September 23, 2005

Do you remember when you were starting out your career as a knowledge worker? Perhaps in your second or third job, things started to click. You learned how to format documents or structure your presentation, using tools as such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, and Project. As we get older, it’s easy to forget that we had to learn these skills along the way. We learn how to manage our stress levels when key deliverables are due. We learn how to exude confidence when we make presentations. You assume that everyone knows how to insert a table of contents and update it automatically, how to use auto filters in Excel, or how to use bullets instead of paragraphs for C-level executives.

I’ve come a long way since 1996 in my early days as a new Product Marketing Manager. My career has taken many turns, but I still managed to achieve my goal of becoming a Director of Marketing. My new Marketing Manager still has much to learn as I found out this week. Now with Jonathan reporting into me, I get to see up close how much I have learned. I see that Jonathan is a little greener than I expected, because he hasn’t learned all those little things that I’ve picked up since 1996. I’m not alarmed. He’s open to my suggestions and advice, wanting to learn everything I know.

His First Presentation to CEO

When we were on the same marketing team with our former company, Jonathan was a new Marketing Coordinator. He had the skill set that would be his foundation for his new role. Jonathan’s a natural planner and organizer. He’s all about execution, as he monitors his progress and manages his results. In his last role, his former boss didn’t require him to think strategically in his role, but I always knew he had the capacity do this.

Proposing His Tradeshow Strategy

This was an important week for Jonathan and he passed with flying colors. He was nervous. He didn’t have the confidence in his voice that I would have liked to heard. But he still did a wonderful job in proposing his tradeshow strategy to our CEO, Tom. The day before the meeting, I reviewed his Word document and Excel spreadsheet, gave him feedback, and outlined how the meeting should go. I advised him that he must use the confidence he has in his abilities as a tradeshow expert, channeling it in his presentation.

“Jonathan, I know you can do this. Between your obsessive need to plan and organize, and my compulsion to track everything, you’ll do great. I have all the confidence in the world in you. We make a great team. Stick with me and I’ll teach you every trick I know.” He replied, “Oh thank God! I know I’ve told you this, but thank you so much for hiring me. I can’t wait to learn from you.”

Framing the Strategy, Explaining the Methodology

I coached Jonathan to explain the following during his presentation with Tom:

1. Assess all the tradeshows from last year for effectiveness and fit for this year and next year
2. Identified the target audiences for the tradeshows that meet our requirements
3. Identified criteria in how to decide which show is put on your list for Tom to consider
4. Recommend the shows and give Tom action items to follow-up with his team as he confirm the shows

Just-in-Time Approach to Deliverables

As Jonathan prepared the War Room for our meeting with Tom, I review his document realizing that he didn’t quite use the feedback I gave him or I was too vague. We were crunched for time, so I offered to make any changes in formatting to both documents and made copies as handouts. He was anxious, slightly keyed up, while I was my usual calm self when I doing the “just-in-time” completion of deliverables. We had 45 minutes to spare so Jonathan was able to gather his thoughts by printing out more things for Tom to review from Salesforce.com.

The Meeting: CEO was a Challenge

Tom was on the road with the VP of Engineering for two days. He was frazzled, tired, and anxious. He’s had time to think about all the things that he should be worried about. In our meeting, it was a challenge to keep him focused as he checked his Blackberry, changed subjects, and lost his energy level. Jonathan presented the documents. Tom was impressed. He focused on what I thought he’d focus on, which was the schedule in Excel. “The Word document is the supporting document for the spreadsheet if you need it.” I said.

Green, but Ready and Able

Jonathan walked him through the schedule. Tom wandered off the agenda by fast forwarding to the speaking engagements. I had to get him back on topic by saying, “We need to loop back to tradeshows. We really need to finalize this list.” “Oh, sorry, I’ve been like this all day, just tell me to get back on track, sorry,” he said with very little energy. We finalized the schedule. Jonathan forgot to tell Tom the four things I recommended, I had made a mental note, and said them at the appropriate time.

Overall, the meeting was a success for Jonathan. He’ll learn all those little things that knowledge workers need to learn. He’ll benefit from my coaching and mentoring, dramatically flattening his learning curve. I’m so proud of him. I know he was stressed, but I also knew he could handle it. Jonathan knew I would be there in case anything went sideways. By seeing me calm and confident in his abilities,  Jonathan felt safe and self-assured in his presentation. I’ll gladly share my tips and trick with him, since I know that “It’s not easy being green” as Kermit would say.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here.

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