When CEOs Should Not Rep Companies: RIM CEO Cracks in Interview

Some people like the challenge of a tough question. Some don’t. Whichever group you fall into, the truth is in business and in your career, you have to get used to tough questions. In fact, job interviews tend to ask challenging questions to gauge an interviewee’s ability to handle pressure. Apparently, CEO of Research In Motion isn’t a fan of challenging questions and cracks easily under pressure. “RIM CEO Calls a Halt to Interview” By Stuart Weinberg of Wall Street Journal reports co-CEO of RIM, Mike Lazaridis, walked out of an interview.

The subject that got him hot: RIM’s battle with India and some countries in the Middle East over RIM’s tight security. According to the article B.B.C. tech correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones asked about the issue and Lazaridis interpreted the question as attacking RIM’s security. The interview was ended “When Cellan-Jones asked if [Lazaridis] could assure BlackBerry users in the Middle East and India that there wouldn’t be any service disruptions.”

Million Dollar Listing: When Being Nice Comes Off as Less Confident

Bravo has a show called “Million Dollar Listing”. I was not inspired to watch the show because the previews made the show out to be this playboy dramatic show. But I have been watching the show since the last three episodes. I must say… I am hooked. For the hour, you will be exposed to amazing properties, client/ agent drama, and the ways in which the agents work to sell, buy, negotiate, and run their business.

I am writing this post to talk about Madison. He is a young real estate agent on “Million Dollar Listing” and he sells in Malibu. He tends to wear business casual clothing to sell his properties, which I find annoying because I believe you should look presentable for your million-dollar property. Aside from that, Madison is very nice. In fact, he is too nice. In the episodes I’ve seen, Madison has come across a pushy buyer who fired him, a seller who would not accept that his property was not worth the price it should be listed as, a seller who expected Madison to sell a property in a month, and a prospective buyer whose very low offer was barely contested. In almost all situations, Madison would make a statement or two about the reality of the deal in today’s market, but he would do it with a “kind of” tone. He barely would put the client in check (respectfully). On the other hand, the other two agents, Josh Altman, and Josh Flagg, would boldly inform clients of the reality of the market. Generally, if a client insists on selling a property at a too high price, you can’t stop them, but the other two agents, make their point that it is delusional.

Bad Publicity is Good Publicity? A Study Says Maybe

In light of the Charlie Sheen fiasco in the news, I thought BrandMakerNews.com post on bad publicity was inspired by it. It turns out their article was a repost of “Better to be reviled than ignored” by the Economist. The article begins with examples of bad publicity for well-established entities that barely bounced back from it. But Alan Sorensen, an economics professor, did a study looking at the New York Times book reviews and the effect on sales. The results:

“…well-known authors who earned glowing reviews for a new book could expect to sell 42% more copies, whereas a negative review caused sales to drop by 15%. For unknown authors, however, it did not matter whether a book was panned or lauded. Simply being reviewed in the Times bumped up sales by a third”

The study concluded that unknown brands benefit from bad publicity because the name is out and bad publicity won’t be remembered considering the brand isn’t well known. Simply put, consumers only remember the publicity. The article gave an example: Kazahstan whose tourism went up even after it was ridiculed on “Borat”. The article also gave an antithesis example: Vitaly Borker, the online eyeglass seller who purposely provided bad service to increase his online complaints and thus boast his Google search ranking. He was exposed after gloating about his strategy to the New York Times (I wrote about the article in “The Definition of Anti-Salesmanship”). He was eventually arrested for harassment and Google dropped his rank.

Employee Fired for Insulting Sup on Facebook Reaches Settlement

A few months back, there was a story about an employee who insulted her supervisor on Facebook and then was fired. She went to the National Labor Relations Board to represent herself against her employer. The issue at hand is that to fire her over Facebook is “equivalent” to firing employees who converse amongst themselves.

