by dlavieri
days she tends to work late. Get a sense of what she must do
in order to be successful, and look for ways to help. Study the
organization’s mission and consider how your contribution—
and hers—fit within the big picture.
→ Get to know people. When managers and professionals run
into trouble with new positions or projects, it’s typically not
because they don’t have the technical skills. Rather, they are
more likely to fail because they misunderstand the culture or
don’t establish working relationships with the right people.
During your first months, be methodical as you reach out to
teammates and others who seem to have information to share.
E-mail them, saying, “Since I’m new to this role, I’d like to set
up a little time to hear your perspective and learn more about
your projects and background.”
22
Think Like an Entrepreneur, Act Like a CEO
→ Listen and learn. When you meet your new colleagues, ask
questions and really listen to what everyone says. Resist the
urge to talk about yourself and your successes in the old job.
Keep an open mind, avoid offering criticism before you under-
stand the history, and be cautious about choosing sides among
warring factions.
→ Set short-term goals. As you start to feel that your feet are on
the ground, create realistic objectives for your first few months,
then for the first year. Reconfirm your understanding of your
boss’s expectations, focus on areas that seem to be high prior-
ity, and identify some relatively easy near-term achievements.
Don’t try to do everything at once, but identify specific pre-
liminary steps—like introductory meetings—to move you in
the right direction.
→ Do what you say you will. One of the worst ways to start out
is to create a trail of broken promises. Deliver on every com-
mitment you make, no matter how small. For example, if you
offer to make a phone call or send along information, do so
immediately.
→ Be on time. A simple way to demonstrate respect and enthu-
siasm is to meet all deadlines and show up on time for every
meeting and appointment. This can be more challenging than
usual if you’re following a different schedule and you’re oper-
ating in an unfamiliar environment, but it’s worth the extra
effort.
→ Adjust your attitude. It’s not unusual to experience a letdown
soon after you start your job. Once you’re beyond the excite-
ment of the move, you may realize that not everything is meet-
ing your expectations. If you start to feel that the honeymoon
is over, it will be time to make an important choice. You can
give in to your disappointment and become preoccupied with
how they’ve let you down. Or you can choose to focus on the
positive aspects of your situation and commit yourself to doing
what it takes to reach your goals. This is a good time to remem-
ber that you’re the CEO of your career, and it’s your job to navi-
gate the bumps and barriers.
to launch something new, You need a good Plan
23
→ Give yourself four to six weeks to work like crazy. There’s no
way around the intense upfront investment required to kick off
something new. This can be exhausting and isn’t the best way to
live for the long haul. But be super focused and consider work-
ing at an unsustainable pace for a month or so. For this brief
time, you’ll keep your weekends pretty clear, postpone social
obligations, and skimp on household chores. At the same time,
set a deadline, clearly marked on your calendar, for when you’ll
pause and reassess your work style. Consciously add back the
things you temporarily cut from your life, and tweak your goals
from this point on.
→ Manage stress. Adjusting to your new assignment will undoubt-
edly produce moments of uncertainty that can lead to a high
level of stress. Select a strategy for managing anxiety and include
a fitness program. You may feel like you have no time to work
out, but that’s shortsighted. The time you spend on keeping your
cool and boosting your energy is an investment in your success.
Even if you’re a person who enjoys change, starting something new can
be unnerving. But once you are comfortable with your approach for planning
and launching a new gig, your transition will feel less daunting.
start your plan here
To create a quick and easy plan for launching a new job, answer these five
questions:
1) What is my job description?
2) What are my most important objectives for the first year, includ-
ing the things my boss wants most from me?
3) Who are the people who will be impacted by my work, who can
help me to be successful, or who have information that I need,
and when can I meet with them for 30 minutes?
4) What are quick and easy wins, including meeting people and learn-
ing about the job, that I can deliver during the first three months?
5) What organizational, fitness, or other habits will help me to per-
form at my best during the first three months?
2
think like an
entrepreneur,
wherever You Are
when I was in my 20s, it never crossed my mind that I would run my
own business like I’m doing today. Back then, I wanted job security.
And I felt secure at big organizations with clear and enduring missions like the Securities and Exchange Commission, where I worked right after law school.
