Starting a Career? My Advice

“What is Your Best Advice When it Comes to Work?” my son Saqib asked.

I had to think about this. I have had a pocket-full of best advice to parse from every stage of my career. What advice I gave to entry-level staff, shifted when I moved from a shelf to a cubicle, and from a shared office, to a window with a view and a private bath (no kidding) in the Executive Suite.

If you are entry-level, a I was in the role of administrative resident at Brooklyn Hospital, my advice is: ask a lot of questions. In my cubicle job as one of many planning analysts at the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, it is: ‘be a team player.’ The more you welcome over-the-wall buzz and stoppers-by with a ‘I want to chat about xxx’ distraction, the closer you are with your colleagues and the less your chances of being blind-sided. When you moved up to a private office: Build relationships. Gain trust by being credible, trustworthy, and helpful. Speak up for your colleagues, be there for them, make time for them, and help them achieve their potential. Do that.

And once you are in the corner office with a view: manage your power. I don’t mean to say that ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ Well, that too, but here is what I mean: Invite voice of dissent. I cannot stress that enough. Every person in a position of leadership needs to exercise that degree of humility and openness. I was once in that position, a position of power that is. My power was not a consequence of my authority, rather through association. Like the Mark Meadows to Donald Trump kind of association. Use it with prudence.

If you are at the table and present your idea to your subordinates, chances are that most of them will go along. After all, you are the boss. Or if your strategic planner presents a plan and you endorse it, your team is likely to say ‘yes’ as well. Why risk annoying the boss. Right? Wrong.

My former boss Ted Jamison, after presenting an idea and stressing its value, would stand by the flip chart and ask: “What are the adverse consequences of this plan?” That was an open invitation to question his decision. He would start scribing the objections on the flip chart, and when done, invite deliberation. Every leader should do that. Failure to do so results in the team succumbing to groupthink. That is what historians attribute to the disaster of the Bay of Pigs invasion: groupthink. Management 101 teaches us that.

Let me give you a personal example. At my very first job, I took it upon myself to do a study that projected the future patient volume of the hospital. In the early 1980s, the higher the census, the higher the income. A nearby hospital was closing and I did an assessment to determine its impact, estimating the approximate number of patients that would gravitate to our hospital, and the subsequent increase in its annual revenue. I had reviewed the demographics of the area i.e. age, ethnicity, insurance status, etc. The CEO took my study seriously and asked me to present it to the Executive Council, saying, “It’s an impressive study and I want to know what you think.” They tore it apart, challenging my assumptions: what if these patients chose to go elsewhere? What if only indigent patients come here and paying patients go to Long Island College hospital? I had done my homework and was able to field most of the questions. The study was tabled for further review. But that is besides the point. The CEO had invited dissent and in doing so, enabled the team to make an informed decision. But it’s more than that. The team now owned the decision.

A closing advice: as a resident on the lowest rung of the ladder, I grew by listening and learning. CEOs or leaders in any capacity also benefit by listening; listening to the voices of dissent.