Stacie Bloom on Learning to Manage High Potential Employees

In Chapter 10 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "What Leadership Skills are Becoming More Relevant to You as Your Career Progresses?"  Bloom notes why management skill development is central to her current growth.  As she gains management experience, she gets more comfortable making difficult decisions and helping high potential employees flourish. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What leadership skills are becoming more relevant to you as your career progresses?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  The leadership skills that are becoming more relevant to me as my career progresses are definitely those associated with management. Managing a larger and more diverse team of individuals. I would say there’s a lot of different personalities, there are a lot of very difficult conversations, I think for me a few years ago, having those difficult conversations was unbelievably taxing, it was so stressful. I’m at the point now—I don’t love to have a difficult conversation with an employee, nobody does. But I’m certainly at the point now where I feel a lot more comfortable. I know what needs to be done. 

And that’s part of management, putting people on a professional development career path is something that’s become more important as I’m supervising higher levels of individuals, really talented people who I’m hoping they’ll stay with me for 2 or 3 years but I know that they’re not gonna stay with me forever, these are the people who are gonna have my job and more, very soon. Mentoring those people is really, really important to me. Making sure that they understand that they’re on a path where they’re gonna be able to accomplish great things. And I really take that mentorship very, very personally and very seriously.

Simon Sinek on What It Means to Be a Leader

In Chapter 9 of 16 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, author and public speaker Simon Sinek answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Leader in What You Do?"  Sinek notes being a leader means one thing and one thing only: you have followers.  He then shares how leaders create that following by articulating a vision, cause or purpose toward a future that does not yet exist.  He then puts this in perspective of his own leadership, helping his followers work toward waking up inspired to do what they love to do and achieve fulfillment by doing so.  Simon Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people.  His goal is to "inspire people to do the things that inspire them" and help others find fulfillment in their work.  Sinek is the author of "Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action".  He works regularly with the United States Military, United States Congress, and many organizations, agencies and entrepreneurs.  Sinek is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and an adjunct staff member at the think tank RAND Corporation.  Sinek earned a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Brandeis University.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen:  What does it mean to be a leader in what you do?

Simon Sinek:  To be a leader means one thing and one thing only. It means you have followers. That’s it. You know? It’s not about learning your style of leadership and how to adjust your style to fit the situation at hand, that’s management, right? Leaders only have one thing, they have followers.  A follower is somebody who raises their hand and volunteers to go where you’re going. They raise their hand and volunteer to go in the direction that you’re pointing. And so to lead others, means that you have a clear vision of a world that does not yet exist, a world that could exist, and by articulating that cause, that vision, that purpose, over and over and over again, it inspires people who believe what you believe, who want to see that world built, to join, to go with you, to figure out ways, you know? And so for me in my work, what leadership means, is articulating this world in which the vast majority of us wake up every single day, inspired to go to work, and come home every single day fulfilled by the work that we do. That doesn’t mean we have to like every day, you know, but we can love every day. You don’t like your children every day but you love your children every day, right? And so the more I talk about this world that does not yet exist, because right now the world we live in, the vast majority of people, 90%-plus don’t love what they do, they may like it but they don’t love it. When I talk about this world, it inspires others who believe what I believe and want to see this world built, join up and figure out in their own way how to advance that vision, so it becomes real. My role is to continue to pound the pavement and put that vision out there.

Jon Kolko on How to Better Articulate Your Vision

In Chapter 13 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, design educator Jon Kolko answers "How Are You Getting Better at Articulating Your Vision?"  Kolko notes the fundamental importance of repetition and how it helps not only hone your message but also increase your believe in that vision.  He notes the importance of getting his vision framework or scaffold solid so he can easily adapt the messaging to different audiences, for example designers or venture capital investors. 

Jon Kolko the founder and director of the Austin Center for Design.  He has authored multiple books on design, including "Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving."  Previously he has held senior roles at venture accelerator Thinktiv and frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).  Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are you getting better at articulating your vision?

