So, I’ve taken on the task of developing a course in selling as it applies to career success. I plan to blog about the class as I go—about the ups and downs, challenges and resources I found helpful.

My first mistake (or so I’m told) was to originally name the class “selling” anything, when in an MBA curriculum.  MBAs, I was told, don’t want to sell, nor do they want to learn about it (which is not unlike the rest of us—read more Pink). So before even researching the question, I changed selling to business development—Business Development for Personal and Career Success—so that I wouldn’t scare anyone with the title. I soon found though that Chicago Booth has a course called Entrepreneurial Selling, taught by Professor Craig Wortmann, founder of Salesengine.com and author of What’s Your Story? Using Stories to Ignite Performance and Be More Successful. He has two full sections a year of students interested in selling. And he tells me there are others.

I’ll make some more mistakes along the way in this new adventure.  I’ve recruited eleven brave second-year Darden students to go along with me on this pilot course. I plan to use them to co-create. I’ve assembled many insightful resources and a couple of excellent outside speakers. I plan to learn and fast adapt as we go together. But the one thing about the class that will make it different from most MBA classes is that the students won’t just learn about selling—they actually will have to go sell. Part of the class and grade are a couple of in-person cold calls, targeted to further their career aspirations.

We’re going to have fun.

I stole the phrase from our Tuff E Nuff tour guide on a trip to see Belizean Mayan ruins on the day after the end of the Mayan calendar (and a San Pedro, Belize all-night end of the world party).  Our guide, Andre, is Belizean and has great knowledge of Belize, its history, culture and politics.  He is passionate about his country and its future.  Yet, he is also quite easy going and a man of faith (he’s Rastafari), so one of his philosophies that he shared with us:  “too blessed to be stressed.” 

Stuck with me all week.

I’ve blogged in the past about the Corporate Athlete Course from the Human Performance Institute.  One of the exercises we ask people to do in the course is to take one minute everyday and write a list of what you are grateful for. I spent some quality running and yoga time on vacation doing just that.  Conclusion:  I’m just too blessed to be stressed.  My wife, my family, my faith, my friends, my job, my town, my country, my health, my opportunities, my leaders, my co-workers, my abilities…

The list goes on.

Author Dan Pink, in his new book, To Sell is Human, talks about three fundamental human qualities for selling:  one is buoyancy, defined as the capacity to stay afloat on what one salesman calls “an ocean of rejections.”  He sites the work of Barbara Fredrickson of the University of North Carolina on “positivity.”  Professor Fredrickson’s book is Positivity.  In her research, she “discovered that experiencing positive emotions in a 3-to-1 ratio with negative ones leads people to a tipping point beyond which they naturally become more resilient to adversity and effortlessly achieve what they once could only imagine.”  She has a quiz to help you you determine your positivity ratio.  My first time, I scored 2.5—a ratio of my positive emotions to my negative ones.  (She advocates taking it for 14 days straight to get your “real” score.)  I want to be a 3.0.  Take the quiz.  What’s your positivity ratio?

I should be a 3.0—I’m too blessed to be stressed.

Little River Band, “Lonesome Loser”

Don’t some songs just hit you as great career/life advice.

I recently reached a point of decision in my career (don’t worry, you’ll have many).  I struggled with the decision.  The offer was enticing.  The responsibility great.  But I was haunted by saying yes.  Took me a few days, a few beers and a few friends to figure it out.  It started with understanding who I was and what I treasured.

An undergraduate student I work with (and am especially close to) recently went in for a mock interview in her career office.  She said she nailed it, except for one question:  tell me about yourself.

Career decisions, interview answers, networking–all start with “sit down, take a look at yourself.”

I’m a big believer in understanding yourself.  At Darden we advocate creating a comprehensive list of recurring patterns in your life, your life themes, before you begin a job search (or make a career decision).  Why? LRB says it best:

”Someday somebody’s gonna see inside
You have to face up, you can’t run and hide.”

The biggest problem we all face with self assessment is that someone else will find out the truth, right?  And then what…rejection?  So, it’s this fear of rejection that keeps us from looking inside, or letting someone else look inside.  But in my experience in my own job search, and interviewing, it is the intimacy of revealing what’s inside that creates the opportunity for breakthrough—in a relationship, in a decision making process, in a negotiating standoff. 

So, my career advice today:   ““sit down, take a look at yourself.”

Okay, so you can read the book, too.  But let me personalize it.  I think about the times in my career when I was challenged, valued and making a huge contribution.  During those times I have been most satisfied.  The hygiene issues just weren’t so important.  I was in the zone because I was truly motivated by my work.  And the opposite has been true as well—I have had times when I felt undervalued, directionless, not growing.  At those times I complain about pay, and working conditions, and who’s not doing what.  I really don’t like those latter times and cherish the former.

My colleague Jim Clawson talks about asking yourself the question:  how do you want to feel (see Powered by Feel, by James G. Clawson)?  Well, I personally want to feel like I am building, creating, connecting and energizing. (I think Jim might say that’s close—those aren’t really feel words, but I’m trying, okay?) 

