Black In Business

As an executive recruiter I spend a lot of time on the phone. Today I was speaking to  young black male who is going for his second interview for a sales manager position. The brother is together. He is a graduate from a fine New England University. Has studied abroad, speaks several languages, has a good appearance, and has been a sales star for 2 outstanding companies. He has a few years to go for his 30th birthday.A true success story.

We were  speaking about his upcoming interview which will take his career from being an individual contributor to someone in charge of 12 people.This is a big jump in responsibility and status. His income can go from 100,000 to 150,000 dollars per year. I spoke to him about the commitment, he is a single brother, and if he lands this job, his social life will suffer during his learning cruve.

For the interview he will be presenting a 90 day business plan We do not have access to the numbers in order to set quantitative goals and objectives. We will indicate that we need numbers to make our goals, measurable and achievable within a time frame. From a subjective stand point we have a goal.

The goal is to make his presence felt. We want the in house staff  excited, his boss excited, customers excited , competitors fearful and most of all his team inspired. I asked my canidate what dose he bring to the show, why should he be in charge? After all you want to be of value.

He mentioned his critical thinking ability,salesmanship and motivation skills. I asked would he be excited to take this job if he had 12 people like him. He said yes, for sure. Why, he said, I would have a motivated team of critical thinkers and sales achievers that would bring value to the company.

I told him you can have just that, a team of 12, just like you bringing added value for your company. You are no longer the super salesman, but now your job is to be the coach. Teach your team to be as  effective as you. You can be in only 1 place at a time but if you excell as a coach your influence can be in 12 places.

Now our business plan has a goal. Develop our team to make the numbers that reflect 12 times the success of the manager by himself. If a manager fails, often times it is they miss the big picture and only worry about kissing their boss’s butt. As a first manager, your mission is to make your people better.

I am interested on others advice on this topic. Let’s talk, Keep Hope Alive!

Is it true all human life comes from the seed of a black man? Do we all have the same daddy? As Rodney King would say, why can’t we all just get along? It is silly for race and color to be divinding factors. For blacks in business, this can be harmful. How can we compete?

We have to be better and offer more value to our clients. We must execute our business plans to exceed expectations. We have to look at ourselves as decedents from greatness. Linked below is the story of Noah, a black man, and a offer for a free piece of art. It is in celebration of black history month.

 Let’s use every postive aspect of our being to drive the results we seek. There is no harm in failing but there is harm in not trying!

http://www.blacknews.com/pr/noah_was_black101.html

I was shopping at Borders and the sales lady had an attitude that almost said,”Nigger what do you want,” Sometimes as black Americans you develop a 6th sense that will help determine whom the racists are. I could tell this bronzed colored young woman did not like me asking questions. So I went there,” what nationality are you?” I said sweetly. This young woman sneered, American!

“America is a country made up of many nationalities and tell me it is none of my business or that you rather not say but to say American is to say nothing.!I understand if you are ashame of your hertiage.” was my retort. She said biracial. ” I    asked,”Biracial what?” She answered, my mom is white and my dad is black. She was hoping this conversation was ending but I trying to be helpful, mentioned, “that makes you black, are you aware of the 1 drop rule?”

This exchange lead me to wonder are biracial people confused? If you marry outside your race are you confused or in love? Some would ask are you nuts? One of my brothers is married to a white woman and we have difficulity discussing this topic because of his marriage. More confusion.

OK, how dose this relate to black in business? Hopefully, barriers will come down to make business opportunties more accessible for all blacks and not just those that describe their nationality as anything but black. Say what you want about Barrack Obama, and the disscusion, is he black enough, in his words he is a black man, not biracial, not american but black.

We are diluting our power as a race by not sticking with the 1 drop of black blood rule. I think this 3rd category of race can give us less business opportunity for blacks.

The link below is what started this post. I found it compelling and would like to hear your thoughts. Is Mrs Dickerson confused?

http://www.slate.com/id/2106128/

I came across a study on black entrepreneurship that offers some compelling data. Owning your own business is great, hip, cool,something to be proud of, and even levels the playing field for blacks. That’s right it is something to aspire toward. If only it was not so darn hard then it could be a blast also.

Dr Juliet Walker has studied the history of black business and has some distrubing facts. She also provides reason for hope. Did you know, most black business deal with mostly black people? I bet most people; including myself, prior to reading about the Professor’s study,did not know, 50% of black owned businesses have revenue of less than 10,000 dollars per year.

Oprah is referenced as a billionaire that has not had to depend on blacks to run her business. I am not a Oprah fan and I am sure she dose not agree with my out look as well. I attended a book signing with her lover,well, her love life is a source for debate. I met the man in her life, Stedman Graham, and he for certain dose not agree with me on issues of race. Oprah has made a lot of people rich, lets count, how many black?How black is her staff? Dose she support young black hip hop artist? You get my point.

I think you will enjoy Dr Walker’s information in the link below.

http://www.utexas.edu/features/2005/business/

 I spell horribly. I am very slow typing. In the past I was very quiet and shy, and at times I still am. As a leader I had to work extra hard not to alienate employees of average abilities. The rap on me was, I was great with the super stars but could not relate to average performers. That was fine when I managed a small group. In a small group it is possible to have a team of stars. As I developed as a manager and received larger responsibilities, I learned to respect and develop relationships with average performers. If you agree, most organizations are 20% above average, 60% average 15% below average and 5% on death row,5% will never make it. Then you will discover the average performers make your business.

 Through out my career, I looked for things about my self in which I could improve on.I have taken coures on prsentations skills, written communications, selling skills, advantage executive programs, and much more. I still spell horribly, but I have improved my computor skills . I had to come out of my shell in order to be successful in sales and marketing.

I share this with you for 2 reasons. A job interview, and your personal growth as a business person. I remember my interview at Xerox, I the quiet shy, early 20 something young man interviewing for a sales job. I looked as good as I could with a nappy afro and a borrowed suit.

I thought I was on a roll and then the Manager said, tell me your weaknesses. I am thinking, ” you want me to tell you what, you can’t be serious!” He was and I muttered something like, sometimes I work too hard. Ya that’s it.The point is, do not be intimidated by this question. Be prepared to discuss how you have improved upon a weakness you to have and are working on a solution to a current developmental opportunity.

Speaking of development, take personal responsibility for your own inprovement. Be hard on yourself but be aware of things that if you can improve upon, you will be more productive.You will get your review from your boss but in many cases you will be aware of weakness the boss dose not know about. In the case of strenths, you will speak up, if the boss misses some. For weaknesses, it is not your place to point them out.

As a business pro, you are your own product. It is your duty to make you the product as productive and valued as possible. There are many ways to get at your chronic weakness. In my case for spelling and typing, I had good secetaries or can figure out how to spellcheck. I do not alway spellcheck because I have learned, a good post today is better than a great one tomorrow.

So tell me, What are your weakness, what are you going to do to improve. Give us an example of fixing a weakness. For blacks in business with white management, sometimes their feedback is bias. That is why we have to be able to manage ourselves. Working on improving a weakness is a good way to start.