mission45

Setting the Foundation for Successful Transition

July 24, 2017
Since I’m raising two sons I’m reminded every day how important it is to set good foundation and basics for the good, successful and happy life. I recognize my own strengths and weaknesses in them, sometimes being very proud, sometimes scared to death. OK, most of the time scared to death. But I guess that’s normal for modern parenting and ambitious people.

When you start developing your career it’s also very important how you set your foundations. Not only in order to achieve success or not, but also in order to feel good and acquire the most wanted currency of the modern times – happiness.

Personally, I have decided not to chase happiness anymore because I have aspirations to become serious theater writer and I’m definitely writing much better while I’m miserable. So, I will not guide you toward happiness but you can find a lot of authors who will. With impermanent success.

I will try to explain how you set basics for successful transition or event better: for successful transitions during your life and career.

If you were reading some of my blogs earlier you might have noticed that I have several obsessions: creating amazing teams, telling good stories and proving that one can have several successful but very different careers during a lifetime.

In order to achieve the last one I must admit, there are couple of pre-conditions:
- You need solid set of talents and capabilities that you can work on and develop. I’m sorry, but I will not be politically correct and say that everyone can have several careers. Some people can’t have even one. Some people should not have even one – although they have it.
- You need to start pretty early and keep the pace because although human life is significantly longer than it was before, and yes you can start doing yoga at the age of 94 and become an instructor, it’s possible that you won’t have 100 years of life in front of you.
- You need to learn how to manage transition well. Transition in the outside world, but more importantly transition inside of you.
Managing transition in the outside world is a complex topic. But managing transition inside of you is a diabolic topic. And a very sensitive one. And then we reach the key issue: how is your foundation set for this?

Trouble with foundations are that they are mostly set while you are not aware of it. For many things during your childhood. But if we focus on career and professional transitions they are set during your professional childhood and it would be nice to be aware of it. I was not. But somehow, I managed to survive. Not without scars of course.

The first very important thing is to learn how to change jobs. I don’t mean how to find a new job, but how to leave the previous one. It’s always hard to leave. That’s why people stay in bad relationships or continue living in devastated countries. Unless you don’t have any career aspirations (and in that case, you are not reading my blog anyhow) you will have to change a couple of jobs. The sooner you start, the easier it gets. It’s in a way like the first time you have sex. The older you are, the more worries you have. The younger you are – there is more chance to make a big mistake! But, luckily, what makes it different from sex is that the consequences are not as dramatic or lifechanging. I changed my first job because of the 150 Deutsche Marks more I got from another agency. It was 30% more. Later, the company I left started working on fantastic projects that I would really like to be a part of, but that’s life! At the new job, I got amazing career progress opportunities and it led me to my publishing career where I had the most amazing 7 years. Today I would also seriously consider 30% higher salary. You always need 30% more. But I value some other things much more. People I work with, for example. So, I’m not saying you should change your job when you are young because of that 30% higher salary. But if you feel like changing it for whatever reason – do it! Even if it’s going to be a mistake, you will learn how to manage that transition inside of you.

The second very important thing is to learn to keep a healthy distance. Distance from the job you do and distance from the people you work with. This is essential for future transitions. Nowadays I see many people who are posting on social networks only things related to brands they work for or projects they participate in. Not to mention how boring that is for the followers, but it shows that they didn’t manage to establish healthy distance from their work. I’m the first one to post things I’m working on online (when it’s legal) but can you imagine me 10 years ago posting photos of me with Story magazine in a coffee shop, in a bath, at the beach, again in a coffee shop, and again in a coffee shop, then in the office… Every Tuesday with every new issue… And believe me, I was over-dedicated to this brand! When it comes to distance from people – it’s not about being unfriendly or avoiding communication. While I’m writing this I’m just realizing that I’m going to have a drink sometime next week with 4 people from all the jobs I’ve mentioned and they were all 10+ years ago. So, I have a couple of friendships from my jobs. This also not about that old story: when we work we work, when we have fun we have fun. I think you should have fun while you are working (read my post about it). But distance is about making a clear agreement with yourself that people you are working with are not your closest friends or family. And you can’t treat them like they are. They might become one day, but until that day you work together. You don’t live together. This will prepare you for future transitions. Because, when you have to leave a job you are not leaving your best friends, a wife/husband and parents at the same time

If you learn those two things you are ready. Ready to start thinking about transition. And it’s still going to be hard. And it’s still going to hurt. But, you will be satisfied at the end of it. Until the next one…

Cheers to transition! Cheers to my last post in this setup. Next one will come together with redesigned Mission45 and with new bloggers who are going to join me on this journey called “Life in Transition”. They will have different topics, different views, different styles, but I’m sure you are going to like us even more!
Is Diversity a Team Killer?

July 13, 2017

After comparing carbon footprints for a couple of years – this time to see who has the smaller and not the bigger one (which is quite a new experience for top executives), big companies are now very much into diversity topic.

I will not waste any words or your time writing about the importance of real diversity in the workplace. Simply because some authors are writing about this important topic in a serious and well-researched way. As a person who has always had better cooperation with women and who hired more women than men during my career in all companies, I can only say that this topic is coming way too late to the stage. And of course, gender diversity is only one issue… It’s a shame it has to be a “topic” still.