So, the advice section:  take charge of the way you (I) want to feel.  When you are looking for a job, make sure you are looking at it for motivation factors, not hygiene ones.  This concept is so hard for the newly minted MBA.  With a large debt load and peer pressure, one generally looks at compensation as the most important factor in choosing a job.  And when you reach those crossroads in your career, when the wrong issues (hygiene ones) start becoming overly important, examine why.  Are you still motivated?  If not, figure out why, seek answers, make a change.  I remember at one really low point in my career, a very close and insightful colleague said to me:  “you need to leave, this place is changing you, not in a good way.”  Like a 2X4 across the head.  And I made a change four months later.

Don’t wait for the 2X4. 

I’m actually using this blog today as one of my slides.  And this morning I used Twitter to solicit from some of you what points I should be making about marketing.  Marketing is so much more interesting now than it was when I started after graduating from Darden in 1987.  It’s almost embarrassing to say we were barely using computers, and we went down the hall to the computer room to get our syndicated data (there was no scanner data back then). Today, data are abundant—one has to determine how to sort through it all.  Today, only imagination limits how marketers might get their message to their target audiences. For example, as I market an upcoming conference at Darden, my two greatest reach and most targeted communication vehicles are my Dean’s blog and his Twitter following. And they are both free.

To me it’s this rate of change in technology that makes marketing even more fun and more important as a discipline than ever before.  Marketing is more about creative problem solving than ever before. Marketing is more analytical than ever before—not in crunching the numbers, but in determining what the numbers say. Marketing is more about communication than ever before—not writing ad copy, not doing speeches to management, but about telling the story of your brand in a compelling and empathetic way.

I’m convinced that marketing will be the skill, and career, of the future. Come by and talk if you’d like to learn more, or debate the premise.

Behind the flurry of on-line education is the concept of the “flipped classroom.”  Much has been written about this idea (J. Wesley Baker, "The classroom flip: using web course management tools to become the guide by the side" 2000, 11th International conference on College Teaching and Learning). The flipped classroom is essentially using technology to deliver the “lecture” component of learning, so that classroom time can be spend doing more interactive learning (essentially the homework component, hence the term, flipped). (Visual from http://www.tidesinc.org/resources/flipped-classroom-resources/)

My vision of a cutting-edge, comprehensive approach to career services is one of a “flipped career services” approach: compelling, high quality, entertaining yet rigorous, evaluative, on-line synchronous and asynchronous learning of career fundamentals supplemented by both in-person counseling/mentoring (employing faculty, graduate students and career services staff) and project-based and/or practical experiences learning of skills. All three components—on-line, mentoring, and experiences—are critical to the success of the program. The online learning takes advantage of this generation’s (and gen Z’s) natural tendencies to want to work at their own pace while socially connected. The in-person counseling component will require cross school involvement and creative use of resources in order for every student to be served, but this component caters to the generation’s need for customized advice. Finally, the project-based/practical learning experiences (probably more than one or two during the four years as an undergraduate, or built into the fabric of the two-year MBA program) will allow students to translate their academic learning into practical application, building a repertoire of experiences that will allow them to first understand what they want to do and then differentiate themselves during the job search process. This component will tap into Gen Y/Z’s desire for authentic, meaningful interactions with the real world and will also help them develop their natural entrepreneurial tendencies. My vision is that many of these experiences will involve faculty.

A key enabler of this vision is that every student has a Personal Career Plan (PCP), supported by a faculty member, an external mentor and career advisor (and perhaps even a parent). Like any “business” plan, the PCP includes a thorough situation analysis (self assessment and research on careers), a career objective, and action plans including development of marketing materials (resume, cover letters, interview preparation, etc). The mentor component is extremely important—this triumvirate approach will provide a personal “board of directors” for each students’ guidance and accountability.

Some schools are putting career development at the forefront of their strategic initiatives.  Andy Chan at Wake Forest is at the forefront and recently led a conference where career management was central to the theme, Rethinking Success:  From Liberal Arts to Careers in the 21st Century.  I believe that schools who put this on their agenda will have a competitive edge as the higher education landscape changes.

Here’s an article from the website edudemic entitled, “5 Things To Know About Today’s Online Learning Options.”  Human guidance, pedagogical expertise, real-time interaction, personalization of content, and innovative use of technology—those are the five.  Doesn’t quite sound like online learning that I’ve experienced.  But my vision is that my online career education will incorporate these components.

I also think the platform for this vision will be important.  Clay Christiansen of Harvard recently tweeted about an article in gigaom by Ki Mae Heussner:  Online Education Startups:  A Field Guide.  What this tells me is that a video posted on the web wont do it—my course must meet the standard being set by many of the nations leading academic institutions.

Before I begin development, I’m looking for you to help me know the qualities in online courses that you think make them most effective. Please respond with your ideas.  In the meantime, I’m excited to get this project going.

