Interview Prep – Book & Checklist

Most of my readers know that I have been busy “creating things” (and even started learning Italian) during the pandemic, but I have not posted anything new on this blog for quite a while! Time to start up again, and I am excited to do just that.

Since my last post, my coaching practice has shifted, but in other ways it has stayed the same.

One change, of course, is that I have continued to refine my approach over the last two years. Serving as the Facilitator for the PODER25 program of the Hispanic National Bar Association in 2020-2021 afforded me incredibly rich new insights, and more recently I have also been facilitating cohort programs of my own (such as this one).

Another happy development is that I have been humbly informed by a growing number of clients that they reached out to me as a coach on the basis of reading one or both of my books. A few have even held it up on the Zoom call to show me their flagged and dog-eared copies. What an amazing thing for an author to hear, and I am incredibly grateful!

Master the Interview, available on Amazon and other bookseller sites worldwide.

Among these and other changes (the pandemic included) since I published my first book – Master the Interview – in 2016, I have decided to release a second edition in early 2023. If you have anything you want to share with me about the book (and interviewing) in the meantime, feel free to reach out.

The Second Edition will include expanded discussions of:

Behavioral interviews
Compensation negotiations
Diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI)
Interviewing for multinational corporations
Interviewing with a board of directors
And more!

Here’s a lovely image of Master the Interview making its way down the Rhine River in Switzerland, courtesy of a friend and former colleague who read it cover to cover.

In honor of the upcoming Second Edition and my restarting this blog, I am sharing my GC Interview Preparation Checklist (which is also very helpful for other C-Suite and senior roles):

segal-coaching-llc-interview-prep-checklist-sept-2022 Download

Thanks all! More to come.

Across the Private Sector: Strategic Leadership and the Coronavirus Pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic has completely altered our work and home life patterns, many of my clients, colleagues and friends have compared this time to having two jobs at once. The term drinking from a firehose, describing the overwhelming flow of urgent matters, has come up more than once in conversation.

While the unprecedented situation has brought heightened pressure and stress, it also provides fertile ground for the disruption of outdated practices and patterns that no longer serve us. Here are some of examples of crisis leadership issues and decisions across a range of companies.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has completely altered our work and home life patterns, many of my clients, colleagues and friends have compared this time to having two jobs at once. In other words, they have their “normal” job – the one they were hired to do – and a new call to lead their teams and/or an entire organization through the coronavirus crisis. Some of them, of course, have a third job as project manager of or substitute teacher for their children’s school schedules or are even serving on the front lines in the medical community or otherwise.

The term drinking from a firehose, describing the overwhelming flow of urgent matters, has come up more than once in conversation.

Covid leadership

While our private sector leaders don’t know what the future will hold – as none of us do – they are nonetheless making strategic decisions to address present needs and prepare for possible future scenarios. Often they need to give answers quickly and with a higher risk tolerance than would have been acceptable in the past, while knowing there could be very real consequences for getting it wrong. At the same time, getting it “right” (either on the spot or by slowing down to observe, process and give thoughtful advice) can make positive contributions to the health, safety, wellbeing, professional development and economic viability of employees within their organizations and create far-reaching ripple effects.

While the unprecedented situation has brought heightened pressure and stress, it also provides fertile ground for the disruption of outdated practices and patterns that no longer serve us. Here are a range of crisis leadership examples emerging in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic:

Team and Organizational Leadership

Creating COVID-19 task forces to streamline and provide consistency in strategy and responses
Helping board members and other senior leaders become more comfortable with virtual platforms for meetings and presentations
Encouraging input across all levels of the organization, especially from those who are closer to the pulse of customer needs
Holding happy hours and other team meetings over videoconference, especially to support those employees who are naturally extroverted and finding it draining to be isolated for an extended period
Hosting enterprise-wide and/or departmental town halls to maintain clear and ongoing communications
Attending to employees’ mental health and personal concerns, such as childcare and family situations (including the possibility that family members are suffering from the virus), while respecting their need for privacy

Business Leadership and Relationship Management

Renegotiating (and seeking out new) contracts and partnerships, such as leases and supply chain agreements
Reinventing how they do business, especially if they are in one of the harder-hit industries
Actively working with regulators to create flexibility to respond to new situations while honoring policy goals
Closely monitoring corporate liquidity while trying to keep their workforce in place
Interpreting ambiguous new laws and executive orders, such as the CARES Act
Continuously updating modeling and/or 100-day plans; resetting or suspending judgment on appropriate goals through the rest of the calendar year
Redeploying underutilized staff to support overtasked areas of the business
Taking business continuity and other lessons from prior crises to apply or adapt to COVID-19 leadership and increase infrastructure resiliency
Adapting leadership responses across the varying needs of local jurisdictions and international businesses and/or business lines
Exploring and creating best practices to allow employees to return to their offices without compromising their safety and providing support for those who can and prefer to continue to work from home
Managing RIFs (reductions in force), hiring freezes and/or prioritization of new hires with limited resources
Arranging donations of extra materials to organizations and individuals

