The Perfect Fit | 5/14 | The Perfect Fit

Update: Diane Keaton

We profiled actress Diane Keaton when she conducted a Q&A career session in Dallas. She encouraged a breadth of interests and also mentioned the new aspect of branding and product lines for actresses.

Voila! She now unveils a new business in tabletop designs. The New York Times has the story here:

….Diane Keaton still maintains a busy schedule as an actress, but in recent years the Oscar-winner has devoted considerable time to another area of interest: architecture and design. A serial house flipper, Ms. Keaton, 65, has bought several homes in her native Southern California and painstakingly renovated them before getting the itch to move on and repeat the process. The actress is also actively involved in architectural preservation (she is on the board of the Los Angeles Conservancy), and in 2007, she co-wrote “California Romantica” (Rizzoli), a book celebrating the Spanish and Mission-style architecture she loves.

Now Ms. Keaton is getting into the design game herself, with a tabletop collection called K by Keaton that she created for Bed, Bath & Beyond. The stoneware cups, bowls and plates, which are available online and in some stores now, have her trademark whimsy (some are stamped with the words “eat” or “bite”) and lack of pretension (prices start at about $5). But they also reflect Ms. Keaton’s latest obsession: the heartland. The “farm-y, landscape colors” she used, she told a reporter, were inspired by wheat, grass and bark.

Very savvy.

She is diversifying and adding to her portfolio of offerings — something we can all do in our own work/life pursuits.

July 23, 2011 by Nancy Keene

The Toastmaster

What we learn in early childhood shows up in adulthood. Sometimes it’s a glimmer of a memory. But it’s there.

In a career of active industry involvement, I’ve never served as president of an organization.

Instead, I LOVE doing the meetings and programs. Picking a timely topic. Recruiting speakers and panelists. Moderating. Generating buzz and participation. Being a presenter.

I’ve overseen 250 programs for CEOs of start-up technology companies. Annual investor meetings for Texas Women Ventures. Special panels for SMU’s Human Resources Roundtable. Monthly roundtables for COO Forum. Practice Group retreats for PricewaterhouseCoopers. A sampling from a long, long list.

Where did this come from?

My late father, Frank Vetakis.

Recently, I spent an evening on a research project scoping on-line archives of the Altoona Mirror, our hometown newspaper. There it was in black and white!

“…Dale Carnegie Class No. 301 deviated from the normal trend of study” and hosted a special event. It was …”a demonstration of the accomplishments of the public speaking class.” My father was: Committee chairman.

A major undertaking was the expansion of Park Hills Golf Club to 18 holes and construction of a new clubhouse. He was a director and committee member. There was a whole series of announcements and events, culminating in the dedication.

He solicited letters from Arnold Palmer and other greats who played at the club in various exhibition matches. Commendations from political figures. There was a moment-to-moment account of the entire opening convocation in the newspaper. The leadership team was photographed. My father was: Toastmaster.

There were other golf events he oversaw. The Hacker’s Handicap. The Carlie’s Open, which possibly pioneered the trend of title sponsorships, as Carlie was a tavern proprietor (Johnson’s Cafe). There were videos and elaborate programs. Even a tournament queen. (It might have been Carlie himself dressed as Miss Pennsylvania.)

When the Vatican allowed laypeople to participate in the liturgy, Frank became a lector at what was known as the Golfer’s Mass at St. Rose of Lima. 7 a.m. No sermon. He and the monsignor kept the service moving. You could make an early tee time.

That love of content, packaging and showmanship trickled down. Frank had a flair, for sure!

In memory and gratitude on Father’s Day.

June 17, 2011 by Nancy Keene

Reverse Trajectory

Best practices, in corporate-speak, means borrowing a good idea and implementing it somewhere else. So what’s the opposite? Read it here.

From his insider perch, the brilliant auto journaliste Alex Taylor chronicles the methodology and mistakes of General Motors and the Detroit auto industry. It’s a what not to do guide for your company — or your life. (i.e., denial, oblivion, hubris, etc.)

I know Alex from the time we both lived in Michigan during the late ’70s. A vivid first impression was a chain of outdoor billboards dotting I-75 North for a Ford dealer promotion: “Help Stamp Out Foreign Matter.” Hmmm. Was this an ad campaign or a trade mission?

Indeed, it was an early indicator of Detroit’s response to the influx and influence of non-U.S. manufacturers. Designing superior products that consumers actually wanted was a too-late afterthought, as we all know now.

As documented by the author (whose C.V. includes Detroit Free Press, Time and Fortune), GM’s collapse was caused, ”pure and simple, by bad management combined with ego and conceit.”

