. That means reading up on your industry, staying abreast of trends (management, education, technology, etc.), maintaining and building your network and learning how not to be reactionary. Keep on top of your work and you won’t be caught off guard. If you are doing a presentation, don’t wing it – read the materials, practice speaking in front of a mirror or with others, anticipate questions and be ready to answer them. Sure, things happen that you don’t see coming, but if you’re prepared, you can roll with the punches and still do what needs to be done. As a professional, you are not working in a vacuum – what you do or don’t do affects other people’s work. Consider how preparation can affect your reputation. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful forces out there…be prepared to have it work in your favor!

-Libby Bingham

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On the Job

Continuity vs. Competition

Last week I facilitated an annual meeting of 60 volunteer leaders in New Orleans. It was Mardi Gras, so it was a special treat to be visiting the city at that time. But even more fun than being in New Orleans for Mardi Gras was the energy these volunteer leaders brought with them. Some would argue that they’re the next generation of leaders, but I think they’re today’s leaders. Sure, they’re newer to the profession than some of their colleagues, but that doesn’t make them any less capable, passionate or dedicated. In fact, in some ways, it makes them that much more qualified to be leading these discussions. When they talk about the future of where the industry is going, they’re talking about their future. They’re incredibly invested in ensuring growth and prosperity for the next several decades.

While the meetings are always productive, I typically enjoy the unstructured conversations over drinks and dinner much more. And New Orleans was no exception. Some of the local members were kind enough to host a reception for us, and I had a great conversation with one of their young leaders. She shared a recent conversation with me that she’d had with her boss. There hadn’t always been support for mentoring, and it seemed that sharing wasn’t a priority for the established professionals. They were talking about grooming the next generation, and she shared something I thought was incredibly profound, yet simple. Mentoring up-and-comers fosters continuity; it does not create competition. Her vision was that of a legacy for the organization — why wouldn’t today’s leaders want to leave a legacy of talent and performance that developed under their leadership? It’s an incredibly powerful legacy to prepare the organization for success long after you’re gone. So often we get caught up in what today is and where we are at this exact moment. Sure, mentoring someone takes time now, but the future rewards are more than worth the investment. Who can you help today to ensure your values live on tomorrow?

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Career Libby

What I Want to Be When I Grow-Up

My boss just recently told me that she is retiring after many years in teaching and over three decades in association management. We talked a bit about what she’s going to do once she doesn’t have to come to the office on a regular basis and she mentioned spending more time with family and friends, exercising, theater and the like. But the thing that sticks with me most is that she wants to live abroad in impoverished areas and teach little kids. Now, she’s got a pretty cushy deal right now: a big corner office, travel to resorts for meetings, teleworking, etc. To hear her talk about leaving it all behind and getting down in the trenches kind of threw me – I mean, that’s pretty cool. It also got me thinking, what the heck do I want to do when I grow-up?

I think this is a thought process much longer and complicated than I could (or should!) put in a blog post, but it’s definitely worth putting out there…if you could stop doing what you’re doing and do something else, what would it be? Certainly there are practical considerations – I’m never going to be a figure-skater or a whale biologist – but barring those (and a few others), there are a lot of possibilities. My boss went back to her roots as a school teacher…unfortunately, my roots are in food service and I don’t think I want to go back, but could I go forward? Could I finally work as a park ranger or red carpet security agent? Maybe, maybe not, but if I start thinking – and doing – now instead of waiting until I retire, maybe I can spend more time doing things that are closer to my heart and get closer to what Catherine talked about in “Loving What You Do.” I realize now that my boss’ plans are not just her own, but mine as well – she has created for me an opportunity for self-reflection and reshaping the direction of my own career trajectory…thanks, Anne. Now, excuse me while I search for open mic nights at my local pub…

-Libby Bingham

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Career On the Job

StrengthsFinder

A team I’m currently working with is using Gallup’s StrengthsFinder 2.0 skills assessment and I’m lucky enough to be taking part in it. I’ve participated in a number of assessments before and used a couple with my own teams, specifically the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Enneagram personality types assessment. MBTI is probably the most well-known assessment in the circles I travel and along with that, probably the one that most people roll their eyes at as well. There is often not much time between getting the results and hearing, “Oh, that’s your ENTJ talking,” or “No kidding you’re an introvert.”

And as misunderstood as these assessments can be, I do still think there’s great value in taking the time to learn about yourself and the people you work with. If these types of assessment offer nothing else, they remind us that we all process information differently and approach the world with unique worldviews, and there is great value in those reminders. However, if you’re open to learning more, each assessment can offer more valuable insights on you and your teams.

What’s interesting to me about the StrengthsFinder is that it’s focused less on personality and more on – as the name would suggest – your skills and strengths. In our professional and personal lives, we seem to focus much more on our weaknesses and how we can improve those, and that’s often a recipe for failed New Year’s resolutions, feelings of inadequacy and plain frustration. The philosophy behind the StrengthsFinder is that if we focus on our strengths instead, we can build teams and partnerships with others who possess complementary strengths to our own, rather than looking to be all things within ourselves. It’s a fascinating concept to me, and one that makes a lot of sense. If we spent more time focusing on what we are good at rather than where we fall short, I suspect we’d open ourselves up to a lot more possibilities.

And just in case you’re curious, my top 5 themes are empathy, relator, communication, responsibility and developer, which seemed about right to me.

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Book Reports

It Is What It Is…But It Doesn’t Have To Be

I finished John Kotter’s The Heart of Change, and one of the things I ended up enjoying most about it was the way real-life stories were used to drive home the theory of what he was saying. I suppose that’s not unexpected, coming from a book that encourages storytelling as one of the most powerful tools we have. One of the stories, however, stood out to me. The story centers around the manufacturing of airplanes – a large and complex task that involves many people. For years, the plane was assembled one station at the time, and if the parts weren’t at the appropriate station at the right time, they would be added at the end. This last step in the process would require the undoing and then redoing of anything that happened after the part was originally supposed to be added, which ended up costing time and money. The rationale was that delivery of the parts was out of the plant’s control, so there was nothing the manufacturer could do.

When a new CEO came on board, one of the first changes he made was to put an end to this process. He told the employees that the plane would not move down the assembly line until it was properly finished at each station. For so long, it had been deemed impossible for such a thing to happen and the inefficiency of the process had become accepted as the only way things could actually get done. However, the visual of the plane just sitting at one of the stations was a powerful motivator to change the way things were done. As people pushed suppliers and found different ways to work, a newer and more efficient way of assembling planes emerged.

I like this story because I think far too often we accept things the way they are and come to believe change isn’t possible. In this case, it was someone who questioned the process and used a powerful visual to make an impact. In my experience, I’ve found that sometimes simply asking the right question is enough to spark change. But most of all, we need to stop accepting frustration and inefficiency as the way things happen. Most people would prefer things were easier and less complicated to get done, so it’s not as hard a sell as we think it is. What’s getting in your way and keeping you from working more efficiently? What’s slowing you down and making life harder?

p.s. In addition to finishing The Heart of Change, I’ve also continued my Gillian Flynn kick and finished Dark Places. It’s a quick read if you’re looking for a dark story that keeps you guessing. Her Sharp Objects is up next for me, along with Uncontainable by Kip Tindell, Chairman & CEO of The Container Store. Will keep you posted!