Individual Time/Self Management

Creating personal boundaries and work-home distinctions, even as they may working at off hours and in their living spaces
Branching out into new areas of expertise, while managing the “trial by fire” nature of their expanded responsibilities
Finding ways to stay “fresh” as the crunch marches on

Feel free to add additional examples of crisis leadership you have witnessed in the comments section below. For more COVID-19 career and leadership resources, please click here or visit AnneMarieSegal.com/covid-19.

Anne Marie Segal is an executive coach and writer based in Connecticut. To learn more about her, you can visit her About page or LinkedIn profile.

Interview with Francisco Lasta: Modern Career Warrior Series @AnneMarieSegal.com

FRANCISCO LASTA is my Modern Career Warrior for April 2020.

As an occupational therapist, Francisco’s career spans the domains of medicine, design and technology, with a healthy dose of emotional intelligence. Among other projects, he consults on artificial intelligence, virtual reality and telehealth, and his ideas and innovations are directly relevant for the global health crisis we are currently facing.

MCW INTERVIEW WITH
FRANCISCO LASTA

FRANCISCO LASTA is our Modern Career Warrior for April 2020. This article is part of a series of mid-career retrospective interviews featuring inspiring and innovative professionals at AnneMarieSegal.com.

Francisco is an occupational therapist whose career spans the domains of medicine, design and technology, with a healthy dose of emotional intelligence. Among other projects, he consults on artificial intelligence, virtual reality and telehealth, and his ideas and innovations are directly relevant for the global health crisis we are currently facing.

AMS: Francisco, my first and lasting impression of you is that you are full of light and always smiling. I assume this is what keeps you centered to do such serious, important work.

FL: Thanks. I always try to keep a positive outlook on everything.

Also, beyond a certain skill level and obvious confidentiality obligations, competency as a therapist lies in how well you are able to make people feel comfortable working with you. As I often tell my patients, “I can help you improve your life and do more of the things you want to do, as long as you trust me.”

AMS: Gaining people’s trust must be harder right now, as the global COVID-19 pandemic is heightening people’s insecurities.

FL: It definitely is. In the midst of coronavirus, I’m actually starting to rely less on smiling to communicate and more on other gestures and cues – as well as sharper reading of body language – since most of us are wearing face masks now with our patients.

AMS: What else has changed for you since COVID-19 hit?

FL: I have been keeping track of any updates regarding the virus ever since the outbreak began in Wuhan, but my initial thoughts were that the U.S. health system would do a much better job. It was when I read the article in Medium by Tomas Pueyo that I really became worried.

Even if we have the full support of our organization, this is still a scary time for healthcare workers. Part of what we do invariably involves being up close and personal with our patients. All the patients I see belong to the most vulnerable group in terms of risk of infection. They are older with multiple medical conditions, and some of them live alone.

AMS: We are all in your debt. You and your colleagues.

FL: Thank you.

AMS: Although the coronavirus is front and center in everyone’s minds at the moment, I also wanted to talk about your career in the larger context.

FL: Of course. And a lot of what I am doing in the technology space is actually very relevant in light of the pandemic, although I was working on most of it beforehand.

AMS: Let’s start with how you became interested in your field. Can you give us an overview of the goals of occupational therapy (OT)? I often think of OT as relating to one’s occupation, although I believe you have told me more than once that’s too limiting of a view.

FL: Actually, it does relate to one’s occupation, but occupation doesn’t have to mean a job. The term “occupation” in OT means what occupies you in your life, how you spend your time. Our main focus is to address whatever is limiting someone from being independent in life.

AMS: That makes sense. Can you also tell us about where you work?

FL: I’m at Premier Point Home Health, and my role has a number of different components, such as home health therapy, telehealth program consultations and optimizing the agency’s app capabilities. At the same time, I’m consulting for NeuroPath to develop an AI-based product.

AMS: And the letters after your name in your LinkedIn profile: OTRL CAPS?

FL: One is my OT registration/license (OTRL). And CAPS, stands for Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist. If you think your readers would be interested, you can share more about Aging-in-Place initiatives on the HUD User site at the links I sent you [available here and here].

AMS: And you said that you are focused on working with older adults.