Some noteworthy and prescient comments from the book:

”GM was the premier car company in the world for so long that it failed to see the need for change…so used to being leader that it couldn’t contemplate following others.” — from corporate governance experts Robert Monks and Nell Minow.
”I have yet to see a CEO who says, Í went too fast, I should have moved slowly.” – from Noel Tichy, Univ. of Michigan professor and advisor to GE’s Jack Welch
”We never go to the outside for executives because that’s an admission that we didn’t build our people right.” – from Lee Iacocca on GM’s promote-from-within rationale.
”One re-org per generation is enough” became the mantra, so Jack Smith and Rick Wagoner tried gradualism instead. It was a big mistake.
”There we were charging up the hill right on schedule, and I looked behind me and saw that many people were still at the bottom, trying to decide whether to come along.” — from former CEO and failed change agent Roger Smith.
”GM employees were expected to display unwaverying loyalty and behave like team players. This meant that they never questioned a decision [and] never contradicted a boss. Decisions were shuttled higher and higher up in the organization so that if anything went wrong, nobody would every take the blame.”
”These same men in a business amosphere, where everything is reduced to costs, profit goals and production deadlines, were able as a group to approve a product that most of them would not have considered approving as individuals.” — from industry maverick John DeLorean, on the Chevy Corvair safety debacle.

Pretty scary stuff. And some excellent work/life lessons for all of us.

Listen! Accept! Adapt! Propel! And never wait for the market to bail you out.

May 26, 2011 by Nancy Keene

Tina’s Trifecta

Here’s an example of timing. Right on the tail of Osama bin Laden’s death and the extravaganza of a Royal Wedding, Tina Brown, the doyenne of dish, served up a red hot cover story on Newsweek, which she is revamping and presenting in a print/internet combo package with The Daily Beast.

It kicked off a week that exploded with supporting evidence of the premise — the complicated dynamics of political wifedom in modern, media-driven society:

Jailed, married global politico, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, on suicide watch at Rikers Island following sexual assault charges by a New York hotel maid. KAPOW!
Revelation of rationale – Maria Shriver terminates cohabitation with Terminator Schwarzenegger when he confesses a ten-year old love child with a former household worker. POW!
Wronged political wife and evolving power attorney Alicia Florrick, in a hotel elevator with her college amour/legal colleague for a passionate tryst — maybe??? – in the season finale of the popular television series upon which The Good Wife cover story was likely timed. VaVaVOOM!

She’s baaaack.

I observed La Tina firsthand when she swept into town for an unscripted Q&A with journalism students at SMU.

Oh, she is a force! She engages with her posh parlance and passion for topics and taste-makers across the spectrum. She is a human buzz machine, so you can see how it works — from her brain to final copy.

”May-December pairing”– the mentoring of young journalists by seasoned staff writers.
“Eclectic calibration”– rollouts of fast-breaking news and serving it up on evolving basis
On WikiLeaks – ”He is the biggest sleazeball of the western world. But it’s a valuable tool.”
Regarding political leanings of news entities — “The Daily Beast is ”polypolitical.”

She acknowledges the short spurt attention of news audiences in the age of Twitter and the Internet. ”Our brains are being re-wired. You can’t lead with six paragraphs of throat clearing at the beginning of the piece. It has to be provocative….the best written….the most juice.”

But she’s also knowledgeable and facile on any facet of politics, business, economics and the convergence of issues and truths that will change everything. She loves the wild swings in story cycles. “The news craziness suits me,” she enthuses.

Flashback to Tina’s childhood to trace her M.O. She grew up in a show business family. Her father was a prominent figure in the British film industry — producer of the Agatha Christie films, among others. Her mother was press secretary to mega-actor Laurence Olivier during his marriage to Vivian Leigh, the portrayer of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind.

She experienced a glamorous girlhood in a salon filled with the prominente. She was privy to see and hear what went on behind closed doors, a heady view not known by the general public. When she took the reins of Tatler, a stuffy chronicle of upper-class/aristo life, she infused it with tidbits of insider knowledge that shocked and tantalized. Magazine sales soared and Tina was off and running. She imprinted that same spin on Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.

It’s an underlying truth of human nature. People love a dose of dish in the daily news and information regimen. Think of those old I Love Lucy shows about who gossips more — men or women. It’s both.

Living in the U.K., I saw first-hand the tabloid frenzy that ensued with the Fergie toe-sucking scandal and Diana/Charles/Camilla love triangle. There were traffic jams every morning at the corner news agent with everyone battling to pick up the latest tidbit on the demise of the Royal marriages — the froth atop the more serious issues of economics and the future of the monarchy.

It’s the core of the media/entertainment business. You have to attract an audience. Tina understands that. She is a box office girl. And now she commands a global staff — with Newsweek bureaus worldwide.

It will be fun to watch. Stay tuned!

May 18, 2011 by Nancy Keene

Friday Links — 5 Must Read Career Management Articles

Thank you to Sarah Wright for including The Perfect Fit in her weekly Top 5 blog recommendations on BlueSteps.com, the candidate-facing website of the Association of Executive Search Consultants.

She cites the Valentine’s Day post – Behavioral Blur — Is a Date a Job Interview?