It was flattering to be recruited from the SEC to my first law firm. But
when I first arrived, I missed the roadmap to promotion that had been so clear in a government job. Then when I watched more closely, I began to understand the “rules.” At the law firm, the partners with power were the ones with their own loyal clients. So, I began recruiting clients, not at first realizing that I was in effect creating my own little enterprise.
When I saw the chance to quickly become a partner, I took my clients to
another firm, the one I wrote about in Chapter 1. On that first day, I still was thinking of the law firm just as I would any other employer. But I was immediately forced to see how my arrival appeared from the firm’s perspective. The 24
think like an entrepreneur, wherever You Are
25
partners didn’t view me as an employee so much as a very small business to
integrate into their operations. As a partner I was obligated to market my services, produce billable work, and bring in more money than the firm had to
spend in order to pay me and cover my overhead.
I gradually realized that every organization of any significant size is a collection of smaller operations, all of which have to produce products or services that somehow support a shared mission. Years later, when I joined my larg-est corporate client as the public affairs executive, I understood that I had to think like an entrepreneur in order to find success and real security.
At Consolidated Natural Gas Company, a Fortune 500 utility conglom-
erate, I was brought in as a change agent. I had to reorganize or invent costly outreach services, like lobbying on national issues and helping communities
through our foun
dation. In every budget cycle I had to sell the CEO and the
board on my expensive programs, always explaining how they would support
both the company’s service mission and its bottom line.
By the time CNG disappeared years later through a merger, I had devel-
oped a sense of what it’s like to invent a business. And I was ready to try on my own.
How to think like an entrepreneur
Before law school, I earned an MBA. I came away from business school with
the impression that some folks are born with an entrepreneurial gene, but the rest of us just aren’t cut out for creating our own thing. However, today’s view is that entrepreneurship can be taught. And entrepreneurial literacy will contribute to your success, regardless of your field.
In recent years, countless universities have created programs dedicated to
the new interdisciplinary academic field of entrepreneurship. They draw stu-
dents, from engineering to the arts, who understand that they’ll always need
the knowledge, skills, and flexibility to easily redefine their jobs or even create their own enterprises.
The fascination with entrepreneurship isn’t limited to undergraduate stu-
dents. Journalist and career guru Kerry Hannon, who penned the foreword
to this book, has written extensively about how entrepreneurial activity could be the next act for millions of Baby Boomers. She reports that a rising tide of people ages 55 or older want to keep working on their own terms, and at times that requires starting a new business.
26
Think Like an Entrepreneur, Act Like a CEO
But even if you don’t expect to ever create a business, developing a more
entrepreneurial attitude could bring new vitality to your existing job. You might start your mental shift by imagining how it would be possible to reinvent your current job, change career gears, or launch a business or nonprofit at some point in the future. When my clients try to envision a different path, it often changes the way they look at their current environment. They may
develop a more adventuresome spirit, experience fresh insights about their
work, or connect with people in new ways.
“Intrapreneur” is the newish term that some use to describe the employee
of a large organization who acts like an entrepreneur. That might mean inventing something new without being asked, or accepting the task of turning a
rough idea into a profitable, finished product.
However we label them, I particularly enjoy working with clients who
start thinking more like entrepreneurs. Even during the roughest economic
times they keep bouncing back, whether by renegotiating their job to meet a
new need or heading out on their own.
You can start immediately to develop a more entrepreneurial approach to
your work. If you want to act like an intrapreneur, start here:
→ Know the mission. Entrepreneurs tend to be passionate about
their work. They set goals and they plan activities to support
those goals. To be truly goal-minded, it’s not enough that you
understand your own objectives. You also should understand
your organization’s mission, the challenges it faces, and the way
your contribution supports the collective strategy.
→ Focus on the customer. If you start a business, your customers
will ultimately determine whether you succeed. Everything you
do in a business must be focused on your customers. It’s your
job to know what they need, what they want, and what they
think. And it’s the same if you work in a large organization.
Your success depends on the products and services you deliver
to your bosses, your colleagues, and other “customers” as well.
Ask yourself how you might better serve your current customers
and look for ways to broaden your customer base.
→ Understand business basics. As a professional, you should be
familiar with all the functions that make up a simple business.