FL: Yes. I have seen a lot of orthopedic patients, people who have had knee and hip replacements. Many patients are in their 60s through 90s and in general decline, some with dementia or history of stroke, and their disability is exacerbated because of age or other issues. When they leave surgery or a skilled nursing facility, we want to make sure they are safe at home with their new disability. As OTs, our role is to identify the key problems and what are causing them, then create a program with solutions, whether it’s improving a particular skill or modifying their environment or the way they do their day-to-day activities.

AMS: What is it like to work with a patient who has dementia? That must be very hard.

FL: It’s particularly challenging with advanced dementia. We work with caregivers in those situations, spending a lot of time training them on how to avoid things like skin breakdown, falls and joint stiffness, as well as general decline. It often becomes overwhelming for caregivers as the condition progresses, because people can lose their ability to exercise multiple bodily functions, beyond what we traditionally associate with diminished mental capacity.

AMS: These issues are more prevalent with patients whose dementia is advanced, I assume.

FL: Right, these patients are often sitting, sometimes even lying down, for extremely long periods of time and don’t necessarily notice the toll it is taking on their bodies.

AMS: That’s something many of us don’t notice often enough, in fact.

FL: It’s true, and even more acute for that population.

AMS: And for the programs you design? What criteria do you use?

FL: During the assessment, we review medical charts, X-rays and lab results and talk to doctors and other healthcare providers who are taking care of the patient. Of course, we also examine the patient and make a cognitive assessment. For one thing, we look at whether they are recovering from a specific weakness or are in a lot of pain.

Just as important, we ask the patient what their priorities are. Usually we work with patients up to six weeks, sometimes more, so we develop a program we can complete in that time that helps them meet the OT needs they have prioritized. I am also piloting a program at Premier Point where I see a patient once a week indefinitely, which is much less costly [in the long run] than sending them back to the hospital with a problem.

AMS: How did you choose to work with the older population?

FL: I grew up with my grandmother back in the Philippines. She was deeply present and engaged in my early life and had a lasting influence on me.

That experience developed my ability to empathize with older adults on a deeper level and helped me communicate with them more meaningfully.

AMS: Which also, I assume, helped you develop that level of trust you mentioned is so important. I remember you mentioning a few years ago that you worked with some pretty well-known celebrities too. That probably was an exercise in trust as well.

FL: Yes, that was at Warren Barr. Some were celebrities, and others were certainly high-profile personalities. It was quite an experience to work with people whose names you would recognize from the media. As you get to know them better, you realize the they are just like any other patient with the same needs and weaknesses. As they aged, they had the same issues, like being able to pull up their pants without a struggle.

AMS: Was it intimidating to work with them?

FL: Not intimidating, but certainly high touch. In the normal course of OT practice, the first time you are assigned a client, you get a face sheet with information about them. But there were times that our director just showed us a photo or mentioned a name, and that was enough. The face sheet became more of a formality at that point.

AMS: Did this experience change how you work as an OT?

FL: I pride myself on giving the same care to everyone, but these were patients with high expectations. I think it was great, because it caused me to really think about best practices, create better habits and really push myself in my standard of care.

AMS: What other strengths would you say that you bring that help your work as an OT?

FL: Being able to adapt to new situations and think “outside the box” are certainly important, especially on the medical side of things. Also programming languages, which was not something I would have expected. I have surprised myself by sitting down for hours and learn SQL and Python, for example, after learning Swift for iPhone.

Francisco Lasta at his computer

AMS: Do you think apps are a game changer for OT?

Click HERE to continue reading this article.

For the FULL INTERVIEW, please:

click here (PDF version), or

visit AnneMarieSegal.com/mcw-francisco-lasta (online version).

Technology, the “gig economy” and globalization have irrevocably altered the modern career. Launched in January 2020, MODERN CAREER WARRIORS is a series on AnneMarieSegal.com that explores the lives of professionals leading robust, resilient and multi-dimensional careers.

DEPTH, COURAGE AND INTENSITY radiate from these Modern Career Warriors, who defy the odds and define their own paths. While they may, like the rest of us, feel side-lined or even defeated at times, their inner drive keeps driving them to their own personal best and inspires others to do the same.

Feel free to post a question or “like” this post below, and click here to explore more articles in this series. Thanks!

Anne Marie Segal Cropped Website Final 2019 Barragan

Anne Marie Segal, founder of Segal Coaching LLC, is an executive coach, resume writer and author of two well-received books on interviewing and career development. She served as a corporate attorney for 15 years, including roles at White & Case LLP and a prominent hedge and private equity fund manager, before launching her coaching practice.

Based in Connecticut not far from New York City, Anne Marie partners with clients internationally on executive presence, impactful communications, graceful transitions and other aspects of professional and personal development.