My passion is creating amazing teams—for a very selfish reason. I felt so good when I was a member of amazing teams that I wanted to repeat that experience as much as possible. And the results were good as well. On the other hand, when I was not in a good team, I felt extremely miserable and demotivated. I guess I am no different from the majority of people.

But when I started analyzing what the key to my relationship with some of my best associates was, it was not about diversity. Of course, we were different in age, nationality, gender, and many other things, but we also had one key thing in common. We were self-made people, not coming from very privileged backgrounds, and achieving success against all odds.

When I expressed my wish at age 16 to enroll in the University of Arts after my 2nd year of high school, most people around me thought of it as a joke. Not just because I was very young, but because of a false perception that only kids of other artists could ever be accepted there. Only 8 people were accepted per year to the drama and scriptwriting department. I passed the first round, and the professors told me I was talented but very young. And then next year I was there. Among those 8. Against all odds.

Probably because I was so proud of my journey as the underdog, I liked working with underdogs so much later on. Medical nurse becoming media queen, introverted, silent guy with great marketing and communication mind, eccentric magazine editor becoming serious business guy, well-raised young man in the world of street-smart backstabbers… And many more examples of people with whom I had the most amazing working relationship. They all have one thing in common: they were underdogs and they succeeded. I started loving those types of projects as well. Of course, it was logical that brands like Elle and Cosmopolitan would work on the market, but when we decided to launch Sensa, most people said we were crazy. “It will not last 6 issues” was one of the comments. But it was about the great team of underdogs who did this mission impossible. (Note: Sensa quickly overcame in copy sales all monthly magazines in the company. I can’t comment on the current status since many years have passed, but I would not be surprised if that was still the case.

But this is all possible while you are, more or less, in an entrepreneurial environment, where you have certain influence and can pick people for your team.

The reality is different if you go to bigger systems and a huge company. In most cases, strange “diversity” will be implemented. Make a team of bad, solid, good, and excellent people. If the solid becomes good or excellent with your development efforts, offer it to other teams because they lack good and excellent. Don’t we all lack good and excellent? Why should I give my best people to other teams that are not capable of developing, primarily due to bad leadership and bad selection at the very beginning?

In my posts, I have mentioned a couple of times that I believe in the power of good selection. What is not done well in the recruitment process can’t be fully corrected later. You will never create a winning team if it’s wrong. You can create a solid team by putting much leadership effort and money into expensive training and team building. But well-selected teams don’t need team buildings. They might have retreats to celebrate big successes. Every day is like a team building for them.

And now with this “diversity” hype that is going to be misused and misinterpreted by the majority of big companies people will be forced to compromise even more. Aside from selecting their team members based on different political reasons, now they will have to take people based on the quotas that HQ has to deliver in order to be able to shoot a nice video and present amazing diversity figures at the annual shareholders assembly.

I want to work with people that I want to work with! And I don’t care if they are men or women, black or white, gay or straight, hipsters or red necks… I want to work with them because I feel fantastic every second that we spend together. I want to be inspired by their ideas, by their act, integrity, hard works, the fun they create… That’s the diversity I need!

Of course, that this is easy to say if you are about to create a team of 5 for your advertising agency. It’s definitely very hard to implement it in a huge company in any industry. I’m not a fool. I’ve worked for both kinds of companies. But what if big companies start with small steps by educating their mid management that diversity is not “oh, I have to take this lady we have lack of females in sale”. Big companies can start with small steps. Fire all people who are there to fake diversity. And invest into educating others how they can create real diversity in their own teams. Give leaders the empowerment to be real leaders, not to play silly games in order to hit the diversity KPI’s.

I will continue my efforts to play my game with the teams of underdogs. That’s my thing obviously. If you feel like one, send me a note. You never know what we can achieve in the future.

Cheers to diversity and cheers to underdogs! But real diversity and winning underdogs!

I don’t have a movie recommendation for this weekend, but I recommend some older episodes of The X Factor UK. There are many exciting moments when they put some people together and they create magic and a lot of money.
Destructive People Do Not Change

July 6, 2017
For some reason, I like to give names to my thoughts. I like to classify them and give them structure. I also like typologies. Especially when it comes to people. I guess the roots of it are in my formal education that was very much about history and theory and surprise, surprise: about many classifications, names and structures.

One would say that people should not be classified and that every individual is different. Of course, that’s true, but I have realized that you can simply find certain typology of characters in every working environment and in 90% of the cases their behavior will be 100% consistent to the type of the character they belong to. Of course, psychology as science is dedicating a lot of effort and studies to this topic but I’m not talking about scientific classifications and theories here.

Recently my therapist called me a human soul expert. But I would say that I’m (or trying to be) more of a human behavior expert. And I will write in this blog about destructive behavior of people in the working environment.

A number of years ago a new colleague joined the company. She looked composed, polite, experienced and friendly. But pretty soon it became clear that she is a very destructive person. In order to create some value, to make something good, she had to de-construct and destroy many things (and people) around her. She was capable of creating very good things, but unfortunately, the price for everyone around her was always too high. When you combine this with an insatiable ambition detected quite late in life and some personal demons (read about demons in my previous post) you get someone who should be neutralized from the team as soon as possible.

You can call me judgmental or label me in any similar way, but simply put – destructive people do not change and they destroy everything they touch. Later, based on their capabilities, skills and knowledge, they can create something new, but in most cases after they destroy they just continue to destroy further.