Jon Kolko: The more times you say something, the more you tend to believe it. There is this phenomenon called “sense making” which is part of design synthesis, which is about creating knowledge and one of the sort of theories around how sense making works is that ideas are literally talked into existence, both in your own head. The more you say things, the more connections are made. And then in social psychology settings, the more that I say things and then the more you say things and then we talk knowledge into existence between us, the more we tend to either agree or disagree but at least we understand and empathize with each other. So the more times I say what that vision is, I think that the more I’m able to, the more I'm better able to articulate it and in some respects sell it, gain buy into a controversial idea. I found that the same message in a scaffold works across audiences but the details have to be tremendously different. So I have a fairly succinct story around what Austin Center for Design is, the way that I see the world and the way I’d like to be in 30 to 50 years. But telling that – And so that’s the scaffold. But telling that story to somebody who’s in venture capital and telling it to somebody who’s an NGO and telling it to somebody who’s a practicing designer, the word you use, the way you describe it, the case examples you tend to give, wildly different and they have to be. Just as a quick example, if you talk to a venture capitalist about the same types of things that get a designer excited, it's not that they don’t get it, it actually turns them off and they suddenly are not interested anymore. It seems like a no brainer probably that people speak different languages depending on their backgrounds and disciplines. I think it took me a long time to get the scaffold solid so that I felt comfortable easing in and out of different sort of interim storylines.

Like if I’m changing the story, somehow it's not the real story anymore. But I think I'm comfortable now with this idea that as long as the scaffold is consistent then I'm being true to whatever the vision is and in and out can come the details.

Idan Cohen on Why Your Career is Not Your Life

In Chapter 1 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "Where Do You Seek Inspiration Outside Your Career?"  Cohen challenges Erik's question, as he does not feel what he is does is a part of a "career".  Instead, he finds his family, past, present and future, and his work define his life.  This is not something linear, however, as he keeps himself open to new possibilities that plot on a timeline but not necessarily a specific career ladder.  It is less about progressing on a career and more about a life journey. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: Where do you seek inspiration outside of your career?

Idan Cohen: Okay, I think that the one important thing about this question is that I do not look at my—what I’m doing as a career. It’s just career is very, very boring. Anyone who’s—I’m sorry, I don’t wanna hurt anyone but anyone who’s, you know, focusing about his career then I don’t know—it’s okay, it’s great, but for me that’s the wrong choice because my work definitely defines my life.

I think there’s 2 things that kind of defines your life, and that’s family and the family that you’re gonna build, and work. ‘Cause at the end of the day, I can’t see myself not working, or not creating, doesn’t matter right now, so that’s why it’s not exactly working, I’m not going to work, I’m going to make things. And I choose what I’m going to make, and it’s not about career, it’s about building bigger things and better things and different things, and maybe going sideways and maybe going forward, and making steps into accomplishing more complicated tasks. But it’s definitely not about going to work, and it’s definitely not about career, the path and just, you know, thinking today I wanna be here and tomorrow— you know, today I wanna be this position and tomorrow I wanna be in that position, is that really interesting enough?

It should be about what you’re actually doing, it might be, you know, today I can accomplish this and tomorrow if I wanna build something bigger, I need to accomplish all of that. So it’s not about the title, it’s about what you make. And that’s how I look at it. I really don’t like to look at myself as going to work. I might say that day-to-day, you know, I’m at work but I’m just—I’m at life. I’m currently doing what I love doing.

Idan Cohen on How Leadership and Management Job Skills Compare

In Chapter 17 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "How Do Leadership and Management Differ With What You Do?"  Cohen shares his struggle to become a better leader and a better manager.  He notes the importance of motivation and vision in leadership and details and composure in management. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How do leadership and management differ in what you do?

Idan Cohen: Management is definitely something that I struggle with daily and leadership is something that I struggle with daily. Leadership is about being just a little bit mad, you know if you think about it, like going and wanting to be the president of the US, you have to be not a little bit, you have to be really, really, crazy in order to take on such a role, and go through the process of doing something like that, the thing that sometimes it’s also the same for a small company, it’s just coming up with a vision, being able to motivate people, so that’s not easy but it comes a lot of times for just being able to put away—put aside your fears or overcome them, put aside logic or overcome logic, and go and make that happen. 

Management is a much more I think kind of a methodical or a skill, sometimes you might have, sometimes people definitely have it inherit in them and sometimes they acquire it with time, but I think it has a lot to do with—and it sometimes is very different than leadership because it’s much more about listening, leadership is a little bit of also just like blindly looking forward and being able to charge and motivate people just to come after you, but then at the end of the day, management is not about just this motivation, it’s about taking care of the details, it’s about knowing how to politically split responsibilities, it’s about stepping down when needed, and actually helping doing something, just because you’re a little bit of kind of like, you have all of these skills together and you can help with whatever needed, definitely at early stages of a company. 

So I think that there’s a lot of great leaders, there’s—and visionaries, there’s not enough good managers, and it’s definitely something that I would aspire to be. I think I’m very far from it right now. 

