The
Moniker
By wpengine on Sep 01, 2013 07:30 am
“Are you a corporate spy, or something?”
This was the first question from the audience as I began
an innovation workshop at a Boston firm. “No,” I said, “I’m not a
corporate spy.” After all, I was there to help them.
“Well, then,” she asked… “Why the “Jane Bond” reference
in your Bio?”
Ah, yes, the Bond reference. It’s a product of history…
You see, I’ve had a diverse career. At 19, the governor
of California (!) appointed me to a statewide role doing educational
reform. At 25, I had won accolades for leading a division of Apple
Computer to monumental growth. By 26, I had run six political
campaigns, including a winning state senatorial campaign. By 27, I
was at Time Inc and CNN to create their web presence. And by 29, I
was responsible for a $300M P&L at a Fortune 500 division. I’ve
challenged Goliaths like Microsoft and won. I’ve launched over 100
products in different markets, generating over $18B in revenues.
That’s quite a dossier (and forgive me if this all
sounds too “braggy” in my aim to make a point), but think about
this…who is that person? How would you describe that? I could be an
education expert, a political wonk, a web startup founder, an
operational leader, or many other things. My career has been to say
the least — nonlinear and cross-domain. More “jungle gym than ladder.”
CEO’s refer me to other CEOs. “And he called you the
‘secret sauce for growth’ as he gave me your card”. Teams called
“MacGyver” in trying to name the resourcefulness in getting people to
work together and deliver, but also Houdini for creating something
out of seemingly nothing. And “Jack Bauer” for the pace at which I
move. Mostly, I see these all as compliments, but there’s something
else going on, too… People use analogies when traditional buckets
fail. And that’s what going on here.
A while ago, I was lamenting my lack of an easy handle
to Julien Smith,
and he asked me, simply: “can’t you decide who you are?” Monikers are
about identity, which in the Social Era is complex. (I’m not alone in
facing this challenge.) When work is freed from jobs,
how we identify gets challenging. Back when I was CEO, it was easier
to be introduced. But as I exited that role, I simply sucked at
answering the question, “And, who are you?”.
Today, I’m doing a wide variety of things: teaching a management
course at Santa Clara University, guest lecturing at Stanford
University, some corporate board work, writing here on this blog to
help others navigate the social era, but also around the web at
Oprah.com, Wired, HBR etc. Then there’s the speaking life, with
keynotes. And, of course, workshops (such as the one at the start of
this essay) to help companies reinvent themselves and their own
culture of innovation. I dread conference registrations, especially
the field of “Title”. As more of us create what I call “portfolio”
careers, we get to decide how to describe that. Colleague Cindy Gallop
calls herself the “Michael Bay of business” because she wants to
infer that she’s wiling and able to blow things up to create anew.
During this Julien-chat, the notion of Bond popped up.
Bond represents a combination of “global” + “gets the tough job done”
+ “does it in style.” In the movies, Bond appears
unstoppable, indomitable. From the more nuanced books, we know the
character is actually battle-scarred, forging unshakable values.
Julien and I shared this conversation over dinner with others facing
similar challenges. And, as we talked (and laughed) about it, the
idea of owning the feminine was integrated — so “Jane Bond of
Innovation”; it stuck. Whimsical, and yet distinctly one’s own
designation. Fersure, it starts the conversation, to signal the work
itself. And I only hope it creates the opportunity to do more and
more interesting work, where they ask me, “Are you a corporate spy?”
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