Points to Ponder for New College Grads

By Mike Hoban, Senior Consultant, DDI

Thursday, April 15, 2004

March Madness is over and the middle of April brings the start of college graduation season, and with it the commencement of the commencement speech season. This year, as every year, there’s bound to be a mixture of the good, the bad, and the ugly in those orations. Some speeches will focus on attitudes, others will focus on platitudes. Some messages will sound right, others will sound trite. There will be insights and insults. I’ve sat through a few.

I’m not expecting my phone to ring with a commencement speech invite from some distinguished bastion of higher learning, but it always helps to be prepared anyway. So here they are—10 points, in no particular order, that would be part of a commencement speech that I would give, focused on those graduates who are planning to enter the business world. Hopefully, my cliché firewall was functioning when I wrote them down.

These are things I’m sure the new graduates didn’t get in school, despite all of those tuition payments. But they are things I’ve learned in the work world since my own graduation back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. And who knows—maybe even not-so-recent graduates who have been in the work world for a while might find something here that resonates.

“Boss” is not a four-letter word. I think Dilbert is great fun to read, and yes, the odds are you will have some weenies or weasels as bosses. However, I think you’ll find that most of your supervisors are real people who might even care about you as a person. Help to make them successful, and you’re likely to help make yourself successful. Watch them and learn from them. You might become a boss yourself at some point.

Life is full of choices. Some jobs are lousy. And some companies are crummy and de-energizing places to work, with poisonous cultures that will make you crazy if you let them. Don’t let them. Get some experience, but walk away if you have to. Find yourself a good employer. There are many of them. Life is way too short to hate what you do for a living.

Just say no! You might get asked to do something in your job that doesn’t feel right. It might be dishonest. It might be unsafe, illegal, or unethical. Take the higher road, and ignore the voices that claim that everybody fudges their expense statements or their time sheets or whatever. That higher road avoids many of the slippery slopes. Calibrate your moral compass and then pay attention to it. Be careful of what you are shredding. It could be your principles. It might be your future.

Just say yes! Take on new assignments. Become known as a “go-to” person. Put your hand in the air early and often. Step up. Avoid ever saying, “It’s not my job.” If it’s really not your job, do it anyway, but make sure your boss knows that you are going above and beyond, and that you’re confident the company would never take advantage of you.

Don’t always be a “team player.” Someone, sometime, just might remark that you’re not a “team player.” Ask him/her what that means. Some weasels (see “Boss” above) confuse surrendering the right to think with being a team player. For things that count, don’t be coerced by the tyranny of the majority. At the same time, not every issue is worth falling on your sword. Business isn’t generally like the military or the medical field, where daily decisions could literally mean life or death. Know when to acquiesce and move on. Again, life is full of choices.

Be a learning junkie. Learn about your business and your industry, not just the department or function in which you toil. Sign up for training. Seek rotational assignments for development. Learn from others. Be curious. Ask the dumb questions. Stray from your comfort zone. Challenge assumptions, but in a way that is neither hostile nor arrogant. You will soon find that the more you know, the more you know you don’t know. That’s good.

Be not a cynic. Don't let your job turn you into a cynic. Constant negativity is unhealthy and makes people want to avoid you, even outside the workplace. It's OK to be occasionally skeptical. It's almost never OK to be cynical, even in light of the negative headlines about greed and ethical corner cutting in business. The reason those folks are in the headlines is because they are the exceptions, not the rule.

The question of balance. Balance in your life is important. Work hard, but don’t neglect the “other” part of your existence. Work isn't everything, and even in this labor market it's easier to find another job than it is to find another family. Don’t be a habitual absentee spouse. If you decide to have kids, spend time with them. They grow up very fast, and that old “Cat’s in the Cradle” song is worth another listen. What do you want said at your eulogy—that you were a good and loving person who had a positive impact on others? Or, that you always met your revenue and cost goals at work?

Take care of the customer. The customer is your real boss. Customers pay your salary, even if some of them are ornery, demanding and unreasonable. Don’t try to satisfy customers, try to delight them. Customers who are merely “satisfied” aren’t very loyal, but those who are “delighted” will usually keep coming back. That creates your paycheck. And job security.

Have some fun. Make sure you bring some laughter and good humor to your job. The workplace needs it. Take your work seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously. A well-known—and very successful—CEO once danced on Wall Street in a hula skirt to fulfill a promise he had made if his company exceeded some particular goal. I’m not sure you have to do the hula thing at the office or at the plant, but there will be times when you can lighten the load by lightening up.

Congratulations. Stay awake. Leave a wake.