Courtney Spence on How Aspirations Change As Career Matures

In Chapter 4 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive Courtney Spence answers "How Are Your Aspirations Change As Your Experience Grows?"  After 12 years building a program, she finds an urgency to do more to tell the stories of progress that will educate students, life non-profits, and transform communities in need.  Through the process, she builds confidence, reaffirms her conviction to her cause, and gathers experiences and skills to elevate organizational aims further.  Courtney Spence returns to Capture Your Flag for her Year 3 interview.  As Founder and Executive Director, Spence leads non-profit Students of the World to empower college students to use film, photography, and journalism to tell stories of global issues and the organizations working to address them.  Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How are your aspirations changing as your experience grows?

Courtney Spence: My aspirations are changing drastically. And I think what has happened for me is the blinders were lifted a bit and I recognized that when – as we start to really cultivate, you know, our vision and what we believe in and as I was alluding to earlier like being able to articulate not what we do but what we believe in made me realize that we could be doing so much more. And when we really believe that we wanna change the dialogue from problems to progress, when we really believe that the greatest contribution that the millennial generation can give right now is through media and communications and we believe and know that there are non-profits and causes who desperately need their stories told, and we live in a society that needs to hear those stories, then all of a sudden, we realized we got a big job to go do.

I love the program that we have run to date, but, man, we gotta do more. And there is an urgency to that drive, and there’s this real knowledge that we have something to give the world that the world needs. And there’s no ego in that, it’s just we have a concept and we’ve been in this space and we’ve done a lot of the hard work and really kept our head down when we did that work, and all of a sudden, it’s like I looked up and I was like, but, you know, there are so many more stories that need to be told, there are so many more students that wanna get involved in this kind of work, there are so many 20-something and 30-something individuals that wanna give their time and their talents, and they just don’t necessarily have that outlet or know how, so as I am maturing as an individual, I think I’m also gaining more confidence in the kind of work that I can go do.

Quite honestly, when I was given an opportunity to give a TED talk, I was pretty shocked, I was like, wow, I mean, do I – what am I gonna talk about? And not to say that I’m an expert by any means, but I’ve started to recognize that I’m not 22 any longer, I’m 32, I’ve been doing this Students of the World gig for 12 years, that’s a long time. I don’t think that I really understood how long of a time that was, you know, I think in a lot of ways, I had been thinking as if I was a 23, 24-year-old that was just starting out in this endeavor but I’m not. And our organization is not, and our organization has matured. And we now stand on a foundation of a dozen years of really hard work and there is knowledge and there is understanding and there is compassion that comes from that. And so we’re gonna use that and go do something even bigger than I had dreamed we could ever do. So, it’s changing.

Courtney Spence on Comparing Non-Profit Leadership and Management

In Chapter 8 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive Courtney Spence answers "How Do Leadership and Management Differ in What You Do?"  Spence shares how both leadership and management play into her Executive Director work in the midst of her organizational growth phase.  She details the vision casting elements of leadership and the one-on-one nature of management in describing the differences.  Courtney Spence returns to CYF for her Year 3 interview.  As Founder and Executive Director, Spence leads non-profit Students of the World to empower college students to use film, photography, and journalism to tell stories of global issues and the organizations working to address them.  Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How do leadership and management differ in what you do?

Courtney Spence: Leadership is about setting the big goals and having the vision and having the guts to go after it, and having the ability to be confident even in the times when you’re not wholly confident, and I’m not saying it’s an act, I think there is an essential quality of a leader to be honest in the moment and as, you know, we’re going through a time of scale and growth, it is scary, it is exciting but it’s also scary, and I think being able to acknowledge that fully to the people that you’re working with and that work for you, is really important, but it’s also really important to stay really strong emotionally and stay really strong in your convictions. And kind of set that tone as you head upward or westward or wherever that looks like.

Management to me is about – is much more a one-on-one relationship and helping people continue to stay on that path with the organization, and with the leadership that’s been provided, and really making sure that everybody has a say in that and is a part of that, and feels engaged in the big vision, and engaged in how we’re gonna get there. And that they are encouraged when they need to be, but also that, you know, if certain people are starting to fall off, or this isn’t the right journey for them, being able to see that as it cultivates and really anticipate that before it becomes an issue. And I think that management to me is a much more personal one-on-one relationship and leadership is much more of here we are, big family, and we’re headed west, and this is what we’re gonna go do. So they’re very different but they’re very – they’re equally important and equally challenging too.