How do you recognize this type of person?
- Too much criticism about work that someone did before them on the same or similar job
- Looking for associates who will support only their way of thinking. Usually very young people who would become loyal to a destructive approach due to their lack of experience and because they are scared
- Constant pushing towards new, new, new projects… In order not to be forced to actually analyze the success of what came previously and the fact that maybe some things were just decomposed and never put together again
- Fake interest in people who are usually perceived only as a tool
- Hiding the lack of knowledge with an aggressive approach in communication
This type of person exists in two versions: an ambitious one with high energy and drive that is proactively chasing opportunities to destroy someone or something, and other, luckily, more frequent version of passive, negative but not as dangerous person who is not as malicious for the system.

Quite soon after this lady joined the team I left the company. Got some more interesting offers. So I was not aware of the future developments. But recently I met another colleague who continued to work with her for 5 more years. And I was curious to find out if she changed at all. I was thinking that maybe after a while people become tired of destroying. But unfortunately, that was not the case. She became even more destructive, more powerful and she crashed the whole business down not taking any prisoners while doing it. Many people were left devastated both personally and professionally after this “adventure”.

My question was raised – I must admit – only in order to confirm my thoughts about this. I was expecting this kind of development and I was not surprised with the answer at all. Because, these types of people do not change. They can change temporarily, only if they are forced to change by someone who is stronger. And even then, they will find their way to be destructive in the background.

So what might be solution?

One option is to leave. If you don’t feel strong enough. Or you have different priorities. And this is fully legitimate solution.

But, if you can’t leave…

Well this is the case where the solution is quite clear but the execution of the solution is not always easy. This type of character should be immediately destroyed and kicked out from the organization. Don’t be fooled by potential capabilities that this type of person can present and results that might look good at some points. The end result is going to be a wasteland. This is one of the rare situations where I justify a dirty game in order to fix the issue as soon as possible. Use the same or similar tools to fight back. Be smart and not too emotional. Look at this as a pre-condition to start building a normal and healthy organization – which, at the end of the day, should be the goal for all of us, in the same way we are responsible for building healthy and responsible society.

Cheers for fighting back! Yes, it’s tough but someone has to do it. I still believe that.
Deepest Fears and Brightest Hopes

June 19, 2017

A few years ago, I was sent by the company that I worked for to a provincial city in my home country to lead a team of about 70 people. It was not a “must do” kind of assignment but I was a good trouper and I said yes without asking too many questions. Let’s do it. The feeling in my gut was telling me – this is not good decision, but my rational side was already packing things and looking for an apartment.

From today’s perspective, it was the biggest mistake I ever made. And it’s 100% my mistake. But it’s also what I learned that might have helped me in a strange way to find a better place for me a couple of years later.

Being alone in a small and unfortunately quite devastated city, doing a hard but intellectually not very demanding job, and living in a pretty big apartment I decided to cut through the boring days and meet some new people. I had many nice, decent and friendly people at work, but I was hungry for different topics and different kinds of people. So, I joined couchsurfing as a host. (if you don’t know the concept click here).

More than 20 people couchsurfed my home during a time span of 3 or 4 months. Most of them were on their trips around the world. With $100 or less in their pockets, hitchhiking and couchsurfing. One guy was from Mexico. He was surfing through Europe for a year by then and he decided to spend that winter in Serbia. Some nice people from Novi Sad arranged for him to live in their grandmother’s house and help her during winter with all kinds of chores you have to do in the village during the winter. He was making his money by selling photos in white paper frames on the street. Can you imagine how much money you can earn like that? But, for him it was enough to survive. He told me it was more then what he had in Mexico.

He touched my deepest fears and my brightest hopes. My fears that I might be broke again and my hopes that the world can be a nice place where people help you by giving you accommodation and food while you are helping their old grandmother.

He stayed with me for 2 or 3 days and I gave him a ride to the village where he was about to spend the winter. He gave me a photo with a short thank you note and a big Mexican smile. I gave him a worried look of a father. He was not young enough to be my son of course, but I was already a father at the time. So, I stared handing out those worried stares to almost everyone younger then myself.

A year and a half later the same company sent me to Switzerland for an expensive and useless training. Also, I had some meetings there about whether I should move to Switzerland and work in the company’s HQ. I had a bad feeling about that one. And by that time I was less of a trouper. I learned something about myself in the meantime and many things about companies. So, I decided to sabotage those talks and I took a walk through this beautiful, rich and boring Swiss village. OK, not a village, but a small town.

And instead of taking a walk on the lake front like I usually do, I went to the old town part. I was walking and looking around and at one point I noticed down on the street some photos on white paper frames.

The same company sent me to two totally different locations. Destiny sent the Mexican guy to see both of those places. The coincidence of this encounter was so amazing for me. If I were a paranoid type of person, I’d be sure that he is working for the CIA and that he was sent to recruit me! Since I’m not I was just excited in a strange way that I was not able to define and recognize.

In the meantime, the Mexican guy spent one summer in Croatia where he worked on a beach, but later he was robbed in Montenegro where someone took everything he had (which was not a lot but it was everything), including his photo camera. Those same great people from Novi Sad bought him everything new. Including a new camera. He continued his travels around Europe. Without losing his faith in people and without losing his smile.

I lost my smile in the meantime. Mostly due to the fact that I compromised too much, so I lost myself.

What I learned from this strange story and those years spent in the poor south of Serbia and rich Swiss mountains?

