SodaPDF-compressed-Think Like an Entrepreneur, Act Like a CEO

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.”

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  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

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  → 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.

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  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

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  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

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  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,

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  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.