According to “Company Settles Case in Firing Tied to Facebook”, the case is settled. To quote the article:

“Under the settlement, American Medical will revise its ‘overly broad rules’ to ensure that they do not improperly restrict employees from discussing wages, hours, and working conditions with co-workers and others while not at work, and that they would not discipline or discharge employees for engaging in such discussions, the labor board said in a statement”

The story made news because this is one of the first major stories of an employee being fired due to social media use. I have only listed my job title and employer on LinkedIn because I use LinkedIn as a public resume in case I need to change jobs. If I communicate with my connections, I do so privately. I’m naturally a private person, I don’t update my job title on Facebook and I have yet to list my employer twitter. At one point, I listed my previous position as a bookseller on Redroom.com because Red Room is about literature.

Let UBS Tell You How To Dress

When I initially read “Dress to Impress, UBS Tells Staff” by Elena Berton, I laughed. UBS is in the process of refreshing their brand, appearance being part of the brand, UBS published a 43-page dress code for their staff. The funny part of the story is some of the codes previewed in the article are so similar to appearance advice people are usually afraid to say straight to the offender's face. Such as, for women, "Make sure to touch up hair regrowth regularly if you color your hair" and for men, warnings "about using hair dyes to mask their advancing age, since 'artificial color contrasts excessively with the actual age your skin'".


Seriously, I think its sad when companies have to micro-manage hygiene and appearance, especially 43 pages worth. But UBS probably wanted to prevent an "I didn't know" moment with employees who are not aware of expected standards. Some people don't know obvious standards of the work place or the strict standards of a particular company. Let this be a lesson: appearance is essential to all brands, including personal brands. You will be judged by your appearance, in almost all aspects of the job, from interview to promotion. So, in an interview or training, don't be afraid to ask detailed questions about dress code standards.

Groupon Founder Andrew Mason Speaks aka Groupon Says No! Part 2.

I was very delighted to read Andrew Mason’s interview with NY times in an article titled “What’s Next For Groupon’s Founder” by Evelyn M. Rusli. I heard that the Groupon founder was quirky but had never read an interview from him. I expected a straightforward acknowledgement of rejecting Google and a clear explanation. Rather than an interview focusing completely on Google, Mason gave a short interview revealing more about himself and plans for Groupon.

Regardless, if you believe Groupon is smart or dumb for rejecting Google, Mason deserves credit for knowing how to dance well in an interview.

“We will also emulate Amazon in the sense that we don’t talk about the competition.”

“Luckily we don’t need to say anything. We just need to keep running our business. Most people don’t understand — I’ll just leave it at that.”

Opportunities and Your Résumé

Last night, I decided to catch up with my guilty pleasure, “Real Housewives of Atlanta”. During the most recent episode, one of the “housewives”, Sheree, is making moves towards her acting career. She was previously taking acting classes and had been given some “good” news by her acting coach. Her coach had gotten her a play to do; it’s unpaid and would only require two weeks of commitment. Sheree’s response (to the camera): she is a grown woman with grown bills and two weeks of her time is asking a lot. Sheree was also informed she would need an agent and her coach got her an agent audition. At this audition, the agents asked Sheree a few questions regarding her experience. Sheree had done two plays. When asked which plays, she could only remember one and forgot the other. This prompted one agent to ask did she enjoy doing the play she forgot.

Unpaid Opportunity

I understand doing free work is not always appealing, especially when one cannot afford to do so. I have certainly been there. I support myself completely, which leaves me with little opportunity to do unpaid internships/jobs. I do this blog for free but it’s done on my own time, from home. But, I have never been offered a two week unpaid job that will further my career. Two weeks is a small enough commitment for some people to do. Sheree may have grown bills but Bravo does pay its reality stars and she has been on the show for three seasons. Actors and actresses are often asked to do unpaid work so as to build their résumé. If your career is important, you have a job, which will not be jeopardized by a two-week commitment, and you have two weeks to spare, take the opportunity. Two-week unpaid résumé-boosting opportunities are not always available.