First thing is that I don’t want to be a trouper. I was proud before that I was one. Loyal, fighter, the man for every task… Today I think you should be a trouper only if you are exceptionally greedy or stupid. In the first case, you will simply manage to get more money and in the second case – well, there’s no point in explaining.

Just to be clear – I still believe in loyalty and hard work but my filters for when and why I should be loyal and hardworking are connected only to people, not to companies and money.

The second important thing was the revelation that even if you go to the very bottom of anything or everything there is a way up. The Mexican guy didn’t have much. But someone took even that from him. But some good people helped him. I was in the darkest places for a year or so regarding my professional integrity, having a feeling that I’m heavily wasting my time, knowledge and dignity. Out of that my theater play came to light. Published and in production as we speak. As a wake-up call. As proof that I can still be a person, not a trouper.

And third, the most important is that I never ever want to work with people that I don’t trust. I know that trust is precious and rare in the 21^st century and in business, but if I can trust someone to let them in my house to spend a night while he/she is traveling around the world, then I should be able to trust people I’m working with. If not, I should change them or leave them. Because, lack of trust and respect for people you are spending your day with, is acceptable only for the greedy and stupid.

Cheers to the brave Mexican photographer! I hope he is still enjoying Europe. At the same time, I hope that he will be able to go back home one day. Because, all travelers should go back home at least once. Cheers to great people from Novi Sad. We can’t survive as a civilization if people like them do not exist. Cheers to my new post after almost 2 months.
Networking as a Recruitment Tool

May 4, 2017

Maybe I’m deeply in the wrong with this one – but I have a feeling that today’s recruitment is mostly done from laptop/mobile phone! People look at people’s profiles (wherever), people call people for recommendations, people put ads online to find people… And of course – it’s logical, fast and cost efficient. We live busy lives with ever limiting resources. What can one good recruiter do? Become good in assessing people based on their CV’s and profiles. And maybe a couple of recommendations.

But let’s move away for a moment from the mass recruitment concept and just fulfilling the needs of a company. Let’s move to haute couture of recruitment. Let’s say that someone wants an amazing, fantastic, talented, best ever, winning team! Don’t we all want that? (See my post I’m Sorry I’m Talented).

And let’s also focus on my second most important topic (after the timing issue) – the casting. If a director and/or producer wants to have perfect casting for the movie, the mandatory thing is to watch at least a few movies of the actors who are going to read for the role. The exception is my hero Paul Verhoeven. While casting for his 1995 classic Showgirls all actresses rejected to dance nude so he ended up with Elizabeth Berkley. (read more and see some photos here)

But how do we get to „watch a few movies“ of our potential employees in business? How can we be sure (apart from the interview and other HR tools) that that person is exactly what we want?

I would say that the best way is to use networking.

Networking is a tricky word that means different worlds for different people. For some, it’s core of their businesses – sales roles, real-estate, external relations etc. Some other professions see networking as connecting two devices via fast enough Wi-Fi or cable. Somewhere in between we have many others who network mostly internally and from time to time they visit some associations and conferences. But, actually, having to decide to network isn’t always necessary.

When you have any kind of external communication try to pay attention not only to your goals or the topic that you are discussing. Try to understand and to access the person you are talking to as well. First of all, it will help you finish your job much better and second – you will start creating your own recruitment data base.

As always, I will tell you couple of stories.

Right guy at the wrong place

Once I had to go to a meeting of a company that I haven’t respected much. They were a kind of a „necessary evil“ that I had to deal with at the time, but I have to say I’m happy that for quite a number of years I won’t have to do any business with them. For the most part, the people from that company were also not ones that I would like to spend time with or have anything more than necessary business discussions.

This time we were hosted by a new guy – totally different then what we expected. He was smart, well educated, polite, perfectly dressed, talkative but not too pushy… I was quite surprised. We continued to work with him and everything was quite good.

At one point I needed a sales person for my team. And I remembered this guy. Our brands were a perfect match to him. Classy, sophisticated, premium, good looking, smart… He would represent our brands much better than anyone I know. Unfortunately, things went wrong with some other things and we were not able to hire him. But a few years later I figured out that this guy got a great job and a global role for a world-wide giant and one of the coolest brands ever.

I’m absolutely sure he would be a perfect fit for my company at the time. But simply the timing was not right.

Next one…

Back to student life!

A long time ago I was a judge in a case study competition. It was such a nice flash back to student days. Many enthusiastic young people, a lot of team spirit, a lot of drinking, a lot of fun. And quite a lot of nerves during the competition. Also, very good networking opportunity outside of your usual world. Chatting with students, being engaged by professors trying to get some insight for their teams…

There were some good teams and some teams that weren’t as good, but in one of the teams that were quite good but not the best during the presentation, one young lady stood out. Her teammate blocked totally. Ruined the presentation. But she stood still and pushed the team forward.

Fast forward. I’m recruiting youngsters for my marketing team. And I invite her for an interview. I remember that my thoughts on here were: whatever happens she will stand still. And she will survive. Because, the company I was working for at the time was not much of a place for young marketers. They would usually get destroyed by editorial teams. So I needed a survivor. But a talented one.

And I was right. Not only did she survive but she made a fantastic career progress and in some of the most critical situations that we ever had she stood still like that day of presentation when one of her team members destroyed their chances to win.