No portion of this article may be reproduced without prior written permission from Anne Marie Segal (or the copyright holder of any image above), other than limited quotes that reference this article.

Yoga Mantra: Let Your Eyes Close (Yes, Really, Even Now)

What do this pandemic and my current mantra of closing your eyes teach us about true freedom, while so many of us are suffering on the front lines or sheltering in place? And how does that relate to what we do in our careers?

As my frequent readers know, I launched a new series this year that ties my yoga practice to my work as a career coach.

I had planned to go through the arc of a yoga class, with a new post each month that highlights one of the instructions yoga teachers often give their students. These simple phrases can serve as mantras for our daily lives, including our careers.

January – Set an Intention

February – Take a Comfortable Seat

March (this post) – Let Your Eyes Close

When I conceived of the Yoga Mantra series back in December 2019, none of us imagined we would be facing a global pandemic such as COVID-19.

At the time, I felt as though I was taking a bold step by expanding my highly practical, hands-on coaching approach to add (what could be seen as) a less obvious angle. Would my clients and greater audience – who are mostly attorneys and other highly trained, process-oriented and results-driven professionals – find a discussion of yoga to be at odds with my commitment to focusing on steps they can take right now to get the greatest return on their efforts?

After all, yoga (like meditation, T’ai Chi, reiki and other healing practices and arts) is not intended to bring immediate results. It can, in fact, transform our lives from the very first time we try it. Yet its effects are more often the result of accumulated effort. Or rather, accumulated periods of time in which we release ourselves from effort, trying and striving. Periods of time in which we allow ourselves not to calculate the distance from Point A to Point B but instead to live the journey.

So much has changed in the world since December 2019 (three months ago) or even February 2020 (one month ago). In my case, as an all-too-common example, our local public schools have been closed and converted to distance learning since March 13, 2020. And while the school district has given us estimated dates of reopening (currently April 20, 2020), like other schools cross the U.S. and beyond, they may remain closed until the next academic school year. This is simply one change among countless to our daily lives.

On a global scale, our ability to predict what will happen next – indeed, to live a “predictable life” – has greatly diminished. At the same time, our need for adaptive skills in our careers and general lives has greatly increased:

– facing the unknown,

– rising to the occasion,

– making thoughtful decisions, and

– persevering (ideally thriving) with limited information and constantly changing circumstances.

These needs harken back to the reason I originally launched this series. I have found that too often, people want quick fixes, an “answer” to solve the problem de jour (i.e., urgent matter of the day). Yet changes that actually move the needle in our lives cannot be rushed. A quick flash of insight can create a transformative moment, but the transformation itself (almost invariably) requires a longer period of implementation to take root and create the greatest effect.

Let me give you an example. Say that you move to a bigger apartment so you can have more space. In the first few days or weeks, you might arrive with all of your furniture and boxes, unpack and feel the glory and heightened freedom of your new surroundings. You may feel a new “leash on life” and relish a home environment where so many more things are possible. But if you (quickly or over time) start to fill that space so that it is just as crowded as your old one, the realm of possibility diminishes. You will again feel constricted and constrained.

The same thing happens in the rest of our lives, including in our careers. If you move to a bigger or different role with more space to create impact in or through an organization, but you quickly crowd your days with non-impactful meetings and activities, your new position can feel just as constrained and ineffectual as the old one.

So what do this pandemic and my current mantra of closing your eyes teach us about true freedom, while so many of us are suffering on the front lines or sheltering in place? And how does that relate to what we do on the career front?

First, we cannot control outcomes. We can do our best to create what we seek, but we ultimately can either make our peace with our lack of control or continue to resist (and increase our suffering as a result). Some of us are unemployed or underemployed. Others are “overemployed,” i.e., burdened with the herculean responsibility of strategizing, leading, fixing, triaging, foraging, vetting or otherwise holding the fort during this unprecedented time.

In either case, we can only sit with what is true at this moment. That’s all we have.

Second, turning inward is a healing act. When we close our eyes or soften our gaze, we are not shutting out the world over the longer term. We are restoring our strength so that we can go back out into it. While the world needs more heroes, those heroes need to give themselves permission to recharge. In yoga classes, if you listen closely, you may notice that instructors often suggest you “let your eyes close” rather than “close your eyes.” The first is an act of allowing yourself (to do something), not an act of will.

Allow yourself to turn inward – even if it’s only a few moments of an hour or a few minutes of the day – without worry that you are missing something or failing to complete an urgent task. Changes and tasks will always be waiting for you, and your ability to rise to those changes and tasks will be greatly enhanced if you periodically take time to refresh and center yourself.

Third, our wish not to be vulnerable is illusory.