You need to be comfortable with commercial lingo and clear
about how various businesslike activities are embodied in your
think like an entrepreneur, wherever You Are
27
organization, even if it’s a government agency. Ask yourself: Do
I have a mental picture of the operations that bring this outfit to
life—everything from product development to budgeting, mar-
keting, and sales? Do I understand the roles of support services
like human resources and public affairs?
→ Practice failure. Successful entrepreneurs know that everyone
has, and can learn from, false starts. When they experience a
failure, they analyze what went wrong and apply the lesson to
the next opportunity. There’s a saying that “entrepreneurs fail
their way to the top.” But if you’re used to success, you may
become so afraid of failing that you won’t take chances. This
can stifle your inventiveness and limit your ability to collabo-
rate and innovate. To mitigate your fear of failure, take up some
activities where your success is not assured. For example, if you
have no talent for dancing but your spouse loves it, sign up for
a class. So what if you don’t excel? The two of you will still have
fun and you’ll discover that it can be okay to not excel.
→ Choose to be positive. As we’ll discuss in later chapters, the
research is clear: you can learn to be more optimistic. Begin by
noticing your own language, including the way you talk inside
your head. If you are given to complaints, regrets, and self-
deprecation, learn to let that negativity go.
→ Build your brand. Your “brand” is what you stand for, includ-
ing your values, your personal characteristics, and the quality of
your work. We’ll describe in Chapters 4 and 5 how you already
have a brand, but it may not be the one you want.
3
listening Is Your
sure fire, go-to
career strategy
In Chapter 1, we talked about how one of your most important strategies for
launching a new job or assignment is to meet as many key people as possible
and listen carefully when they’re speaking. In fact, if I could magically give you one super career skill, it would be listening.
By “listening” I mean you not only shut your mouth long enough for the
other person to talk, but you also shut down the voice in your head when it tries to tell you what to say next. You concentrate on the speakers, and you hear what they say even if it means you have to fight the urge to be defensive or interrupt.
Neuroscience and philosophers suggest that people go through life aching
to have their concerns acknowledged and their presence felt. When you truly
listen, you meet that need and connect with the speaker in a special way, even though it might not seem like it at the time.
Listening is so fundamental to human interaction that you can usually
tell if a person is actually hearing you, or is just pretending. Research on
28
listening is Your sure fire, go-to career strategy
29
“mindful listening” shows that speakers can sense whether the audience is
paying attention or just waiting for their turn to talk. When you’re really
listening without passing judgment, you’re more likely to be seen as genuine, charismatic, and even attractive.
Becoming a stronger listener is like building your physical strength. You
> build your listening “muscle” by noticing your reactions to a speaker and then putting them aside. For example, let’s imagine your friend says, “You let me
down.” You instantly think, “That’s not true!” But rather than butting in, you put that defensive thought aside and hear what else your friend has to say.
Then you could go further and encourage the friend by asking positively
worded, open-ended questions. Instead of arguing, you might ask, “How
might I have handled this in a more supportive way?”
You can sharpen your skill by practicing throughout the day in low-stress
situations, such as conversations with a barista or sales clerk. For just a minute or two, give your normal concerns a rest and shift your focus to the needs and interests of someone else.
Great listening goes beyond hearing someone’s words; it means noticing
body language, facial expressions, and signs of emotion. It helps to be relaxed, so you might want to take a few deep breaths before starting a challenging
conversation. A good way to begin a listening session is to summon up com-
passion for the speaker by imagining what it’s like to see things from his or her perspective.
Times when exercising your best listening skill
is a good strategy
If you want one essential ability to help you become more resilient, work
on the habit of genuinely listening to other people. Here are six situations
where active listening is a particularly smart way to go:
1) When you’re starting something new. If you’re joining a dif-
ferent team or meeting new people, it’s tempting to talk a lot,
to show off your expertise. Often, the better approach is to ask
questions and demonstrate your strength by paying close atten-
tion to the answers.
2) When you’re a leader. Listening is a core competency of lead-
ership. You’ll grow as a leader if you practice the discipline of
letting others talk before you do. As your team members speak,
30
Think Like an Entrepreneur, Act Like a CEO
show that you’re listening by nodding or restating a speaker’s
points. And find ways to let them know that you care about what
they think, even though you may not always agree.