Point is that I would never figure out her just from the interview. Or any kind of test.

Today she has an amazing career and I’m still very proud that I recognized her talent and supported her during those couple of years we worked together.

And the last one…

Learning from mistakes. Big mistakes.

I once met a very nice lady who worked for a company that we had a limited but good cooperation with. She was not so happy with the company due to the nature of the industry and I needed a senior marketing professional.

This was a perfect example of recruitment through networking. We met through business. I recognized she might be good match for us. She thought that we were the perfect environment for her. We had a couple of talks. I even saw her working during some events she did.

But I made a mistake. We talked in the form of an interview. And I saw her working in situations where everything was prepared in advance without any surprises. And she worked for a company that had for years very well developed procedures and paths that one should follow.

When she started working we realized very quickly that she is not capable of creating anything from scratch. If there was no procedure she couldn’t do it. She was not capable of making a concept and pushing it forward. She was good in communication with people, but nothing was moving forward for weeks. She was able to understand everything but totally incapable of doing something with it.

So we had to say goodbye to each other pretty fast.

I want to conclude underlining that networking for recruitment is not drinking cocktails with someone or attending conferences and chit-chatting during breaks. It can start from there. But it’s very good if you can see someone in the working environment, in a stressful situation, in her/his team, in front of her/his superiors… Then you can make a much better assessment and decide if that’s the perfect match for your team. If you do that well, then interview can be only about formal issues. Like salary. And benefits.

Cheers to networking! Anyhow many people think that’s the only thing I’m doing for years now. And I’m not going to ruin their dreams!
Setting Your Leadership Goals

April 11, 2017
In most of the things we do we are setting some goals. If it’s about sports – the goal is to run half-marathon or to win an Olympic medal. In business – to get a promotion or to seal the deal with a big client. Or in personal life, to get married or to have five kids. Or just one.

And it seems to me it’s quite normal when setting those goals to take into consideration capabilities, the time at our disposal, competition or any other realistic circumstance. If nothing, we are setting those goals based on a certain ambition that we have.

If I’m talking with colleagues and friends about leadership or reading articles or books, in many cases I get the feeling it’s – all or nothing. Also, when you talk to people from different companies, it looks like they get the impression that they are either leaders or not. And based on that impression they practice their leadership skills or they quit. Sometimes, those who believe they have leadership potential don’t judge the level of that potential well, and that’s when the trouble starts…

I’m not going to debate the famous doubt: if leaders are born or raised. The reality in the business environment of 21^st century is that leaders are needed all over the place. Leaders are required all over the place. Everyone wants leaders on all levels and in all departments of their company. So it’s clear – you need to raise them. Because there is no chance that so many of them were born and then hired by an HR department in your amazing company.

But on that leadership journey many people have a very hard time. And many people stop, fail, get disappointed… Unfortunately, instead of becoming better professionals, better people managers, better project managers, they become not-so-good leaders and they frustrate everyone around including themselves.

Due to this reason I’m arguing for a fair setting of leadership goals. Because we are not all made to win the Olympics. But if you set your leadership goals well it might just happen that you can be happy and that people around you might end up much happier and more satisfied. From the company’s point of view I believe this can be essential: instead of losing solid people just because they are not the best leaders, or pushing the average ones to pretend they want to be exceptional – I don’t see how any organization can profit from this.

How can we set our leadership goals properly? Ideally, this should be done together with a company you are working for. But since it might happen that you will not find that much support for such a thing, give it a shot by yourself.
- Assess the leadership needs of your organization/department. It’s a big lie that superb leadership is needed for every job, every department and every organization. It can always be beneficial but it’s not always essential for success. Do not cast your pearls before swine.
- Assess your leadership appetite. We are not all eager to be leaders. We are not all made to enjoy it. And if you don’t enjoy it after some time you are going to hate it.
- Dedicate significant time to introspection and try to understand yourself, before trying to understand anyone else. Expose yourself to a variety of situations where you will be able to understand how you react to various challenges, mostly in relationships with people around you. Does it come easy or painful for you to give negative feedback? Is that too easy for you? Can you survive a complete failure of a project you are working on?
- Discover what it is you believe in and what you stand for without compromise. And where and when you are ready to compromise.
- Try to accept the fact that it’s OK to quit. People who never quit can’t be good leaders.
Fun fact: Many people quit their jobs after they attend some sort of leadership training.

They either realize that they don’t want to do whatever it is they are doing at the moment or they don’t like the organization that sent them to the training because they don’t want to be pushed to be leaders. And while it is not the end of the world if something like this happen, neither for a company or an individual, you must ask yourself: why spend years with wrong goals and wrong perception of who you are and what you should become? And from the company prospective: why invest so wrongly into people? It’s money, but also lost time and opportunity.

I would be happy if I could help organizations and individuals in setting proper goals for their individual and organizational leadership development. But in order to be able to do this I have to expose myself to new experiences and to set new leadership goals for myself. I’ve spent too much time casting my pearls before swine.

Cheers to everyone who is capable to set honest goals for anything he/she is doing. This doesn’t mean that one should not set high targets. It’s just about time to understand that “we can do anything if we want to” is nothing but one big lie.

