I love reading the “Corner Office” column that appears weekly in the Sunday edition of The New York Times. Every week I seem to find something interesting there. For example, last Sunday, the interview was with Marc Cenedella, founder and C.E.O. of TheLadders.com, a job search site.
He talked about starting the company seven years ago, and the importance of sharing with the team what inspired him. In his answer, he referenced a quote from the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery (author of The Little Prince).
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
He stated “the management style that I have is first, share your passion. Explain to people why it’s an exciting idea and how they can be involved in it.”
“The most important thing, the thing that creates the most excitement and value and interest in the business is the big picture… Really engaging people in that big picture is way more important, I think, to success.”
I like his thinking and believe that my office mate would concur.
Another cool thing he said had to do with communication and the importance of learning about managing.
“Getting a coach is the best thing that you can do. I’ve done four years with two different coaches, and it is just fantastic. There’s what you say and there’s what people hear, and the gap between those two is sometimes enormous. What really matters is what people hear, not what you say.”
I’ve heard that often from my office mate as well. He’s in the Human Capital business and it seems to me that communication is job one!
The rest of the Q&A had to do with hiring practices and questions to ask. You can count on that every week.
But the main takeaway — “Share the passion!”
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