I took this self-portrait (eyes closed, feeling vulnerable) in my office a couple of months ago, well before coronavirus dominated our daily lives and our 24/7 news cycle. As I envisioned the post I might write to accompany it, I planned to take some time to explain vulnerability and the macho (toxic) culture of many work environments that seek to stamp out any whiff of weakness.

Yet this week, as senior leaders of across all ranks and ranges of organizations took work-from-home (WFH) videoconference calls with anxious children and barking dogs in the background – and came together over it, rather than judging their colleagues and counterparts for a lack of “discretion” – our collective take on vulnerability has been momentarily suspended. Being vulnerable is a trait we all share, and we can clearly see that through this pandemic. Families are to be protected, not silenced. Lives are to be valued, not treated as something to be fit between more pressing obligations. Vulnerability is something to be recognized as part and parcel of the human condition, as it cannot be avoided.

Anne Marie Segal - eyes closed

Fourth, for a change to last, it must continue to represent our values. Many of us have learned this in other contexts, through other challenges, but what lasting individual and collective change we will carry forward from COVID-19 remains to be seen.

We know that life as usual has been irrevocably altered, but whether those alterations bring us to a better place or simply call for heightened vigilance is a matter of our long-term values. Again, by periodically softening our gaze to the whirlwind of activity, news, adversity and (in some heartbreaking cases) trauma, we can start and continue to ask ourselves where we can find meaning, experience large or small joys of the present moment and build bridges to the direction we are called (both personally and professionally) to follow next.

Be safe. Support those on the front lines. And, from time to time, close your eyes.

Anne Marie Segal is an executive coach and writer based in Connecticut, not far from New York City, and is sheltering at home with her family (dog, cat, husband and two teenagers who are remarkably committed to flattening the curve).

Interview with Tom Johnson: Modern Career Warrior Series @AnneMarieSegal.com

THOMAS (TOM) JOHNSON is our Modern Career Warrior for March 2020. My interview with Tom spans his “two careers” at The Clorox Company, his current semi-retirement as a yoga instructor in Fairfield County, Connecticut and his ideas for the future.

In Tom’s early career days, he was constantly on guard about his identity and knew that he missed a lot of opportunities as a result. Upon being offered a plum ex-pat assignment in London, he finally decided it was time to tell his boss he was not a single guy (as many at the company assumed) but in a long-term, committed relationship with his partner, Bruce.

That was in 1995. There were no policies, playbooks or packages for same-sex couples, so Tom was treading new ground. Yet Clorox believed in him and came through for him. Tom stayed at the company another 22 years and became one of the leaders in the movement across Corporate America for greater diversity and acceptance of LGBTQ employees. This is his story.

MCW INTERVIEW WITH
TOM JOHNSON

THOMAS (TOM) JOHNSON is our Modern Career Warrior for March 2020. This article is part of a series of mid-career retrospective interviews featuring inspiring and innovative professionals at AnneMarieSegal.com.

Tom Johnson - Clorox Company

My interview with Tom spans his “two careers” at The Clorox Company, his current semi-retirement as a yoga instructor in Fairfield County, Connecticut and his ideas for the future.

AMS: When I met you, you had just started teaching my Sunday morning yoga class, taking us through warrior poses, downward-facing dogs and the like. I had no idea that you were a veteran corporate executive, let alone one with such a robust career. Although I must admit a certain intensity was evident at our first meeting, even in that setting.

Tom Johnson Warrior Pose

TDJ: I am definitely driven, and that’s probably something I will never retire from. My husband says I am working just as hard as I ever worked [as an executive] at Clorox. Although my work today is not as stressful. I am driven by internal intensity, not external demands.

AMS: I could be biased by my own love of yoga, but should we use it as a lens to view your career? We could start with your perspective 25 years ago, when you took (rather than taught) your first yoga class.

TDJ: Yoga is definitely a key part of my daily life. It has helped me make some courageous choices and keeps me centered, which in turn fueled my professional development.

AMS: And you have already shared with me some of the highlights and challenges of your personal story, as it was featured in Out and Equal at Work: From the Closet to the Corner Office. Did yoga help you come to a better place in your life and career, where you could live more authentically?

TDJ: Well, I didn’t take my first yoga class until after I got to London, so I was already on the path to the life I have today. Yoga helped keep me on the path.

AMS: So where should we start to unpack your story?

TDJ: Well, the guiding narrative of my early career began well before I took my very first job and stems from my childhood in Rochester, Michigan.

AMS: You mean themes such as these from your early life, as you told them in the book?

“I was the sixth of seven children raised in a working-class family of devout Catholics…”

“[M]y father ruled the house without debate, discussion or exception.”

“Growing up, our family never had conversations about sexual orientation. However, I understood at an early age that anyone who did not fit a conventional gender profile was not acceptable in my family or my community.”