Movie recommendation for the weekend is They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969).
Top 3 Job Interview Tips

April 9, 2017
For a couple of years now I’ve been getting frequent questions from my friends and colleagues about job interviews. They need some advice about their approach, questions they might get, questions they should or should not ask… I was never an HR professional by position or job description. But for some reason, even before I started writing this blog, people trusted me with those topics. And I must say I liked that. It gave me the impression that I was a competent people manager throughout the years.

If I try to understand why they keep asking me and why I’m capable of giving decent advice, I come to a conclusion that this is connected to my basic education and knowledge of drama arts and movies. Because, a job interview is actually one big theater show. Staring at least two and sometimes more actors. If both actors play well, it will have positive outcome. If you play well you might get the job but the future there is not very bright. If the (HR business) partner sitting opposite to you does a bad job – you don’t have a chance.

I don’t want to be rude but I have to say that this article is applicable only to more complex employment processes in companies where this is taken seriously. And, for the most part, when it comes to more demanding and complex positions. Although principles are or should be the same for some less appreciated (paid) jobs, we all know that in real life, time spent on hiring cashiers or storage workers is very limited.

Advice No. 1

Do a background check about the person you are going to play this show with

It’s easy to get to know the company where you are applying for a job. You will find their company profile, portfolio, manifesto, code of conduct and a lot of other corporate bullshit. It goes without saying that you know the basics of the theater where you are going to play the show, but this is not really important.

The key is to do a research on the specific person that you are going to talk to. In almost any business society this should not be very hard to do. It takes no more than 3 steps for you to find someone who knows someone who knows the person.

But what is it that you should find about your “partner”? Usually people ask if that person is friendly or arrogant, soft or tough, demanding or relaxed… But this is less relevant in my opinion. It’s very important to understand a person’s motivation for that particular job interview. You can have a wide range of motivation factors but let’s name some of the most frequent ones and most important ones:
- Is your partner ambitious and hungry to prove herself/himself by recruiting good candidates?
- Is your partner respected and trusted professional by other colleagues?
- Is your partner interested in something else besides work and job she/he is doing?
- Is your partner interested in getting the job done or in finding perfect fit for the team/company?
- Is your partner under time pressure? Or any other pressure?
This is applicable for HR professional that might interview you, but also for potential line managers that will interview you after HR department. For additional tips on how to approach and judge line managers see my post I’m Sorry, I’m Talented.

Why are all those questions important? Instead of explaining as always I will just give you some examples. What if your interviewer needs to hire 20 people in 5 days? The opposite of hiring one person in 2 years? What if she/he has high ambitions and wants to present to the management only candidates that look absolutely amazing and as 100% fit? On the other hand what if she/he is a seasoned professional with huge respect from management and he/she is able to put forward unusual and not very typical candidates for the position?

Advice No. 2

Never look too eager to get the job

Of course, it’s always more comfortable to look for another job while you still have one. You are more relaxed in general and you can play this game better. But even if you are really in need to land a new job offer, try to play cool.

If I compare it again with theater – you will never believe the actor who is pushing too much and too hard. The best actors look very natural, like they are doing something perfectly normal in a very relaxed manner. If they over-act it you are not going to trust them on stage.

I must say that there are cases when a company/interviewer want from you to show high level of interest and motivation for the job, but you should be able to understand that if you perform the action mentioned in Advice No. 1 well. Also, it might be a sign that the job is quite a lousy one. Plus, bear in mind that motivation is not presented in the best way by how you say things but what you are saying. So, tone your enthusiasm a bit down.

Advice No. 3

Look like a million dollars

Although all big companies will tell that they don’t care how candidates look – this is not true. I’m not going to step into diversity topic because I’m not talking here about being male or female, black or white, beautiful or not. This is not about your beauty, biceps, long blond hair, beautiful face or great legs. This is about putting some effort to look your best on that day.

Most serious recruiters will not judge and hire based on how you look. But that’s the case only if there is no more than one candidate with similar qualifications and competences. If you face competition of a couple more good candidates believe me – the better looking one is going to get the job. I know that this claim can provoke some controversy, but it’s relatively easy to explain:
- If someone notices that you were dedicated to bring up maximum out of your personal appearance she/he will also think that you will have a similar level of dedication to your working tasks. This recognition doesn’t have to be conscious. Many things happen on a subconscious level.
- We all like to be around good looking people. Is this human nature or image created by media? Doesn’t matter much for this story.
So, flip through some good fashion blogs, go to your hairdresser, consult some friends experienced in style and fashion… Test some new fragrances… if nothing, you will feel good about yourself while entering that interview room.

Cheers to new opportunities and new jobs! And don’t forget to enjoy the show. I know it’s stressful but it can also be fun!

Check out one fantastic article on recruitment topic by Mitchell Herper. Click here.
Don’t Stop Working. You Will Start Thinking.

April 7, 2017
And that’s dangerous! It’s dangerous for you, for your career and for your employer. And it can even go beyond that!

Jokes aside, we all know that while we are closely focused on our work and our career, we spend most of our time in a problem-solving mode and we don’t bother thinking too much about other things. We don’t quote eastern Zen philosophers and tech gurus, and we don’t challenge ourselves to the very end of our own nerves.

Every time that I had stopped working for a while I ended up in trouble. But the trouble is that after a few years if I don’t stop – I’m in trouble as well.

Let’s discuss first trouble first.

