Working to Be a Leader

Dear Student, er Graduate:

Today you will be one of 3,000 students receiving a degree during the Baruch College Commencement Ceremonies at Madison Square Garden.  Baruch, the nation’s most diverse campus, is part of the City University of New York (CUNY), a group of 23 colleges and institutions serving 480,000 students in New York City.

As one of your teacher’s in the undergraduate Management Department at the Zicklin School of Business within Baruch, I congratulate you on your achievement and wish you the best as you begin a new phase in your life.

In your journey of working during the day, going to school for three or more hours of classes on two to four nights a week, then returning home to hug a child, kiss a spouse, embrace your parents, pet your dog, you’ve prepared yourself for the new leg of life’s journey as a college graduate.

Your hunger for knowledge, curiosity about how to reach your potential, willingness to push yourselves out of your comfort zones made my job as your instructor that much easier and a challenge.  A challenge that made me a smarter, wiser, and more informed person.

You are a future leader, someone who will have followers seeking answers, making requests, needing your time, being curious about their futures.

You are stepping into a world that needs your energy, your enthusiasm, your commitment to others that I saw you demonstrate in class.

We need you, I need you, the world needs you to value your degree, to make the most of the entry level jobs and administrative work you will do as you climb the career lattice, moving sideways and upward on your merits and demonstrated capacity for growth.

Future leader, I offer you two pieces of advice. 

#1:  Know yourself, what is meaningful for you, how you want to be known in the world.

#2:  Keep smiling through the tough times, the good times, the down times, and the up times because a smile is contagious and invites others to come into your world.

Thanks for letting me be part of your world.

Now, future leaders, go out and continue working to be the best possible leader you can be—we need you!

Best regards,

Prof. Henderson

Working to be a leader means that you are always seeking out information to inspire and motivate yourself and enhance your performance.

For me, working to be a leader includes reading a variety of publications such as newspapers and magazine plus e-newsletters from organizations that specialize in leadership and workplace issues.

My daily source of information is The New York Times.  Although I often print out an article, I’m most likely to tear out the piece so that I can read it again, place it in a pile on my desk so I can look up the research mentioned and use it to illustrate a point in my own compositions, file it in its appropriate folder that I’ll go to when asked to give a talk on ”cultural transformations of the workplace,” or leave it in my diary so that I am reminded to forward a link to this relevant article to a client.

This week’s clips were all from The New York Times.  Reading through the list, you might find an article that catches your interest as you, too, are working to be a leader.

Monday, May 4:  “Marilyn French, Novelist and Champion of Feminism, Dies at 79:  Gaining controversial stardom in 1977 with ‘The Women’s Room.’”  Note:  French’s book was instrumental in helping women of my age cope with a major cultural transformation as we moved from housewives to career women.

Tuesday, May 5- “Waist Deep in a Big Birthday Party,” Music Review by Jon Caramanica on the front page of the Arts Section and ”Still Singing” Appreciations by Lawrence Downes on the Editorial Page.  Note:  These two articles were used to gather specific facts for my previous blog on “Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday.”

Thursday, May 7- “Facebook Status?  In Town and Wondering What to Do: Social media offer benefits no travel agent, online tourist site or guidebook can match.” “All You Need to Know to Tweet on Twitter.”  Note:  On June 5, I’ll be co-presenting a program on social media and can use information in these articles as resources for those in attendance.

Saturday, May 9 - “At 8.9%, Unemployment Still Rises, but Pace Slows:  539,000 Jobs Were Lost in April, but Some Economists Say Worst May Be Over; ‘This isn’t recovery,’ an economist warns. ‘ It’s a slowing recession.’” ”Losing Job May Be Hazardous to Health.”  Sunday, May 10 - “More Than a Numbers Game:  Does being fired hurt any less if you’re just one of many?”  Note:  I continue to receive positive responses from  those who have read LTR’s level playing field special report, ”Temping with Tycoons,” my educational and inspirational story about how I used an investment bank as the business school I could afford in the recession of the early 1990’s.  Reading about the toll our economy is taking on individual careers reaffirms my commitment to offer my report free of charge and to continue to find ways to motivate and inspire others to stay engaged and optimistic through workshops, teleseminars, and organization-sponsored presentations.