“[I] felt like I was the only gay person in the whole state of Michigan.”

TDJ: Yes. Life was very different back then, as some of us still remember and (thankfully) much of the current generation cannot even begin to imagine. It wasn’t until I moved to Boston after college that I finally began the process of accepting who I am.

AMS: How did that change come about?

TDJ: The major shift in my life started when I met Bruce, who became my partner and later my husband.

AMS: What did that change look like?

TDJ: Coming out of the closet?

AMS: Yes, if that’s the best term to use.

TDJ: Well, we still don’t seem to have a better one. Bruce helped me tremendously. He saw the real me, and I finally felt loved and accepted. It was incredibly liberating.

AMS: And then you started telling other people?

TDJ: The whole coming out process happens in stages. It’s not a “one and done” conversation.

AMS: So what happened next?

TDJ: Shortly after we met, I was offered a role in San Francisco, and Bruce decided to join me. We had only intended to be there a few years before returning to the Northeast, but we both found our initial footing in our careers and, well, it was sunny California.

AMS: What were your own career plans at that point?

TDJ: I didn’t have an overarching plan. When I was in my early days at Clorox, I remember thinking, “If I just make it to manager, that would be awesome.” I never imagined that one day I would become a Vice President and considered as a potential candidate for CFO.

AMS: But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

TDJ: [Smiles.] Yes, we are.

AMS: Let’s talk about London.

TDJ: Right. I had been offered other expat roles that I didn’t take, but this time I was chosen for a key assignment and asked to move to London. This was one I really wanted.

AMS: What was the role?

TDJ: The title was Finance Manager, and I would be co-leading business development in Central Europe and the Middle East. Working in Hungary, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia… all out of London.

AMS: Exciting.

TDJ: It was exciting especially for someone who had, at that point, traveled very little outside of the U.S. But it also created a dilemma. I wasn’t going to go to London without Bruce. And my boss didn’t know I was in a relationship.

AMS: You hadn’t told them yet.

TDJ: This was 1995. There was absolutely no indication that coming out would be good for my career. There were no policies protecting LGBTQ employees, no resources available and no LGBTQ employees in leadership roles. If I wanted to advance in my career, it seemed like the safest option was to stay in the closet.

AMS: But the London opportunity was too good to pass up.

TDJ: Yep. They were very keen on me going, but they thought they were sending a single guy. I decided it was finally time to tell my boss about my partner, Bruce.

Click HERE to continue reading this article.

For the FULL INTERVIEW, please:

click here (PDF version), or

visit AnneMarieSegal.com/mcw-tom-johnson (online version).

Feel free to post a question or “like” this post below, and click here to explore more articles in this series. Thanks!

Anne Marie Segal Cropped Website Final 2019 Barragan

Preparing to Pitch Yourself for Corporate Board Roles: Corporate Board Series, Part 3

Bright meeting room interior with city view

At some point in your career, if you have achieved a certain of success as an executive, you may be considering a corporate board role as a possible and logical next step. Yet the process of creating a “board pitch” can take you out of your comfort zone, as it requires you to view your career through an entirely new lens.

Boards want candidates who are poised to lead an organization and leave the day-to-day administration to someone else (i.e., management). They are focused on high-level, high-impact decision-making, so as you brand yourself and prepare your “why me?” pitch, these are the qualities that should come into greatest focus.

Here are some key points to consider:

Your Audience

The audience for your board pitch should be a carefully selected group of individuals that includes networking contacts, board recruiters, board-marketplace groups and the actual target boards of directors:

(1) Networking Contacts. Your networking contacts often serve as the most fertile ground for your board pitch, as the majority of board roles come from board members’ current networks and word-of-mouth communications. (The percentage of public board roles filled from these sources is nearly 70%, according to a recent survey by the National Association of Corporate Directors.)

If your current network does not include CEOs, sitting board members and others with access to boards, I suggest that – before you consider yourself ready for a board role – you take steps to expand your network in that direction. (My next post in this series will explore how to make connections to land a corporate board seat.)

If your current network does include the right mix of networking contacts, you will need to muster up the courage, gravitas and good sense to leverage those connections and create mutual benefit for you and the individuals who will be referring you. In other words, the benefit to you is the chance to make your pitch to the right audience, and the benefit to your networking contact is to have successfully delivered a viable, poised and compelling board candidate.

(2) Board Recruiters. There are a number of recruiters who routinely conduct and complete board searches, and many of them are focused on expanding the talent pool beyond the “usual suspects” of traditional board candidates. (I have posted links to some of the top recruiters here.)