What Makes Social Media Work Meaningful - Mike Germano

In Chapter 2 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, social media ad agency CEO Mike Germano answers "What Makes Your Work Meaningful?"  After seven years in business, Germano finds creating engaging social experiences using innovative technology most rewarding.  He shares an example from a Red Bull mobile marketing campaign.  Mike Germano is co-founder and CEO of DUMBO, Brooklyn based social media advertising agency Carrot Creative.  Previously, Germano ran for and was elected to public office in Connecticut.  He is a graduate of Quinnipiac University. 

What It Means to Be a Leader - Mike Germano

In Chapter 8 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, social media ad agency CEO Mike Germano answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Leader in What You Do?"  Germano differentiates between industry leadership and company or community leadership.  He focuses less on self-promotion and more on bringing people together to accomplish goals and produce team-based work.  Mike Germano is co-founder and CEO of DUMBO, Brooklyn based social media advertising agency Carrot Creative.  Previously, Germano ran for and was elected to public office in Connecticut.  He is a graduate of Quinnipiac University. 

Brett Goldman on Finding Meaningful Work in Retail Real Estate

In Chapter 4 of 14 in his 2012 interview, real estate development executive Brett Goldman answers "What Makes Your Work Meaningful?"  Goldman revisits why he pursued a real estate career - to enhance streetscapes - and how his experience developing properties has followed. 

Brett Goldman is a Real Estate Acquisitions Director at Triangle Equities in New York City.  He holds a BA in General Studies from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Real Estate Development from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What makes your work meaningful?

Brett Goldman: Well, what we do is urban shopping. And if anything, enhancing a streetscape is part of what I got into real estate for. And, you know, any of the projects that we undertake, some of them do have that element to it, some of them don't but the ones that we do are actually having an effect on places. For example, the project that we built on Flatbush and Nostrand, in Brooklyn. It really extended this retail quarter that had kind of ended right before our project site, it extended it, you know, a couple hundred more feet because we brought a new anchor to the neighborhood. And what you see now, when you go there, it just changes people's patterns, and if you can change people's patterns and kind of elongate a retail area then it just brings more liveliness to a neighborhood, and bringing more liveliness to a neighborhood makes it more attractive and thus increases property values. And that's kind of what I got into real estate to do. 

Erik Michielsen: And is it working out as you'd expected?

Brett Goldman: Yes and no. As I said, some projects have that element to it and some don't. Sometimes you're building shopping centers and with, you know, a very suburban shopping feel with the parking lot and walking up to the shopping center which I don't think does that, it provides a necessary service and it provides a place for people to go and interact and, you know, all in all I think that retail is better than internet because it gets people out in terms of shopping.

What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder - Jason Anello

In Chapter 4 of 20 in his 2012 interview, creative director Jason Anello answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Life?"  As he gets older, Anello begins to see his age more.  He finds it easier to do things because he cares less about what others think and because what he learns from his experience.  Jason Anello is a founding partner and creative director at marketing services agency Manifold Partners.  He is also the co-founder of the Forking Tasty Brooklyn supper club.  Previously, Anello held creative leadership roles at Yahoo! and Ogilvy & Mather.  He graduated from the University at Albany. 

How Hands On Work Enlightens Creative Career - Jason Anello

In Chapter 7 of 20 in his 2012 interview, creative director Jason Anello answers "How Has Hands On Experience Changing What You Believe is Possible in What You Create?"  Through his life and career, Anello finds success leads into management and, as a result, removal from hands on work.  He shares how he has created a career where he can maintain the hands on work that drives his passion to create things which unleash an audience pleasing experience.  Jason Anello is a founding partner and creative director at marketing services agency Manifold Partners.  He is also the co-founder of the Forking Tasty Brooklyn supper club.  Previously, Anello held creative leadership roles at Yahoo! and Ogilvy & Mather.  He graduated from the University at Albany. 

What It Means to Be a Leader - Phil McKenzie

In Chapter 17 of 21 in his 2011 interview, Phil McKenzie answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Leader in What You Do?"  McKenzie finds people follow him based on passion, honesty, and openness.  Additionally, he notes passion breeds conviction to a cause and allows you to find the right people to follow you.  McKenzie is the founder of Influencer Conference, an international event series bringing together tastemakers across the arts, entrepreneurship, philanthropy and technology.  He is also managing partner of influencer marketing agency FREE DMC.  Previously he worked in Domestic Equity Trading at Goldman, Sachs, & Co.  He earned his BA from Howard University and MBA from Duke University. 