Sunday, May 10 - “Backlash: Women Bullying Women.”  Note:  A very, very interesting article on many levels.  There is a growing awareness about the different ways that women lead.  I’ll use the information in the article in future presentations of the talk I’ve given to Women M.B.A.s and other college students on “The Fractured State of Women’s Leadership:  Why That’s a Good Thing.”

Enjoy a good week of reading and working to be a leader.

In honor of Mother’s Day, I feel moved to pass along one bit of advice that I got from my mother. This advice is relevant to girls/women and boys/men on a career search — or the ambitious employed who want to stay employed or get a promotion.

Although Mom died in 1968, I can, at times, still hear her voice reciting one of her many pieces of advice.

“Don’t be like all the other girls,” she’d say if I wanted a pair of white boots just like all the other girls were wearing in TEEN magazine.

“Don’t be like all the other girls,” she’d say then proceed to tell me about the twin girls who used to live down the street and who had their own way of dressing and being in the world.

“Don’t be like all the other girls,” she’d say on any occasion to encourage me to be who I was and not someone else.

Mom was right.  When I left for college, all I wanted to be was normal and like all the other girls.  A bit of a challenge to figure out what normal was since I wound up at the University of California at Berekley during the height of the Free Speech and Vietnam War protests.

As I’ve gotten older, however, and worked my way into leadership roles and developed a business providing leadership coaching to executives, I embrace the essence of her message.   Her message: to be fully present and let others know the unique qualities you possess and the great skills you bring to the table.

Today with the economy the worst since the Great Depression, women and men looking for work—or working to keep their jobs—have to stand out, to not be like all the other girls/boys, to demonstrate their unique brand of passion and how they will contribute their skills, abilities, and talents to the workplace.

Mom would like the person that I am today.  I’m not like all the other girls.  And not like all the other women I know.  I’m me.  And that’s a good thing.

Sit back and reflect on how you stand out with your own unique brand.

Then wish your mother and other nuturing women in your life a Happy Mother’s Day!

Thanks to a gift from a grateful coaching client, I attended Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday Party at Madison Square Garden here in Manhattan on Sunday, May 3.  Officially called The Clearwater Concert, a Benefit for www.clearwater.org, it was a four-and-a-half hour celebration of the life of a leader not just in the field of folk music but in so many other areas, including the environment.  

A fierce liberal, Seeger’s dedication to his causes and to making the world a little better was celebrated in a moving tribute by over 40 musicians.

On Monday evening during the “Employee Development and Training Class” I teach at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, the nation’s most diverse campus, I did a survey of my students by asking a few questions about the performers who showed up to join in the birthday celebration.

“How many of you have heard of Pete Seeger?”  No hands went up.

“How many of you have heard of Joan Baez?”  No hands went up.

“How many of you have heard of Richie Havens?”  No hands went up.

“How many of you have heard of Bruce Springsteen?”  No one needed to raise their hand; they let me know with their facial expressions, “Who do you think we are?”

What was very clear from this survey was the cultural gap that existed.  It was also a perfect example of what can happen in a training class or the workplace.  We have of our own individual preferences for music, art, theatre, entertainment in general.  The lesson for the class of seniors majoring in Human Resources was clear:  don’t assume shared knowledge of students who attend a training class.

On Wednesday evening, I showed a You Tubeclip of Seeger performing with Springsteen at President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial.  “Oh, yes.  I know who he is now,” said one student and others agreed.  Another student said with a big smile on her face, “I saw the article in the newspaper about the concert.”

I wasn’t promoting Seeger or Clearwater’s efforts to clean up the Hudson River, although that’s a great idea which I support.  What I was doing as an educator was opening opportunities to bridge the gaps between our worlds.  It was also, I realized, a process, to share names of performers who were instrumental in developing my appreciation for their work.

In addition, it was the unstated wish that when my students’ music idols are 90, they who have aged along with their idols, can remember the moments when a song (”Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” written by Seeger and Joe Hickerson and sung by Peter, Paul, and Mary on a stage in San Francisco when I was in college), or a performer (Joan Baez coming out on stage at the Greek Theatre on the University of Berkeley campus when I was on a date with a handsome guy) impacted their lives.

