When I was thirty-five, I worked indirectly for a Senior Vice President of a multi-billion dollar company. He was several steps above me on the ‘corporate ladder’ and had pulled my ass out of a fire when my direct VP threatened to move me to Outer Mongolia for pushing a new technology too hard. I welcomed the intervention, and my project came in on time and budget, and went on to sell $40M in Europe over several years.
However, the thing I remember him for was not his saving me. One day, several years later, I asked him what advice he had for me. At the time he did not know he would die of cancer within a year. He thought for a while and then said, “Listen more.”
I’ve never been a great listener, and it was good advice. It was a little hard to take. But I imagine it was also not necessarily easy to give. He was mentoring me when he said this. I appreciated this more than his saving my job, because it’s helped me multiple times since.
In my last post I talked about the reaction to requests for social connection and the potential to ask what’s in it for me. But I believe that a good portion of your networking and connections can be from people you don’t expect to get anything from, or who may need something you. There’s an old expression that says you can’t tell what direction a gift will come from. The number of times I’ve received something back when I didn’t expect it always surprises me. So whom have you mentored lately?
Lee Stocking
Prairie Sky Group
Making Sales Cry With Qualified Leads
lee.stocking@gmail.com
651-357-0110 (Cell 24×7)