While I was pushing for my career and the success of my business, I was satisfied, for the most part. Everything was good, I was recognized, business was more or less successful. And I had ideas, plans, aspirations… But, when something is wrong from the very beginning and you know it – then it’s wrong 3 or 4 years later, as well. When I switched jobs at one point and instead of managing 70 people I started being more of a consultant with more free time for thinking (both jobs in the same company) I immediately started questioning many fundamental things that were bothering me before as well, but they were never a priority. Because there was always a job to be done, there was always a person to be taken care of, there was always a meeting to attend… But then suddenly say out loud the biggest part of what I was thinking about. Have ideas but keep them to myself. It was a strange position when someone is paying you to, actually, not do your job. Sounds perfect in a way? I even got a promotion. Twice. But not as perfect for strange characters like myself.

So what was the outcome of my free time that I had for thinking:
1. I wrote my first theatre play after almost 15 years. It will be staged in two months in a professional theatre.
2. I realized that I simply can’t pretend I’m working. I need to make an impact and have a purpose.
3. I quit my job.
While number 1 and number 3 are among the best things that I ever did in my life, number 2 is highly complex and dangerous.

Making an impact and having a purpose in the corporate world is a very hard thing to achieve. Of course you can get money, recognition and position. But if we are talking about a real impact – chances are very slim. Simply put, corporations are created to kill everyone who wants to make real impact. It’s like when the human body wants to push all foreign objects out. You need to take medications after they had transplanted an organ into you. You have to take them forever.

So I had to adjust my expectations and redefine the words impact and purpose which is a demanding process. Takes a lot of energy and emotion. Sometimes I feel like a deflated balloon or a sad clown.

Cut. Scene from another episode: I’m meeting by accident on the street a colleague from the job I quit, mentioned in point 3 of this article. He is saying to me: Wow, you are glowing! At that particular moment I was quite close to system shut down. That’s how exhausted I was. But his impression was that I was glowing. Amazing! And I’m not good at pretending.

So let’s move to the other trouble.

What if you don’t stop on time? Where are your limits?

Well obviously with the precondition that you are clear on definitions of impact and purpose limits can be quite high. You think you are at your wits end, but someone tells you that you look better than ever. You feel like you could sit and cry in a corner but then you give the best presentation ever in front of 300 people.

And just when I thought that I have defined my impact and purpose in the right way I was about to go to a business dinner in a fancy restaurant driving my fancy car. With fantastic people that I really like a lot. On the streets of my hometown many young people were starting protests trying to find their purpose and to make their impact. I had such a strong wish to join them. But I went to that business dinner. And I still feel sick about it.

Cheers to another round of redefining! The only drink that goes with this post is whiskey with Perier. After that, take one more whiskey with a beer.
„The World Is Going to Stop Without Me“ Syndrome

March 16, 2017

The fact that I didn’t manage to write a single blog post for more than a month brought this topic to the table. To open the spring writing season with a decent confession and hope for improvement.

I have realized that I’m still much better in theory then in practice when it comes to some of the topics I’m writing about. Especially work-life balance. It was clear to me before that I’m not good at this, for sure, but it became so obvious that I actually suck!

When I started analyzing why that is the case, I figured out it’s still the same old problem – I think that the world is going to stop if I stop.

The first label that you can put on me is that I’m a micromanager. And it would be a fair initial comment and assumption. But, I’m actually not. That’s one of the things that I can claim because I have proof for it. If I recognize that colleagues or reports have a good grip on the topic, I’m taking only the helicopter view. There are more things that I’m not even interested in listening about, than the ones that I want to take deep participation in. This has always been my approach because I don’t like boring things. And micromanaging is extremely boring.

The second label is the one of ego-maniac. Here we come to the more-likely-to-be-the-case territory. Being a writer and business executive with a decent career, it would be ridiculous to claim that I don’t have a big ego. And yes – I want to be important and to talk in front of people and to be talked about. Of course, preferably in a good way. I would probably be quite a difficult person if my beginnings in both: writing and business, weren’t such ego killers. In writing I have passed through 4 years of being analyzed and criticized by many people during my studies, and in business – I started in ad agency where all clients were more creative and more competent then me. So, yes, my ego learned how to deal with it quite well. But, of course, you can modify you behavior but you can’t change your character. So, I’m very good today in taking negative feedback, but yes – I give myself more importance then what is probably the reality.

By being quite honest and harsh to myself I’m not trying to get the sympathy of readers. It’s again this mantra that I have that if I write it down and make it public I will have to do more to improve it.

On the other hand there is a positive label that I can put as well which is – respect. In many cases I run an extra mile and push myself over the limits because I want to show respect to colleagues that I’m working with or to my superiors – if they deserve it. Of course, one could tell that this is actually again about ME and what I think people expect from me, not what they expect in reality. But this would be only partly true. In many cases people actually appreciate that you have put some additional effort in order to respect their effort. Sometimes they just need you to be present. Sometimes they actually need your support and help and they are not 100% comfortable to ask. For many different reasons.

So how to improve and heal this syndrome? How to understand better that world is not going to stop if you stop?

Like every time when I talk about leadership, I can say it in this case as well: try it and expose yourself. There is no other way to crack this except if you try to let go. Of course, it’s better to do this in a safest possible environment and at the beginning with lower risk cases – not because of the result but because of the probability that you are actually going to do it. Because if we set ourselves to try new ways of behavior in high profile cases with big bets – there is a big chance that we are going to change our minds at the very last moment.