The best corporate board recruiters will have an in-depth understanding of the companies with which they are placing candidates, including corporate strategy, board dynamics and culture fit. Getting in front of these recruiters can often be as difficult as getting in front of the boards themselves, so you may need to rely on your network for introductions here as well.

In any case, take care not to get ahead of yourself. In today’s world, don’t expect many recruiters to have the bandwidth to help you assess whether you are ready for a board role, especially a recruiter you do not know well. Recruiters are hit with too many candidates vying for their time – for board search as well as job search – to be able to provide that level of hands-on, personalized attention to all but a handful of candidates. Instead, prepare yourself as a board-ready candidate with a convincing elevator pitch first, then approach the recruiter, so you do not lose that ephemeral chance to make a solid first impression.

(3) Board-Readiness, Education and Marketplace Groups. There is a range of organizations that can help you prepare yourself for a board role and/or broadcast your candidacy to a wider audience, with differing barriers to entry and effectiveness. In addition, many graduate schools of business offer executive education in corporate governance for board members. Links to some of these organizations and aggregator sites with further links are here. For many of them, you will need to submit an application, which may include some of the documents I list below.

(4) Actual Board Targets. Lastly, don’t forget that the ultimate and most important audience to whom you will be pitching is the specific board itself, namely the Nominating & Governance Committee in most cases and thereafter the wider board. Do your diligence on the board and company so that you can speak directly to their needs for a new board member.

Your “Portfolio” of Board-Ready Communications

While the above constituencies are the audiences to whom you should make your desire to join a corporate board of directors known, there is also the question of how you can best communicate your pitch to join a board. I have mentioned above that before you formally start the process of consistently putting yourself out there for a role, you should make sure you are a board-ready candidate. In addition to gaining the right experience to be a compelling candidate, here are the different and related means of verbal and written communication to have at your disposal:

(1) Board Biography. Your central document as a board candidate is the board bio, which is often a short narrative (one to two pages, sometimes with attachments) that presents you in third person and illuminates the value you bring to the board, including leadership, industry and substantive experience and what can be loosely described as “caché.” Unlike a traditional U.S. resume, it also may include a small photo in the top right or left hand corner.

The board bio should be clean, inviting, well-written and distilled. If you have current or former board or committee service, including with non-profit entities, this is often listed near the top. Significant honors or awards, certifications and educational qualifications should also be included, with the aim to produce a document that signals you are of the right quality and caliber for a board role without sounding stuck on yourself.

(2) Value Proposition and Elevator Pitch. Building on the exercise of creating a board bio, you can further distill what you offer a board into a short value proposition that can serve as the basis for an email or cover letter regarding your board candidacy as well as an elevator pitch that you can give (and tailor more specifically to) one of your target audiences.

(3) Board Resume. Sometimes, a board resume is also requested during the board search process, although it is less commonly used than the board bio. The board resume differs from an executive resume principally in its emphasis on those accomplishments and characteristics that would be relevant to board service. I will cover board bios and resumes further in Part 6 of the corporate board series.

(4) LinkedIn. Just as you make your network aware of your availability for and interest in a board role through informal conversations and other interactions, you can take another look at your LinkedIn profile to determine whether it conveys your board-ready expertise and gravitas or could use some more help in that regard. I will give some specific suggestions for LinkedIn profiles as they relate to seeking out a board role in Part 7 of this series.

For additional articles in the Corporate Board Series, click here.

For links to corporate board resources, click here.

Anne Marie Segal is an executive coach, resume writer and author of two well-received books on interviewing and career development. She served as a corporate attorney for 15 years, including roles at White & Case LLP and a prominent hedge and private equity fund manager, before launching her coaching practice.

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Nine Ways to Accelerate Your Career Growth and Job Search as a Chief Legal Officer or General Counsel

Many of my clients are Chief Legal Officers or General Counsel at public or private companies who want to know how to (1) expand the growth runway in their current role and/or (2) find a new role that better suits their growth trajectory. Often these two goals go hand-in-hand, especially if you can initiate further career-enhancing opportunities within your current organization while opportunistically being open to new roles externally. If you are a Chief Legal Officer or General Counsel and at a similar career juncture, here are some insights that may help you accelerate your career growth and/or job search.

In other words, often it behooves you to do both: look for internal and external opportunities rather than rigidly treating internal growth and job search as an either/or proposition.

