Be genuine

I'm going to keep this short but I think it's important and it speaks volumes of you as a person.

An enduring lesson I learnt, early-on in my career, was from the COO of the company I worked for as a runner on the JSE Stock Exchange. He was, still is in fact, the finest human being I've ever met; the embodiment of humility and an unshakeable gentleman. In context he was a busy individual. His list of achievements were legion. Those included Senior Adviser to governments, central banks and industry titans. He was a pioneer of modern-banking in the country. Quite clearly his list of business / political contacts, friends, acquaintances and colleagues is legendary.

Although he's long since retired his greatest achievement, however, has never been certified, honoured, formally noted or financially rewarded. Notwithstanding, I will remember him foremost for his ability to see people as people first and not what they stood for; the depth of their pockets or their ability to contribute meaningfully to his day. His dedication was unwavering; he never forgot a face or a name and most impressively, he never forgot a birthday. His daily list of birthday-calls often exceeded one hundred (100) calls; most before breakfast... Many of those calls were to international numbers or to the switchboards of competing companies. An individual's circumstances or his / her place of employment, then & now, inconsequential.

This is his legacy & his mark has left an indelible impression on those fortunate enough to have crossed his path, however briefly and I, for one, am infinitely better for it.

  

The 'business meeting' farce

If your daily schedule is filled with 1 [one] hour-long business meetings then you're a time-waster; don't kid yourself.

What can't be said in 15 minutes on the phone or in 15-minutes across a table, cannot be adequately covered in an hour anyway. Fluffing your meetings with social niceties or verbal-sparring is habitual rather than meaningful. Here's the thing and this is important. We've become accustomed to wasting each other's time; in fact it's expected. 'Social etiquette' dictates a degree of formality that we cannot afford. Times have changed; business etiquette hasn't and that, more than anything else, is the frustration we accept as 'part of the package'.

Ever started your day with a glance at your meetings' schedule and wished you were someplace else? Yes? Why is that? It's your subliminal reaction to a dated concept that is neither functional nor productive.

The most efficient way to optimize your working-day is to insist on more effective communication. That includes better preparation and attention to detail from your staff, clientele and industry. Ditch the social drama; appreciate & respect your / my TIME; that most valuable, non-renewable commodity and get to the point. Listen well. If your replies are weak, waffled & off-point then you either haven't prepared very well or you don't really know what you're talking about. Wrapping-up a meeting with a soliloquy of what's been discussed moments before is an ignorant confirmation of your 'authority' only and an insult to the intelligence of the other attendees.

Business lunches? Social drama; nothing more. Clouding the agenda with good food & wine is political fencing and childlike. Have the good grace to conclude your 'business meeting' before you place an order; understand the social expectations and behave accordingly. Leave 'business' at the concierge's desk. Cocktail presentations - utter garbage! Can them; read more.

One last thing - a 15 minute+ presentation is forgotten before the EXIT door closes on the attendee's way out. Keep your musings short, precise and on-point. Everything else is fluffing and fluffing doesn't belong in business or your working-day.   

Mentorship and your role.

Mentoring a colleague is your most important selfless act at work. This ideal, above all else, determines the corporate culture and the relevance of the individuals who make up the corporate team. Over the course of my career, as an equities-trader in the early years and later as an executive, I've had the good fortune of working with / for people who gave of their time, experience and nuanced skills to make my own contributions more effective; more meaningful & perhaps even more profitable. Implicit or premised in that ideal is a more productive employee who, from a well of personal self-worth and professional acceptance, contributes more to the efficacy of the business as a whole; in a shorter span of time. Corporate culture, built on self-worth and professional integration, has longevity that transcends the individuals themselves. The company assumes an attractive vibrancy & becomes a magnet for talent.

Condense this collective self-worth down to its contribution in dollars & cents and the business takes care of itself. The very best leaders aspire to / derive their own stylistic leadership appeal almost always premised on the collective self-worth of the company. By implication teams / business units operate more efficiently and individuals, within those units, become masters of their own personal / professional investment and the company’s most effective marketing team. Productivity ratios improve exponentially as a result. Self-motivation is not a function of the annual company boot-camp or a top-down ‘rah-rah’ session at the local conference venue.

The benefits of a voluntary albeit encouraged, rather than a mandatory, mentorship program are wholescale. More often than not the mentor rethinks the basics of the job in a structured, critical way and often improves his / her output as a consequence. Passing on applicable skills & or the tutoring of an applied technique, is the most fulfilling / important function of the more experienced employee. The most effective mentorship ‘programs’ apply up the chain of command to include the individuals responsible for the management of the company. This bottom-up approach is, by definition, voluntary. By way of example on the company boards I either chair or attend the first item on the agenda is almost always an extended welcome to new attendees at the meeting; filled seats [two (2)] left vacant for anyone from within the company to attend. Who can deny the subsequent benefits of transparency; the accountability of management & staff and the lucid, first-hand flow of information down the ranks? Management-style is non-exclusionary, rather than one of simple participation. It's a nuanced motivation and premised on an open-mind rather than coerced through the HR department.

Benefits specific to the mentored individual are self-explanatory. Incidentally younger individuals have an equal obligation, perhaps more so in context, to mentor older, less-experienced individuals and almost always in industries dominated by faster rates of change brought on by technology. Experience, in this context, is a micro-function of time in the company-seat rather than of chronological age. Reciprocally an older mentor has equally valuable insights, both in life-skills or, more directly, on related industry-process. This communication stream is reciprocal and lessons are continually learnt and passed-on. It’s an attitude critical to the longevity of the company and all too often dismissed by the unimaginative as the function of a defined job-description rather than as a consequence of volunteered, selfless behaviour.

Unstructured mentoring / job-assistance is instilled / trite within the corporate culture of ALL successful start-ups and seemingly less prevalent in mature companies where personal-investment, at board level, is less critical for the associated individual’s own net worth. A titled-position, in this case, becomes the cornerstone of success and the route to diminishing returns rather than a lasting-legacy at retirement. It's an opportunity lost.

In closing human-nature responds to choice far more effectively than it does coercion and therein resides the frailty of the annual business conference. Swinging on ropes or building a raft to cross an inconsequential body of water is an absurdity and an insult to the intelligence of the delegates compelled to attend. Consider too the transfer of motivational-speak from on high at structured management feedback sessions. That too is lip-syncing the meaningless to the meaningful when some imagination and an open mind from the top-down would be far more inspiring and ultimately more effective for all participants with a common goal.