What I find helpful is making a list of all situations where you were stretched and you didn’t want to stop but the final result was nothing or close to nothing. You don’t have to share this horrifying list with anyone, but try to make it as honest as possible for yourself. Did you make that much of a difference by joining this meeting or contacting that customer? Was that business trip a game changer for the case you are running or was your e-mail enough? Is your team much stronger because you are there every time or will they become strong because you are not there every time?

Also, try to remember at least 3 situations where your tremendous effort had a totally useless outcome. If you think you can’t find at least 3 you are reading the wrong blog.

This is in a way like moving from a very hot sauna directly onto the snow of frozen lake. It’s so painful and it’s hard to put even a toe into the cold. But you are overheated and your body needs cooling. And sometimes it has to be very fast otherwise the heat can damage you. So you better jump in!

Of course, you can approach this issue from a bit different angle: meditation and yoga style. It might give some results as well. But I have no experience with it.

Cheers to jumping into the cold water for good reason! If it doesn’t kill you it’s quite healthy.
Two Types of People Managers: The Drain and The Filter

February 12, 2017
Most of us would like to work with fantastic leaders. In practice, we end up with people managers. Those are the guys who are simply in a position above us and they manage a group of people to finish work on time with acceptable results. Depending on the stage of our career and the size of the company, above our managers there can be one, two or ten more people managers. Any maybe somewhere some leaders.

Managing people is definitely one of the toughest tasks you can get. For me, that’s at the same time a blessing and a curse. I still struggle to figure out if the lucky person is the one who has always been a specialist in charge only of himself/herself or the one who has had a chance to manage big teams. The answer I give to myself usually depends on the mood at that moment – to be 100% honest. And I guess, like in everything else, finding the balance between those two options is a win.

If I reflect on people I have met during my career: be it the people who managed me or the people who I managed and they managed others I must say they can all be divided into two categories: The Drain and The Filter. As you will see, you can debate how deep the drain is or how dense the filter is. But still, the principles are the same for each of the groups.

The Drain is the one who simply transfers information from his/her manager to people below. By information I mean everything: tasks, goals, pressure, negative feedback, stress… Usually from Drains you can hear sentences like: “We have to do it, it came from those above” or “It’s not me, I would not ask you to stay longer, but we have this deadline…” or “We have a big problem, you have to work harder…”.

Things you can expect from Drains:
- To be quiet at meetings with higher management and never to question their decisions – even if they have huge influence on their teams
- To tell you what to do like it’s God’s will
- To transfer negative feedback about team’s performance to the team only
- To be confused when faced with issues in the team and unwilling to deal with it
- To be totally indifferent toward development and careers of his team members, unless the system asks from him to do something
When it comes to taking credits, Drains can behave in different ways. Some will easily transfer the blame but take the credit. But some will transfer the credit and recognition to the team. Because, it’s not that all Drains are evil people who do things on purpose to cause damage to others. In most cases, Drains simply can’t do better. They don’t know how and they are simply in a position to manage people by mistake. Sometimes their own mistake, sometimes by a mistake of the system and company they work for.

What is the good thing when you have a Drain for your direct manager? (because, yes we always try to find something good as well) The best thing is that you can learn how not to be a Drain. If you have basic capabilities for that. And you can easily overachieve your manager and make fast career progress. You can practice your skills of managing others inside your team without being formally responsible, because when working under the Drain, people need a proper manager – at least informal one. One of their peers.

Let us move on to Filters. You would expect that in practice you can find more Filters than Drains but the thing is that once a Drain always a Drain while being a Filter is not guaranteed until the end of your career. Because Filters can be damaged and broken. They can become Drains – temporary or permanently. The hardest moment of my career so far was the one when I realized that I’m becoming a Drain.

Who are Filters? What is it they do differently and how do we recognize them?

First of all they always process information coming from above before they communicate it to their teams. If they don’t understand what they got, they ask questions and try to clarify.
- They modify information in the way they believe their teams are going to accept it the best
- They make reality look nicer then it is, but not for manipulation purposes
- They manage to give a feeling of purpose even to very stupid tasks
- They give more recognition and take more blame
The trouble with Filters is that sometime they are not very good in judging how much they can filter. If there is no one to help them with cleaning and maintaining they can easily become overloaded and broken.

What is the bad thing in having a Filter for your boss? (yes, we are looking for good things, but we should also look for bad things in a good situation – for learning purposes). Filters can create a safety feeling for you. Especially if they are very good Filters. So, you might stop practicing certain skills and relax too much. And then they change your boss and you get one of the Drains. Or you simply stop practicing your skills relevant for career progress and transfer to higher career stage.

But at the end, sometimes it is possible to have a good Filter boss, to help him enough so that the filter keeps on working well and there’s a happy and satisfied team atmosphere and work for quite some time. Not for ever, but for a while.

And you might ask me why I’m not referring to leadership in this post. Many elements of leadership discussions can be recognized here as well. That is simply due to the fact that I see leadership as more of a complex topic that I’m going to write about more in days to come. This post can be treated as an intro to my Leadership Position Paper that starts with honestly answering a complex question: on my leadership journey, what is it that I want to reach and where does this journey ends? Because, I believe that only if we honestly set our goals and assess our capabilities we can be happy in a leadership role. And many people are forced into leadership roles without a chance to do this assessment properly.

In my opinion this is the only way to switch from a people manager to a leader. Cheers!

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