Your Résumé

I know my work history. When I interviewed for my present job, I spent the night before and the hours leading up to my appointment rehearsing my résumé. I reminded myself of important dates, great moments, challenging moments, and anything about my work history employers typically ask for and want to know during interviews. So, I was disappointed in Sheree, who claims to be serious about her career, for not remembering her previous work. You should always know your history, especially for a job interview, networking events, and job fairs. Your history is about you and during interviews, employers/ agents do not know you but expect you to know yourself.

You don’t have to care about the show to understand my main points about it (the show is not business oriented so watch only if you like drama). The points are to evaluate opportunities relative to résumé boosts it can give and your ability to commit to them, and failing to know your résumé translates into a failure to know yourself and disbelief in claims that you are serious about your career. 

The Apprentice: Lessons to Learn

The Final Two Ended Up Being Clint and Brandy

Trump felt that Liza was not able to defend herself well during the numerous times she was in the boardroom. First lesson of the show: know your elevator speech. I talked about this briefly on my last post "Networking is a Job". All three were asked the reasons they should stay. Clint exclaimed "I'm a CEO in a box" and went on to name his credentials. Brandy also named her credentials and experience. Liza had a more subjective approach, deciding to talk personally about why she should stay. Compared to the other two, her elevator speech was not as compelling. As I mentioned, Liza has a problem defending herself (maybe that will be another post), and at this moment, where she was one step away from leaving, her elevator speech should have been on point. I clearly saw the reason she was sent home.

The Task

Team Clint, consisting of Mahsa, Steuart, and Poppy will be running the dinner gala with Liza Minnelli as the performer

Team Brandy consisting of Stephanie, Liza, and Anand will be running the VIP golf tournament

Team Clint

Clint realized he took on the larger task of handling Liza Minnelli's rider, the list of items a performer requests present in their room before performance. Clint admitted he wanted to handle the larger task so if the task was done successfully, he would seem like a bigger winner . Everything was fine. The signage is ordered, most items on the rider are obtained, and an outside caterer had been hired to handle Liza's food. Then, the caterer backed out last minute. Clint and Steuart were then left to find a company able for the job. While catering to a handful of people is not a big issue, doing so the day before an event is a problem as most catering companies were booked and had no room to take on another order. But this is not Clint's fault, unlike the next issue. 

During the apprentice, when I was just about to tweet about Liza, I immediately went to my google bar and googled her last name.  Clint did not that for signage totalling $4,000. Mahsa discovered the mistake and thought it was one poster but she and poppy realized it was the everything. The team only had $1000 to $1400 left. This leads to the next lesson: don't misspell important names.  Liza is the star; you don't want to piss her off. Maybe Liza will give her famous laugh and take it as joke.  But the misspelling will look bad to the guests and Trump. I'm not a star but I remember when a corporate executive commended me on a "job well done" and spelled my name wrong. My name was also spelled wrong on the company website. I took it in stride and still enjoyed the moment. Still, I was left thinking how could an executive not double check the spelling of someone's name. I wasn't "google-ble" but Liza Minnelli is well known. This mistake left me in shock and very disappointed in Clint. 

Team Brandy

From the beginning, Brandy leaned heavily on Liza who is a golf  player and formally, part of the Kenyan golf women's team. Brandy had no knowledge of golf or the way in which a tournament is run and gave Liza much room to give her expertise. Brandy doesn't know anything about golf, but she did not have to consistently tell everyone. Next lesson: Do not play dumb. Even if she knew nothing, she should have kept her confidence and done some research for information.  It's okay to have a more skilled person than yourself working for you. But you must still place yourself as the leader. Not every leader is an expert, but leaders must exhibit confidence.  When Don Jr. came to assess the progress of the team, Brandy failed to speak. Instead, Liza and Stephanie spoke for her. 