Jullien Gordon on How Purpose Motivates High Energy Performance

In Chapter 3 of 16 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, motivation teacher Jullien Gordon answers "Where Do You Get Your Energy?"  Gordon references Daniel Pink's book, "Drive" and shares how he gets his energy by living in alignment with his purpose.  He understands living in his purpose acts as an intrinsic motivator that allows him to make the most out of each day.  Gordon is the founder of the Department of Motivated Vehicles, a personal and professional development company that helps clients identify purpose and map it to successful outcomes. Gordon has written five books and speaks regularly to college students across America.  He earned masters degrees in education and business from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree from UCLA.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  Where do you get your energy?

Jullien Gordon:  To be honest going back to Daniel Pink’s drive I think purpose is where I get my energy from.  When I’m in alignment with my purpose I get this wind behind my sail that allows me to do things that I couldn’t have imagined doing on my own.  When you’re in alignment with a current of energy it just takes you in places as opposed to trying to swim against the current like no I’m going up this stream no matter what.  No, I’m – when you’re in alignment with your purpose I feel like you’re going with this universal current and that’s where I think a lot of my energy comes from.  

My diet isn’t the greatest diet, I don’t exercise, I want to do all those things well but I do know that where my high level of energy comes from is this deep sense of purpose.  This intrinsic motivation that’s within me and that’s where I think my most powerful and my spiritual source is.  My purpose is my connection to my spiritual source.  It’s the single most important reason why I’m here.  

Now a lot of us go through life and we have all these to do this lists and we check off all kinds of things on our to do lists and by the end of life we’re like yeah I checked off all this stuff but the big question is did you do the one thing that you were uniquely created to do and I feel like I’m moving in alignment with that right now and so that’s where my energy comes from.

How Vision Enables Technology Leadership - Marc Ferrentino

In Chapter 6 of 16 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, cloud computing technology executive Marc Ferrentino answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Leader in What You Do?"  Ferrentino believes leadership in software starts with setting a vision and building a corporate culture around it.  He notes how setting the vision in a large organization comes with challenges of scale not seen in startups.  Ferrentino is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of cloud computing at BMC Software.  Previously, he was Chief Technology Architect (CTA) at Salesforce.com.  Previous to Salesforce.com, Ferrentino worked in mobile and Internet startups and at Goldman Sachs.  He earned a BSEE in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan.

Nina Godiwalla on Advocating Women and Minority Workplace Equality

In Chapter 12 of 22 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "What Can Organizations Do to Better Support Women and Minorities in the Workplace?"  Godiwalla finds many organizations make hiring women a top priorities but do not put as much emphasis to developing those female employees.  As a result Godiwalla comes to believe companies are not looking out for the best interests of women.  She shares investment banking experiences from when she worked at JP Morgan and associated challenges working in a male-dominated environment.  Godiwalla then discusses specific ways to improve workplace equality for women and minorities.  Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street". She is also a public speaker on workplace diversity and founder and CEO of Mindworks, where she teaches mind-based stress reduction techniques to help organizations improve employee wellbeing.  Godiwalla holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth University and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What can organizations do to better support women and minorities in the work place?

Nina Godiwalla:  One of the things I think is creating a culture that’s pretty open to them.  I use – I love this example that I had in investment banking. They have women initiatives, so they’re focused on bringing women in but the question is, what do you do once you bring these women in. And in my experience, we had it where women were – when I looked around and saw what the environment was, even if nothing necessarily happened to me, I would watch what they – the way women were treated by the company for – through my friends and the reality is, is I don’t necessarily think that the company really looked out for women.  Sometimes they did but often they did not.  One of the Morgan Stanley clients said, “We don’t want women working on deals.”  And so right away, she’d done a lot of work on the deal and they ended up pulling her off of the deal, when it came down to interact with the client and do all the fun exciting stuff that looks so great on your resume.  Morgan Stanley just said, “You know what?  They don’t want women on the deal.  You’re getting pulled off.” 

So it’s that type of thing where you kind of – you see that a lot of time, there was opportunities where you’d see women, the time that you’d get to network with senior management is through a lot of the social activities and you’d see all the men on a team, there’s two lower level women and they would be pulled off and they’d have to go to the spa whereas the whole rest of the guy’s team would go out golfing for like a corporate event.  So you just see a lot of things where that doesn’t necessarily make sense and that’s not how women are going to be getting ahead. 