A birthday party is a celebration.  A celebration of a life and a celebration of all the memories that have gone into creating that life.  And the chance to reflect on the memories that make up your own life.

Happy Birthday, Pete!

On a beautiful spring day, I gave myself the job to stay indoors and organize files that I had placed in a filing cabinet two years ago.  Along with the “Why am I keeping this?” questions I kept on asking myself, I discovered a few “I know why I kept this!” documents.

In the piles of paper within what I labeled my “Teaching and Consulting-early 1990’s” file folder, I uncovered a letter dated May 23, 1990.  When reading it, I began to cry.  I cried because I was once again reminded about why I teach.

The letter is from a student who had just completed my course in “Public Relations” in the Marketing Department of the Business & Communications Division at New York City Technical College, a two-year school that is part of the City University of New York. 

English majors put your red pen away and refrain from your comments on grammar.  Read the message that someone new to America felt at his moment of great accomplishment: graduation from an American college.  Also pay attention to the difference that one person in the role of a teacher can make in someone’s life.

My search has already begun on Facebook and LinkedIn to see if I can find the author of this letter.  Perhaps now, almost twenty years later, I can tell him that I was proud he was my student.

Dear Professor Henderson,

I’m very glad to receive a letter from school, saying that I’m going to graduate.  At this exciting moment, first of all, I would like to express my inner thanks to you.  Thank you for your teaching and helps to me.  I am in appreciation of all your advices.  This experience will never be forgotten in my life, because it’s an important experience in my life.  It’s just a milestone which will be recorded in my life history.  This unforgettable American college experience will affect me in every step I stride forward in the future.  I deeply believe that what I learned are useful and helpful to me.  I’m proud of being your student.

While in an out of the classes, we established a friendship between teacher and student.  This friendship will be extended to become our concern and help to teach other in the future.  That’s the most beautiful friendship in life.  It’s as great as the friendship of parents.  So, we are not only teacher and student, but also friends.

I came from Canton City, the largest city of southern China.  It’s a busy port and the capital city of Guandong Province.  It has over two thousand years in history.  Before I immigrated with my family in 1984, I was a senior student of the Traditional Chinese Medicine University of Canton.

America is a country which full of energy and vigor.  She possesses the modern high tech, science, advanced economic system, democracy government, and multilateral brilliant cultures from different races.  She is becoming more beautiful along with the development of the communication and understanding among people.  I wish I can always have your advice to guide my future career.

Thank you again!

So long!

Sincerely Yours,

Last year at this same time, I was on a flight from Athens, Greece, back to New York City.  With me was my niece Tomi Sue Henderson, a veterinarian who lives in a town of 146 located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California.

This year, during spring break at Zicklin School of Business where I teach, I had planned to visit Tomi Sue’s father, my brother, in his small town near in the southern part of Oregon.  The launch of Temping with Tycoons and the state of the economy made me decide to stay in my big city hometown of New York.

So instead of sharing a travel report from a trip this year, I’ll reflect on some memories from last year—and tie in my report with how I feel about the economy.

Here’s a picture taken at Santorini on the last day of our “Grecian Delight” tour.  Tomi Sue has her arm around me on what was a gorgeous spring day on this “volanic” island.

You’ll notice the mostly white houses of the town of Fira clustered together at the top and down the steep incline to Tomi Sue’s right.  On Santorini, Mykonos, and other Greek islands we visited, home owners are required to paint their houses at regular intervals.  Tourists who arrive by ship or air are a major source of income for Greece, meaning that maintaining an immaculate impression at each port-of-call is an absolute necessity.

Off to my left you’ll see the steep drop off of land into the Aegean.  Santorini is believed by some to be the site of the “Lost Continent of Atlantis,” a legendary island that one day just sunk into the sea.

Santorini earned this reputation because around 1450 B.C., a catastrophe happened.  The volcano on the island erupted, the center of the island collapsed into the sea, and earthquakes reverberated throughout the Aegean, toppling some advanced civilizations as far away as the island of Crete.

The edge that we’re standing on around the sunken watery center of the island is called the caldera.  A caldera is formed by the collapse of land after a volcano erupts. 