If you are a Chief Legal Officer or General Counsel and at a similar career juncture, here are some insights that may help you accelerate your career growth and/or job search:

1. 1. Get plugged into the right networks. For example, many veteran CLOs and GCs take active steps to seek out potential successors. If you are on their radar screens as a contender, whether you are an internal or external candidate, you will be first in line when the transition occurs. Beyond that, remember that you will not only need to convince the CLO or GC who is currently in the role but also appeal to the CEO and Board of Directors.
  2. Get on the radar screen of recruiters. As an ancillary network-building activity, take the time to get to know the recruiters who are commonly involved with General Counsel searches. Recruiters work for companies, not candidates – a distinction that it serves you well to understand! – and therefore may not be actively pursuing you or overly responsive (although they should not simply ignore you) unless they have a role that fits.
    It’s your job to get in front of recruiters without becoming a pest (respect their time!), continue to be polite and responsive yourself (even if you feel desperate or entirely overwhelmed at any given moment) and make sure that you have done the work to polish and present yourself as a compelling candidate rather than expecting the recruiter to figure out what to do with you.
  3. Dust off your resume, LinkedIn profile and interviewing skills. If you do intend to conduct (or find yourself in) a job search, or you wish to target a key promotion, make sure you have put yourself together as a compelling “package.” (This echoes what I listed in #2 above.)
    At the very least, review your resume to make sure it reflects your current accomplishments and communicates them in a clear manner. Not only does this help you have a “better” resume, but it also gives you a lens to focus on the value you have brought to your organization and what you can expect to contribute in the future. Similarly, if you have not interviewed in over ten years, you should seek to sharpen your executive presence and interviewing skills, whether you are interviewing with your own board of directors (for an internal promotion) or a new one (for an external role).
  4. Know how Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel searches are conducted. If you wish to be viewed as the top candidate, it behooves you to know what your audience is looking for. Admittedly some companies do not have a good handle on their own hiring priorities, even for a role as important as CLO or GC, and you will need to fill in the gaps for them (or avoid taking those roles). Others are cognizant of best practices and conduct a highly organized and effective search.
  5. Know what Boards of Directors, CEOs and other senior management want from their Chief Legal Officers and General Counsel. Whether it is through informational interviewing, informal discussions, mentoring or your own due diligence, make sure that you understand what is expected of a CLO or GC while serving in the role.
  6. Consider adjacent roles. Within your own company or at a new one, consider how you can take on business and other roles that will expand your range of influence and subject matter domain. Examples abound and include running a business line within the organization, serving on the board of a branch or subsidiary, heading up government affairs, leading a high-profile initiative or serving as an interim in another C-Suite role, such as Chief Operating Officer, Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief Sustainability Officer or even Chief Executive Officer. If you need more robust industry or subject matter expertise, emotional intelligence or caché to take on such a role, go out and get it!
  7. Envision yourself as a C-Suite leader, not just a lawyer. Just as you need to do the work to know your value proposition and polish your brand before speaking with a recruiter, you also need to do the work to wrap your head around the business and how you can add value as a member of senior leadership. Invariably my clients who see themselves in this light – rather than “the lawyer in the room” – are the ones who are more successful at attracting sponsors and other upward mobility and achieving marketability in their careers.
  8. Enlarge your circle of possibilities while respecting your own guiding principles. Know what your priorities are and plan your career around that. For example, if you feel that you need to stay in the Chicago or Nashville area for another five years, understand how that affects your career choices and target your decisions on where to build out your expertise to match the market. Ask yourself: how wide of a circle can I draw so that I don’t foreclose opportunities while continuing to meet my own personal commitments and values?
    For example, if you are currently in Nashville but ultimately want to return to Boston, Miami or San Francisco, can you create or strengthen ties to that target city now that will facilitate your transition when the time is appropriate? Alternatively, you may decide that a top role in Wisconsin, Indiana or Michigan is sufficiently close to the Chicago area to honor your commitment to stay local, depending on the reason that you have made this a priority. Even if you are truly open, geographically or otherwise, make sure that the role continues to meet your other priorities.
  9. Build out your reputation beyond your current company. Don’t become so focused on the “problems at hand” that you forget to build out your leadership credibility and network beyond your current organization. Set aside some time (for example, 5% to 10% of your total professional energy) to make this happen, and choose your engagements well so that they are meaningful to you and impactful on the community or other target audience.

Anne Marie Segal is an executive coach, resume writer and author of two well-received books on interviewing and career development. She served as a corporate attorney for 15 years, including roles at White & Case LLP and a prominent hedge and private equity fund manager, before launching her coaching practice. She is also currently serving as the Conference & Workshop Facilitator for PODER25 General Counsel pipeline initiative of the Hispanic National Bar Association and HNBA Via Fund.

First image above: Adobe Images.

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MCW INTERVIEW WITH FRANCISCO LASTA

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MCW INTERVIEW WITH TOM JOHNSON

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MCW INTERVIEW WITH
FRANCISCO LASTA

MCW INTERVIEW WITH
TOM JOHNSON