So I sat down with Eric Schmidt, who had just become the CEO, and I showed him the spreadsheet and I said, this job meets none of my criteria. He put his hand on my spreadsheet and he looked at me and said, "Don't be an idiot."
后来我和当时刚刚上任的CEO艾里克·施密特见了面,我给他看了我的列表。我说,“这份工作完全不合我的选择标准。”他用手按住我的表格。看着我说:“不要犯傻。
Excellent career advice. And then he said, "Get on a rocket ship. When companies are growing quickly and having a lot of impact, careers take care of themselves. And when companies aren't growing quickly or their missions don't matter as much, that's when stagnation and politics come in. If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat. Just get on."
极佳的职业忠告。然后他说,重要的是坐上火箭。当公司在飞速发展而产生很大影响力时,事业自然也会突飞猛进。当公司发展较慢时,或者公司前景一般时,停滞和办公室政治就会出现。如果你得到了坐上火箭的机会,别管是什么位置,上去就行。”
About six and one-half years later, when I was leaving Google, I took that advice to heart. I was offered CEO jobs at a bunch of companies, but I went to Facebook as COO. At the time people said, why are you going to work for a 23-year-old?
大概六年半之后,当我要离开Google的时候,我记住了这句忠告。当时好几家公司请我去做CEO,但是我去了Facebook做COO(首席运营官)。那时有人问你为什么要去给一个23岁的年轻人打工?
The traditional metaphor for careers is a ladder, but I no longer think that metaphor holds. It just doesn't make sense in a less hierarchical world. When I was first at Facebook, a woman named Lori Goler, a 1997 graduate of HBS, was working in marketing at eBay and I knew her kind of socially. She called me and said, "I want to think about you know talk with you about coming to work with you at Facebook. So I thought about calling you and telling you all the things I'm good at and all the things I like to do. But I figured that everyone is doing that. So instead I want to know what's your biggest problem and how can I solve it?"
职业发展通常会被比作“爬阶梯”。但我认为这个比喻不再恰当了。在越来越扁平的世界里,这种说法是没有意义的。我刚到Facebook的时候,97届HBS的校友Lori Goler还在eBay做市场营销。我和认识了她并且知道善于交际。她打电话给我说,“我想和你谈谈到Facebook和你一起工作的事,我想到给你打电话,和你说我有哪些特长以及我想做的事情。但我知道所有人都会这样说。所以我就想知道什么是你现在最棘手的问题,我又该如何帮你解决这个问题?”
My jaw hit the floor. I'd hired thousands of people up to that point in my career, but no one had ever said anything like that. I had never said anything like that. Job searches are always about the job searcher, but not in Lori's case. I said, "You're hired. My biggest problem is recruiting and you can solve it." So Lori changed fields into something she never thought she'd do, went down a level to start in a new field. She has since been promoted and runs all of People Operations at Facebook and is doing an extraordinary job, having an amazing impact.
我感动得五体投地。那时我一路过来,雇了上千人,但是从来没有人对我这样说过。我自己也从来没有这样说过。找工作一直是关于找工作的人是怎样,要什么。但是Lori不是这样想的。我说,“你被录用了。我最大的问题就是招人,你可以帮我。”之后Lori就换到了这个她自己都从未想过去做的领域,还降了一级,重新开始。之后她被升职,负责整个Facebook的人事运行,现在做得非常好,在公司有很大的影响力。
Lori has a great metaphor for careers. She says they're not a ladder, they're a jungle gym.
Lori对职业有个很好的比喻。她说职业不是阶梯,而是游乐场里儿童玩的立方格攀登架。
As you start your post-HBS career, look for opportunities, look for growth, look for impact, look for mission. Move sideways, move down, move on, move off. Build your skills, not your resume. Evaluate what you can do, not the title they're going to give you. Do real work. Take a sales quota, a line role, an ops job. Don't plan too much, and don't expect a direct climb. If I had mapped out my career when I was sitting where you are, I would have missed my career.
当你们开始HBS之后的职业生涯时,你们要去寻找机会,追随成长,力求影响力,发现远景,可以平调,降级,升职,甚至换新的领域。培养你的技能,而不是填充你的简历。根据你能做的事来评判工作,而不是你可以得到的职位。做真正的工作。接受一个销售目标,一个生产线上的工作,一个涉及运营方面的工作,别作太多计划,也别要求要“青云直上”。如果我在坐在你们的位置上时就计划好我的职业,我会错过我现在的职业。
You are entering a different business world than I entered. Mine was just starting to get connected. Yours is hyper-connected. Mine was competitive. Yours is way more competitive. Mine moved quickly, yours moves even more quickly.
你们现在正迈入一个和我当时不同的世界。我的世界刚刚开始被连接起来,你的世界已经高速连接在一起。我当时竞争很激烈。你们现在的竞争更加激烈。我的世界变化很快,你的世界变化更快。
As traditional structures are breaking down, leadership has to evolve as well-from hierarchy to shared responsibility, from command and control to listening and guiding. You've been trained by this great institution not just to be part of these trends, but to lead.
在这个传统结构正被打破的时代,领导班子也需要演变。从设立阶层到责任共享,从命令与控制到聆听和引导。你在HBS这个伟大的学院学习不仅是为了能够跟上浪潮,更重要的是能去引领潮流。
As you lead in this new world, you will not be able to rely on who you are or the degree you hold. You'll have to rely on what you know. Your strength will not come from your place on some org chart, your strength will come from building trust and earning respect. You're going to need talent, skill, and imagination and vision. But more than anything else, you're going to need the ability to communicate authentically, to speak so that you inspire the people around you and to listen so that you continue to learn each and every day on the job.
当你在这个新世界里乘风破浪时,你能依靠的不是你是谁也不是你的学位。你要依靠的是你的知识。你的力量不会源自你在公司的位置,而来自于建立信任,获得尊敬。你会需要天赋,技能,想象力和视野。不过最最重要的是,具有真诚沟通的能力,既能鼓舞你身边的人,又能聆听他们的建议,在每一天的工作中不断学习进步。
If you watch young children, you'll immediately notice how honest they are. My friend Betsy from my section a few years after business school was pregnant with her second child. And her first child, Sam, was about five and he looked around and said, "Mommy, where is the baby?" She said, "The baby is in my tummy." He said, "Really? Aren't the baby's arms in your arms?" She said, "No, the baby's in my tummy." "Are the baby's legs in your legs?" "No, the whole baby is in my tummy." Then he said, 'Then Mommy, what is growing in your butt?"
如果你留意小孩,你会立刻发现他们是多么的诚实。我的一个HBS小组里的朋友Betsy在毕业后几年怀上了第二个孩子。她的第一个小孩,Sam,那时大概五岁。Sam环视了下她问,“妈妈,小宝宝在哪里啊?”她说,“小宝宝在我肚子里。”他说,“真的么?难道小宝宝的手不在你的手里?”她说,“不,小宝宝在我肚子里。”“真的?小宝宝的腿不在你腿里?”“不,整个宝宝都在我肚子里啊。”然后她说,“那么妈妈,为什么你的屁股越来越大?”
As adults, we are never this honest. And that's not a bad thing. I have borne two children and the last thing I needed were those comments which obviously could be made. But it's not always a good thing either. Because all of us, and especially leaders, need to speak and hear the truth.
作为成年人,我们从不如此直接。这未必是件坏事。我也是两个孩子的妈妈,我最不想听到的恐怕就是这些评论,当然这些评论用在我身上也确实没错。但是那也不总是件好事。因为我们所有人,尤其是领导者,需要说真话,听真话。