Caldera is also a good term for what I see when thinking about what happened to the economy.  There’s been an earthquake on Wall Street that is still reverberating across the land with more layoffs at companies, foreclosures of homes, and individuals who will have to settle for “survival jobs.” 

We’re on the edge looking out from the caldera to the center of the economy, hoping that it will rise up and renew itself to restore faith in our financial system as well as opportunities get off the “career bridge” and into meaningful work.

I still want to visit my brother and I also want to return to Greece.  That’s why I’m hoping that the Wall Street we lost will be rebuilt with a solid foundation for a stronger economy and more jobs.

Wednesday, April 22, is Administrative Professionals Day.  Previously National Secretary’s Day, it is a time set aside to recognize the work of those who have jobs as secretaries, administrative assistants, receptionists, and other administrative support professionals.

Cathleen Benko, Vice Chairman and Chief Talent Officer, Deloitte, LLP, was one of the speakers during the Women on Wall Street 2007 event.   One thing I remember about her contributions to the evening’s program was that she told the audience of 98% women that she had attended Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School.  Benko then went on to earn a science degree from Ramapo College and later a master of business administration from Harvard Business School.

“It’s a Foot in the Door, But to Where Else?” was the headline in Eilene Zimmerman’s “Career Couch” column in The New York Times on November 2, 2008.  I saved her column because I agreed that “Administrative assistants see the big picture at a company, and thus may earn promotions.”

Obviously, having good secretarial skills worked for Benko.  And Zimmerman’s advice to her readers is on-target.  I know that for a fact because working as a secretary was an effective “bridge” in my career.

My father preached (yes, that is the correct word) that he didn’t care about the fact that I wanted to be a teacher, I needed to learn typing and shorthand.  That way, he assured me, I could always get a job.

Now, I’ve met a few women who have told me that their fathers told them not to learn how to type and take shorthand.  Once they got a job, they fathers assured them, they would be assigned a secretary to do the work for them.

My high school typing teacher was a retired Marine and such a large presence that I forget who taught me shorthand (I later used the basics to create my own way of taking notes).

My next older sister handed me my first job as a temporary secretary when I was in college.  She was sick one day and asked me to go into the office for her.  I did.  That was it.  Yet, later in my life, working as a temporary or permanent secretary helped not just pay the bills but helped in my business education.

When I was sharing the environment with those at a university, computer company, rent-a-car company, marketing firm, investment bank, etc. I was not just answering phones or typing letters.  I was observing those around me do their jobs, trying to understand how business was being conducted, and learning as much as I could about the product being sold.

The “career” bridge worked for me.  In our current economy, being an administrative assistant might be a good investment.

Last week, I launched my latest level playing field special report with you in mind.

“Temping with Tycoons:  Reinvention Lessons for the Laid off Leader” was written to share with you my experiences 20 years ago working as a temporary secretary at the Wall Street investment bank Lazard Freres.

“Why is that relevant now?” you might be asking.

The main reason is because temping was a way that I gained knowledge to reinvent myself as a leadership coach and management consultant.  Wherever you work, you can use the workplace as a training room—a place to hone your skills for when the economy gets better.

Another reason is that leadership behaviors on Wall Street haven’t changed that much in two decades.

To download a PDF of “Temping with Tycoons,” click here.

To get a preview, continue on through the Reader’s Guide:
Working to Win   These pages put the topic of reinvention into the context of the worst economy since the Great Depression.  And what you can do to survive these difficult times.

Lesson #1:  Risking the Unknown.  Get out of your comfort zone—like I did at a company whose name I couldn’t pronounce and whose business I didn’t understand.

Lesson #2:   Managing Yourself.  Set up your own rules of acceptable behavior, especially helpful if you find yourself working in a master-servant environment.

Lesson #3:  The Young and the Entitled.  Name your workplace environment after a soap opera to summarize the behaviors of difficult people.

Lesson #4:  Organizational Behavior.  To remain detached, ask yourself questions like, “Do you need a penis to run a calculator?” When the company where you are working is considered by New York Woman one of, “The 15 Worst Places to Work,” the answer could be obvious.

Lesson #5:  Talent Development.  Educate others and teach those who are willing to learn knowing that your chances are better with lower income students at a 2-year college than they are with bankers.