So I think companies paying attention and saying, “What can we do to kind of advocate for the fact that this isn’t necessarily the appropriate behavior?”  And to say it from a guy’s perspective, I think there needs to be conversations because from one of those guy’s perspective that suggested, “Why don’t all the women go to a spa?”  I actually think they may have thought they were doing them a favor.  I don’t know but they could have been thinking, “You know what?  These women don’t know – I don’t even know if they did know how to play golf but they don’t -- probably don’t want to play golf.  Let me let them do what they want to do.”  And that’s why I think the conversations are important and what I really distinctly am not pleased about is when the conversations are the women and the minorities in the room because -- only -- because there is no understanding. 

When I go on – when I travel and speak, one of the most beneficial things I’ve had is we have people of all different types in the room.  We have the men in the room, the minorities in the room, the women in the room and the exchange and understanding that takes place and part of it is because we’re not in a corporate environment so you know the person across can’t say, “I’m worried about what she’s going to think about me because I have to work with her next week and I don’t want her telling my team that I said terrible things.”  There isn’t that anxiety around these talks.  It’s what can we do to learn from each other and some of the most brilliant things I’ve learned are from you know the guys that are sitting at the table saying, “Hey, I didn’t know that, I didn’t get it,” or a woman saying “Really? That’s why you did that.  I had no idea that, you know, your intentions were good.” It’s very helpful to have those conversations.

Nina Godiwalla on How Selfless Leadership Creates Virtuous Cycles

In Chapter 15 of 22 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Leader in What You Do?"  Godiwalla notes the importance of conviction in leadership - believing in what you do.  She compares and contrasts leading and managing.  Godiwalla notes how shared passions and beliefs complement selfless approach to serve others that creates virtuous cycles, or positive feedback loops.  Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street".  She is also a public speaker on workplace diversity and founder and CEO of Mindworks, where she teaches mind-based stress reduction techniques to help organizations improve employee wellbeing.  Godiwalla holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth University and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What does it mean to be a leader in what you do?

Nina Godiwalla:  One the main things about that is believing in what you do.  I think there’s a difference between a manager and a leader and a leader is you’re going through and you’re inspiring people and it’s so important when you are inspiring people that you embody and love and enjoy what you do.  So being a leader, you’re able to take people along with your vision. You have a sense of what people want to do and you have a sense of what your goal is and you have to be able to marry those so that people are doing what they want to do too and I think that’s very challenging.  Managing is telling people what they need to do you know and that it should get done but you’re not really bringing in kind of their spirit with – along with that.  You need to bring in, you know what you want, you believe in it and how do you get the people below you to really believe in that as well.

Erik Michielsen:  And how is that translating into what you do and how you see yourself in the world?

Nina Godiwalla:  Well, part of it is I have a little more flexibility but it’s surrounding yourself I think by the people where you have that shared passion.  You have that shared belief and going back to what you said about networking is, the people that have helped me along the way, I am definitely there to help them as well and the people that haven’t necessarily helped me, I am there to help them because it doesn’t matter.  It’s like it’s not about you did this for me and I did this for you.  It’s kind of you just see it as larger community.  We’re part of this larger world and the more I give to other people, the more things will come back to me.  I mean it’s karma.  It just works that way.  It’s a natural thing. 

So when I’m talking to somebody I mean I have this really this young woman who is just like bursting with entrepreneurial energy and she’s kind of stuck in this, this world where she is not able to use it but she does it a lot in her personal time and I – she's the kind of person that she just wants to connect with me every now and again.  She sends me emails.  She just needs that connection and I don’t think about it as “well, what am I going to get from her, or later on what it’s going to be.”  It’s you’re putting that energy out into the world and I know that later on when she gets herself down and she gets what she wants, she will be helping that other person and it’s that feeling, that feeling that we’re all just looking out for each other and when you’re in this entrepreneurial world, I really feel that people are doing that.  Not everybody but I think the majority of the people and some people they’re not going to help you.  You reach out to some people and they won’t help you or every now and again, you might have to turn someone down but that’s just part of the process.

Why to Be Decisive as an Entrepreneur - Hattie Elliot

In Chapter 11 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, The Grace List founder and entrepreneur Hattie Elliot answers "As an Entrepreneur, Why is it Important to Be Decisive?"  Elliot notes entrepreneurship comes with no guarantees.  It requires deciding on what direction to take and having a constitution strong enough to maintain that direction confidently.  Elliot is the founder and CEO of The Grace List, which is redefining the dating world by creating opportunities for singles to revitalize personal interests and find intriguing people who will influence their lives.  Before founding The Grace List, Elliot worked as a social entrepreneur and business development consultant.  Elliott graduated from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where she studied economics, philosophy, and politics.