Work Lunch

I’ve been reading a lot more business books/articles lately.  I never realized how useful the Harvar Business Review is.  I thought it had nothing to do with what I do and it’s quite the opposite.  Even reading about corporate companies like Jetblue, there are so many take aways that can be used on a smaller scale.  I was going to get a subscription, but $100/year is just too much.  Plus I can get it from my library which works well, since I don’t end up having more magazines in the house.

As I’m reading business articles, it’s nice to discuss them with people, but I don’t find a lot of people to discuss them with.  Most of my friends are in different types of roles and even at work, there are very few folks in my position and even fewer that want to discuss this type of stuff.  I have been having some interesting conversations with a past employee, he used to work in the electrical engineering department and now is going to business school.  I’ve been picking his brain to see what he’s been learning.  He actually shared a reader from one of the leadership courses that I’ve been reading.  Need to return it to him next week, but have been writing down a bunch of good notes.

I also figured I’d ask the top guy at work for lunch to pick his brain.  His father started the firm and he joined when it was just about 10 people and they were just really breaking even.  We’re now a 400+ firm and he seems to be doing quite well.  Emphasis on the quite.  Although he doesn’t hold an official leadership position, he’s very influential with the running of the firm and works closely with the president.  I was hesitant at first to ask him to lunch because I know there is always more that he wants me to be doing, but I’ve been learning that you shouldn’t let that get in the way of things.  We just had lunch yesterday and I learned a lot about his history - he started out in the rocket industry (space rockets), switched to nuclear before landing in the building industry.  And hearing his thoughts on how to run a business was quite interesting.  I had a list of ideas/questions that I wanted to bounce off him, but left it on my desk accidently.  Luckily I remembered some of the topics, one being succession planning.  Turns out he also thinks its crucial for the success of a company.  We chatted away and enjoyed a summer afternoon on the patio.  I tried to treat, but he insisted I expense it which was nice.

Well, fast forward to this morning and I get a call from him to come up to his office, he wanted to run an idea by me.  Very cryptic and it could go in any direction.  He basically asked me to write up a list of my accomplishments since being at the firm.  He acknowledged that I’ve not achieved some of the things he’s wanted, but have achieved a lot of other very important items.  Still very cryptic, needless to say I had a little hop in my step leaving the office.

Now I’m faced to put pen to paper and list out my accomplishments from the years I’ve been here.  Not an easy task for me.  It’s hard thinking of all you’ve accomplished in the past.  I’m always looking at what more can be done in the future.