Lesson #6: Executive Leadership.  Remain cool when a partner places a brown paper bag containing his morning stool sample on the corner of your desk.

Lesson #7:  Return on Investment.  See the bigger picture and be grateful for what you’ve learned.  Then reinvent yourself for the new economy.

Most importantly:  share with others what you’ve learned.

Click here to view my Recession Seminars  that give you the opportunity to learn how to develop your own reinvention initiative.

A New York Minute is a very, very short period of time.  According to Wikipedia, “The term refers to the common perception that the people in New York City are hurried and impatient.”

I write about this topic to give hope and advice to those who are looking for work.  You never know what can happen in a New York, London, Detroit, or anywhere Minute—if you have patience.  (And some New Yorkers do have patience!)

One New York Minute occurred on Thursday, August 21, 2008, while I was in my office.  When I checked my e-mail, I saw that there was a message from a professor I knew who taught in the Management Department at theZicklin School of Business within Baruch College, part of the City University of New York.

His message read something like, “Respond ASAP” and below his words was a message from one of his colleagues stating the need for an Adjunct Instructor to teach an undergraduate course on “Employee Development and Training” that started the following Thursday.

Without hesitation and maybe not in this order, I replied to my colleague to say, “Thanks,” then contacted his colleague to apply for the job.

This is the subject line of an email I wrote to my business coach a few minutes later, “Name someone you know teaching at Zicklin School of Business.”  The body of my message read, “Yes, it’s me…..Just what I was missing from my career.  WOW!!  Filing out the paperwork on Tuesday, beginning next Thursday evening.”

The rest is history.  The first semester went very well and this second class is also going well.  Most evenings, I leave class saying to myself, “I love these students.”  Teaching is my passion and I have students hungry to benefit from the expertise and experiences I share with them.

“What I was missing from my career” was a platform, a place from which I could transfer the knowledge I had gained developing, teaching, and training adults on how to improve their workplace skills and leadership capabilities to those who could benefit. 

Like every “New York Minute” this one was years in the making.  While waiting for it to happen, I was patient and involved in other activities.

The professor who sent me the initial email and I met about seven years earlier when I was designing and presenting a “Train-the-Trainer” program for instructors in the Continuing and Professional Studies at Baruch.  We kept in touch, I lectured for his classes and taught a leadership module in one of his courses, he recommended me to be the moderator for a panel at Baruch’s “Women in Business” program, etc.

I told you that I was patient.  It was a ”New York Minute” in October 1989 that took me on this path.  At that time, I was temping at an investment bank with some extremely rude executives who had M.B.A.s   I turned the anger I felt into the decision that one day I wanted to train leaders on how to be more effective and respectful.

My company Leadership Training Room evolved out of that New York Minute.  And so did being an Adjunct Instructor at the Zicklin School of Business, the nation’s most diverse campus.

Be open and ready for your own New York Minute.  And keep staying engaged in what you truly care about so that you can savor that time.

“How much blame do business schools deserve for the current economic crisis?”

Below are the answers as of 9:00 a.m., Monday, April 6, from a poll you can access by clicking on the ”HBR Debate:  How to Fix Business Schools.”  You can find it on the Harvard Business Review home page.  Click on the words HBR Debate and you’ll arrive at the Harvard Publishing site where there’s an ongoing blog with “an impressive roster of experts to lead the debate.”

My vote is counted in this breakdown of 214 responses:

Most of the blame; they’re teaching the wrong things.  17% (36 votes)

Some of the blame; they’re not teaching everything they need to.  50% (106 votes)

None of the blame; it’s not what they teach but who’s being taught.  34% (72 votes)

My vote was the middle ground. The wheels of the economy are still churning so something is working.  But business schools do deserve some of the blame.  From my experiences working with business school graduates and teaching business school students, I believe that graduates are not adequately prepared for their roles as managers and leaders. 

Briefly, the initials M.B.A. go to their heads.  They lose track of the impact of their actions on others in both the short- and the long-term.  Someone who starts business school as Bobby can graduate as Robert—and forget the lessons he learned working his way into college.

Will write more later. Wanted to post this to give you the chance to weigh in at HBR.