Leadership

In your career, you’ll work on the one project that will change you forever. It will be something huge, your role will be key and terrifying, you’ll fight with each other, you’ll give up your entire personal life…all to make sure something happens the way it’s supposed to.

I got to be a part of something like that: what I call “living a real life Harvard Business School Case.”  We had a reunion the other day and here are my lessons learned:

1. You never lose the connections you have created with these people.  They will always mean something important to you.

2. You appreciate the bravery. Sure, it’s easy now that it’s finished for others to dismiss the effort. But you know how terrifying every day was as you were trying to complete the impossible.

3. You realize that people are NOT replaceable. Sure, you can put someone else in a role. But the reason why it all worked was because of who was in the role at that time.  Movies succeed or fail due to casting. It’s the same at work.

Most importantly, great things happen because there is leadership throughout the organization. It’s not just top down, it’s every person who’s involved exhibiting leadership in their own way.

 

Growing Up Asian

When people ask me how being Asian has affected me at work, I don’t have a great answer. I wasn’t aware that anyone was doing something to me because I was an Asian female, but I know that growing up in an Asian household affected me. Here were the things that hurt me at work: Continue reading →

More on Adding Value to Every Communication (LL#5)

As you progress, you’ll be writing emails to more senior people. Here are some tips and tells on whether you’re doing it right.

1. Your email has to be clear and crisp. If your email looks like one big paragraph, it’s probably a run on stream of consciousness, not a well crafted email.

Opening sentence: explain intent, context, the why. “As you know, the project is in amber status and I wanted to make you aware of what actions we are taking to mitigate the situation”, “You’ll see in today’s report, the following areas are flagging amber, and I wanted to make you aware….” Usually, it’s a statement of fact, and wanting to make the person aware of something related to that.  This sentence makes you credible.

2. If you are asking the person to do something, make it clear as a stand alone sentence. “As a result, we’d like to ask that you attend a meeting, talk to Tom, something.” What do you want me to do? This sentence makes you clear…”What do you need me to help you with?”

3. Copy those people who need to be copied. If it’s someone really senior, you need to copy your boss. And your boss shouldn’t be surprised that you sent the email.

Here’s the tell on whether or not you did it right: if the person responds back. If you get nothing back, chances are you didn’t hit the mark.

The Most Beautiful Paragraph

Reddit asked people to submit “the most beautiful paragraph or sentence you’ve ever read”….This brought tears to my eyes. Read the post here.

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.

“Pooh?” he whispered.

“Yes, Piglet?”

“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s hand. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”

A.A. Milne

A Great Top Ten Tips Article

A friend who reads my blog sent this to me. It’s a great article by Fay Vincent, who was the president and CEO of Columbia Pictures and was a commissioner of Major League Baseball. One quote I like from his article:

“Be careful about the use of the word ‘average’ – one can drown in a river the average depth of which is six inches.”

Leadership: Power vs Attractiveness

I attended a fantastic seminar, and learned a lot. Here’s something that I found interesting. Leadership is along a continuum of power on one side and attractiveness on another.

Power is about authority, influence, and resources. Attractiveness is about likeability. You need to have both. Why?

You need enough power to be taken seriously.

You need enough attractiveness so others want to help you.

Many of us naturally fall somewhere along that line: the extremes are strong power – people who can execute, but can be viewed as rude, intimidating or abrupt. Others are strong attractive- well liked but viewed as soft, weak, or ineffective.  The goal is to be blended.

Where do you naturally fall? What actions can you take to be more balanced?

Your Personal Board of Directors

I was part of a panel when someone brought this up. And then I saw it on one of my favorite blogs – Sallie Krawcheck’s article about having a personal board of directors.  I like the idea of a personal board of directors, because it gives you a way of thinking about how different people in your life play a role in your decision making.  So who would make a great personal board of director? Here’s what I think: Continue reading →