I’ve moved my infrequent blogging to Medium. Feel free to check out my musings there.
https://medium.com/@pansylee
Thanks!
Who remembers their high school commencement speaker? Or what he or she talked about? I do. 15 years ago, at my high school graduation, Dr. John Hull did a speech that has stuck with me. He spoke about the importance of character and shared a John Wooden quote:
“Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there”
It’s no secret that Gen Y’s (those born between early 1980s and mid 1990s depending on the study) have a bad rap in the workforce for being entitled. I was born in 1981 and fall into this generation and seeing that I’m at the beginning of this generation, I've gone through some character building lessons (mostly ingrained in me from Chinese parents and some from humbling experiences at work and play) that I’d like to share, particularly with those who will soon be graduating and entering the workforce.
- Remember your manners. This is a good general rule for life but in this case I’m talking about your interactions with recruiters and hiring managers. Especially new grads who already have a job lined up after school or are sought after because of your abilities, good character in these situations go along way. Be engaged and be polite when you turn down job offers you are not interested in. I’ve seen so many new grads be rude to those trying to woo them. Rudeness is a sign of how short-sightedness because 1) you don’t know who that hiring manager/recruiter knows and 2) people move around and constantly have different roles they are trying to fill. In the future, this person may hold the job of your dreams at the company you have been dying to get into.
- Work ethic is different from ethics. You probably took an ethics class in university but work ethics is something different. Ethics is about doing the right thing (important, yes) but work ethics is about valuing hard work and diligence. More and more companies, especially technology companies including the organization I work for, are upping their game in terms of fun factor. (At RL, we have a gym, a full Irish pub with open bar 24/7, free food and drinks, ping pong stadium, etc.) For someone just entering into the workforce I can understand that it may be confusing about what the company wants you to do… work or play? But don’t confuse casual work environments with casual work ethics. Particularly in relaxed work environments, good work ethic and character is even more important. Remember, ability got you in the door. Character is what keeps you there.
- Doing meaningful work sometimes includes work that you don’t like to do. Sometimes the work you are assigned includes things that are not fun, like counting how many pens we have in the marketing closet or doing manual data entry or cleaning a spreadsheet. I know it sucks but it is not beneath you. Everyone has stuff in their job that sucks. Sometimes I have to manually clean stuff in our database so others can have clean data. It sucks but it’s important and if I don’t do it, no one else will and it’s the right thing to do.
Also, it helps if your manager gives you context in why this is important (see my post on management and mentorship here), but if they don’t then you should ask (in a non-whiny way) for example, “I’m curious, how do these pens/data/spreadsheet get used?”
- Give credit where credit is due. There is nothing worse than not acknowledging the people who helped you achieve your success. It’s tempting to take all the glory but, not only is it dishonest, if you keep telling everyone you did it all yourself, you’ll find yourself truly having to do it by yourself because people will stop wanting to help you.
I can’t stress enough how important good character is. The colleagues that I respect the most are those who understand the importance of good work ethics and good character.
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
In the spirit of Valentine's day, when better than today to talk about the things I love!
- 90s 00s HipHop R&B
- Back scratches
- Bicycles
- Brunch
- Bubbles
- Cereal for any and all meals
- Crosswords except when they're too hard
- Furry animals
- History and archaeology especially Chinese and biblical
- Museum audio tours
- My sisters
- Pop art
- Retro modern furniture
- Smart girls
- Snugglez
- Spreadsheets
- Street photography
- Tackling complex problems
- Tech & gadgets
- Tin or waffle ceilings
I have been very fortunate in my career to have had managers who trust me, empower me, inspire me, recognize me and challenge me. I've learned so much from them.
Now that our team has grown 5 fold in the last 3-4 years, mentoring/managing is probably my favorite part of my job.
Especially when they are fresh out of school, starry eyed, full of ideas and energy, it's such a pivotal stage in their life. It's so important to support them in learning how to navigate the real world and empowering them to bring their ideas to life. Success should be measured by the success of those around you. Have you been able to inspire them to do their best work? Do they feel supported? I know I'm happiest when I see those around me do well.
This is my mentoring philosophy:
- Help them gain the confidence to take on more responsibility by giving them projects and the autonomy to make mistakes. Most importantly talk about what went wrong and use it as an opportunity for lessons learned.
- Be there for them when things go wrong! And praise them for bringing mistakes up early and openly. Don't focus on the error, understand the error and move on to working together to fix it.
- Encourage them to speak up and trust their opinions but coach them on what good delivery looks like.
- Help them realize their dream job even if it's beyond your team or even your company and be open about it, you'll be surprised at what you'll learn. While it may seem counter intuitive, I actually find it's been great for employee retention. My theory is that when trust and transparency goes both ways, there is open dialogue to learn about frustrations and concerns. You can't fix what you don't know is wrong.
- Encourage them to volunteer their time on other teams (if they are able to manage their actual workload). The cross departmental knowledge can only help your organization, never harm.
- Spend time with them. And not just to get a status update on their work. Get to know them personally, it's in those conversations that you see a person's true character and what motivates them. You don't get that when you are just asking them about a spreadsheet.
- Recognize them. To their peers, to your boss, to the company. It's amazing how far recognition goes. I know it gives me an energy boost to keep plugging away when things get crazy. (side bonus: I've found that by attributing praise and recognizing people for their work and ideas, it rubs off on them and they start to recognize and attribute praise to others and it helps to build a selfless culture.)
- Ask for feedback on what they need from you to be effective. It's about making them successful. Maybe it's a different style of communication, maybe they need more context on a project, etc.
- Give them context. Not every project will be exciting or fun, (let's face it data entry sucks) giving them the big picture view of how their work will make a difference helps.
I'm sure I have more musings on this... I'll save it for another post.
Communication is about telling someone your thoughts and having that person understand what you are saying. That is why I really using easy to understand language is so important.
When you use words that the no one understands, it's as if you have said nothing at all.
I love these infographics! People always ask me what I do and it's hard to explain sometimes. I'd say I'm a bit of both... marketing "artist" and marketing "scientist".
I love measuring our campaigns to show how we're adding value but also to figure out what's working and what's not.
And I love the creative side of marketing. Design, visuals, messaging, making sure it makes sense for our brand and, most importantly, that it resonates with our customers and prospects.
I guess I'm a little from column A and a little from column B.
Ahhhhhhh