So how did the various leaders lead?  History will judge.  My observations:

UVA President Teresa Sullivan was relatively absent from the dialogue.  But my colleague Erika James has an insightful look at President Sullivan’s take on the events.  Read here.  President Sullivan’s leadership right now can be summed up by a Bible verse she quoted on Sunday morning (after she had resigned) while delivering a sermon to Mount Zion First African Baptist Church in Charlottesville:  “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.”   Her leadership:  introspective, patient.

UVA Board President Helen Dragas also stayed very quiet.  Until she could no longer.  Then I felt she spoke with facts—at least her version of reality.  She shied away from media—she tried to make this not about her, or President Sullivan, but about the University.  As the facts have played out, perhaps she did not have quite the backing she thought, but my take is that she led boldly and acted decisively—not a trait that runs rampant in University towns.  Additionally, she changed her mind and admitted her mistakes.  Politicians never change their minds—they aren’t allowed to by the media.  But Helen stepped up and said, okay, I’ve got further insight, and I think President Sullivan can lead this University to where it needs to go. 

Darden Dean Bob Bruner was dragged reluctantly into the fray.  He, as he always does, led thoughtfully and transparently, and with heart.  He communicated openly and honestly with his constituencies.  When Darden was implicated, he boldly denied and provided facts.  When he was misquoted in the WSJ, he reacted positively with anger.  I like to see that.  Most of all, he LED constantly throughout the turmoil—leading his team, his brand/institution, his reputation, his peers and the community.  In situations like this, leaders need to lead—Bob did.

The UVA Board—actually my most disappointing constituency.  At least some part of the Board led the ouster of President Sullivan, for apparently some good reasons.  Yet two weeks later, not one would stand by their original decision.  Yes, perhaps they all changed their minds based on new facts and input, but I wish just one had had the courage to stand by their original decision.

So, in summary, good leadership in the past few weeks was:  quiet, reflectively, bold, fact-based, transparent, from the heart.  If we could have combined all those traits into the various leaders from the beginning, then perhaps this mess could have been avoided.  Ah, it’s so easy to be a monday morning quarterback.

1. The customer wants this new product.
2. I can make this new product for THIS price.
3. The customer will pay XX for this new product.

This particular CEO has seen that most projects have one of these “lies” at the heart of the project.

Got me to thinking…

What’s my big lie, around my life, my mission, my career, my story?  We all have a story about our life and our mission.  Story telling is a large part of the Corporate Athlete Course that I taught last year.  See my mission in a previous blog.

What are the common big lies in career stories?  Here are a few that I regularly see:

1. I have a value prop for this company that is unique.
2. My value prop is stronger than most other candidates.
3. I’ve done the research and I know there is a good cultural fit.

I think big lies in career stories deserves another blog for another day.  I’m thinking more philosophically right now, so I’ll ask an even bigger question:

What are the common big lies in life stories?

1. Fine thank you, how are you?
2. Yes, I’m happy.
3. It’s going well.

My 25th reunion was this weekend.  I heard some of these lies.  Think about your conversations.  Have you heard these lines?  Did the person really mean it?  Did you really care about the answer.

Jim Loehr, a co-founder of Human Performance Institute, who developed the Corporate Athlete Course, wrote a book The Power of Story:  Change Your Story, Change Your Destiny in Business and in Life.  He gives insight into the power of recognizing and writing your old story—those things you keep telling yourself that prevent you from realizing your mission, and then writing your new story.  He suggests reading and re-reading your new story until you start to live it.

My friend Seth Barnes and I went for a 5 mile run.  What I like about runs is that you are trapped.  You kind of have to talk.  And what I like about Seth is that he doesn’t allow lies in conversations.  He probes, he prods, he listens without judgment.  I worked out more in our 45 minutes than I could in days of counseling.

So, two questions to leave you with:

What lies are you telling yourself?

Who is in your life that will listen to you truth?

Be patient.  Fred took the long term view of his students’ success. And he did the same with relationships.  He hung in there with me when I was new, standing up for students and lobbying for colleagues.  He challenged my challenges, and argued my arguments.  Yet, he did it with grace and charm, so that I always was compelled to listen and consider his point of view.

Be tireless.  Fred worked incessantly for his students.  He took their success personally.  We would be playing poker on a Tuesday night at 10pm, and Fred would be talking to me about a student’s interview with Danaher, and what he might have done differently to help her.

Be genuine.  If you knew Fred, you always knew where you stood.  He gave you feedback:  as a career consultant, as a colleague, as an employer, as a friend.  He had no agenda.  Just to be true to his calling.

Be a friend.  More than anything Fred was a friend.  He cared.  He showed it.  He had the team to his home for many beautiful lunches.  He brought vegetables from his garden to share.  He organized the poker group.  He came to every extra-curricular event, when he wasn’t required to attend.  And I always got the sense that Fred truly cared about me and my success.  He was genuine, tireless and patient.

I learned a lot from Fred.