The task moved along. Then, Brandy comes up with this big idea to ask Trump who he would like to play golf with. Before I even knew his decision, I knew this would be a problem. Never make promises you cannot keep. So let's say Trump wanted to play with Kathy Griffin. Brandy would have to assume Kathy Griffin does not already have a partner or other plans which would deny Trump his wish to play with her. Then, if Kathy did not wish to play with Trump, Brandy would have to get back on the phone and say to Trump "Sorry, I promised you your partner but I failed". So, what was Brandy to expect when asking Trump the question? Trump picked Liza, who had earlier proven her golf skills. Unfortunately, Brandy would be one person short during the big event. Brandy and Stephanie sat there with "oh god" looks on their faces because they realized they made a promise and they cannot break.

The last moment for Team Brandy was the photographer who went to the wrong Trump National Golf Course. The photographer stated Brandy did not confirm the correct address and he was two hours from the correct location. From my experience working with outside contractors and facilities, I have had people lie when they make mistakes. So, I will not say for sure Brandy failed to give the correct address. I will instead state the next lesson: cover your ass(ets). Brandy should have emailed the address to the photographer, texted the address, or given the address over a speaker with her team in the room. Therefore, if the photographer made a mistake, there would be someone else, an email, or text to confirm who was at fault.  Either way, Brandy started her event, a person short and a photographer late. 

My Prediction: I have none to give. At the half way mark, I thought Clint was doing well. With both teams having vital problems, I was left with no clear winner. 

Networking is a Job

I remember the first networking seminar I attended on my college campus. I went because I knew nothing of networking. While my family is big, I have a small immediate family. I didn't know any family friends with access to jobs and/or opportunities. When I went to college, I met friends whose families had careers I wanted in the future. But I never, ever pursued a friendship hoping to get an internship or job offer. I never asked the family members of my friends to discuss their careers. It just seemed so opportunistic.

As I began to read more business related magazines, this networking term came up so often. Considering my background, I thought I was a sore loser at having come from a family of no opportunity. So, there I went to this networking seminar. I was told about the alumni student network where I could contact alumni in a particular field. Then, I was told to never ask for or hint to wanting a job/ internship. I was confused. If a student interested in my career contacted me, wouldn’t I assume they wanted a way into this career field? Is networking just talking and acting as if the purpose is not an opportunity? Or is it a way to access opportunities? The seminar didn't answer my questions.

I eventually learned networking skills; Mainly through my experience working in the catering equipment department of a catering company. The group of people I worked with was small and I got to know so many so well. When I left, I knew I could always depend on them. I learned networking is often about keep up with friends but when an opportunity is relative to a friend, this friend would probably want access to it. The rest of my networking knowledge came by reading, listening and watching more on business and careers. One immense amount of knowledge has come from, Tom Henschel’s “the Look and Sound of Leadership” podcast. Such podcasts as “Elevator Speeches” “I talk too fast” “Networking” “Act ‘as if’” and many others are very helpful. Henschel is an executive coach and his podcasts are free. Go to itunes or his website for access.

This week, I read “Five Ways to Take Charge of Your Own Networking” by Ivan Misner on Entrepreneur.com. The article was a guide to being the networking expert or Chief Networking Officer of a small company. Misner's point is, most likely, an entrepreneur is their own CNO and he gives five guidelines:

1. Participate in two or three networking events each month, and follow up with people you meet
2. Touch base with past business contacts by making two personal phone calls each week
3. Use postcards and greeting cards to stay in touch with people throughout the year.
4. Take good care of your database
5. Always thank your referral partners

I won’t go into the details of each guideline as the article is thorough enough. Misner is speaking of networking as a career and business necessity. It is also for individuals. While we are living vicariously through technology, word of mouth is still a strong networking device.

I am still learning to network, slowly building up my contacts and gaining more confidence in representing myself to others. One important aspect of networking I learned is being able to represent myself and learn my own elevator speech. That is, being able speak confidently about myself, present myself well, and to, within a few minutes, fully explain who I am, goals, and purpose. Most times, all one has is a few minutes to gain an great opportunity.