“…..an excellent analogy of job interviews to dates. Do not be fooled by the title, this article is actually full of great advice and is extremely fun to read. Enjoy!”

If you are single and hoping this will be the summer of love, it’s a good checklist. If you are in search of career advancement, do scope BlueSteps.

All of the AESC retained search firm members – globals and top boutiques – use Blue Steps as a secondary research database when conducting assignments, so this is a very efficient way to get exposure and candidacy consideration with utmost confidentiality.

There is a nominal, one-time fee to submit your profile, which you can update at any time. The focus is top level: C-suite candidates, potential public company Board members, high pedigree High Potentials, etc.

Here’s to The Perfect Fit– on all counts!

May 13, 2011 by Nancy Keene

Scottish Enterprise — Then and Now

In the early 1990s, I was a new bride gearing up to cross the pond for the experience of a lifetime: moving to Aberdeen, Scotland with my new husband, who was on an expatriate assignment for an American oil company.

There was one complication. I had a consulting business in Dallas, but no work permit in the U.K. And I didn’t want to disappear from the domestic business scene, since we would be repatriating in about 18 months.

Thus, I found a way to continue servicing a major client on a long distance basis. A technology lifeline was installed in my U.K. home office. Are you ready for this? A dedicated FAX line! I then opened an AT&T International calling account — at a pre-Internet, pre-Skype rate of $1 per minute.

I also had a weekly segment on KRLD, the all-news Dallas radio station, as business strategist for The Bottom Line, an evening news program. I pitched the concept of a Report from the EU regular segment.

The station had a new GM, Charlie Seraphin, and he nixed it. Instead, he proposed, why don’t you do something more personal? Since you will be having a sort of sabbatical, here’s the premise: What if you wake up one morning and there’s NOTHING you absolutely have to do?

His concept was to share the experience of a new, uncharted life in unfamiliar surroundings. What a fantasy for frazzled business types who were beginning to feel the pain of downsizing and doubling of the workload! Today it would be called a blog!

I was horrified. I just couldn’t put myself out there with tales of everyday life — looking for addresses on streets that changed names every few blocks…trying to decipher the dials on an outmoded oven. It was in the era when people tried to keep their personal and professional lives separate.

But I did create a little newsletter, covering media trends and other business topics. The masthead was a strip of tartan ribbon. U.K. newsclips were manually cut and pasted – i.e., bathing beauties illustrating a business story in The Times. Shocking, we thought.

Production was on a Canon personal copier, one sheet at a time. The graphics were primitive, but the copy was lively. Distribution was via snail mail to friends and clients back home. Imagine!

Today, mobile technology, social media and a global market enable transparency and a myriad of career opportunities for the trailing spouse in virtually any type of relocation.

Ronda Carman, a Texan living in Scotland, is my favorite role model for this new era of international career innovation. She likewise followed her husband who is is an esteemed professor there.

From her perch in Glasgow, she has built a glittering, global following for her excellent design blog All the Best — A Passport to Stylish Living. She serves as brand ambassador for an impressive clientele. She is a top relationship-builder — with longstanding design leaders such as Charlotte Moss and Jan Showers, as well as up-and-coming NextGen tastemakers, of which Ronda is now one herself.

Here’s a recent profile in New York Social Diary, definitely a coup to be on the radar screen of the prolific David Patrick Columbia. She’s one to watch!

It’s a fun media juxtaposition. The U.K. sent us Anna Wintour and Tina Brown and we’ve reciprocated by dispatching Ronda to Scotland.

What a long way from the primitive era of The Tartan Tatler and ”patch me through to Dallas” calls to the Aberdeen office of a U.S. tech client.

April 19, 2011 by Nancy Keene

Paper Dolls

Are you pondering a new direction? Sometimes you have to look back before you can move forward!

Revisit your formative years. What were your favorite activities as a child? Were you building, exploring, reading, role-playing or competing in sports?

In an era of computer-generated graphics and all things digital, my friend and former ad agency colleague, Celesta Segerstrom, is forging an incredible career focus through gorgeous and painstaking hands-on design. She is making exquisite fashion ensembles out of various kinds of paper — white doilies, colorful fashion publications, brown bags and tissue paper — for the display windows of Clotheshorse Anonymous, a leading Dallas re-sale shop.

She calls this new medium –what else — Paper Dolls!

“I’ve been an artist all of my life,” she says, “even drawing portraits for friends as a small child.” She loved playing with paper dolls, but went one step further – designing and drawing her own creations for the cardboard models of her girlhood.

Celesta grew up in Menlo Park, Calif., now heavily populated by high tech innovators and venture capital investors. Her father was a brilliant dentist and oral surgeon — deft with his hands and detail-oriented. He encouraged Celesta and her two sisters with artisan projects, tools and handiwork.

She went on to study at the prestigious Art Center College of Design, then headed to Madison Avenue to work on major brands for Proctor & Gambol, Colgate-Palmolive, Clairol and AT&T.; She has been an art director, new product development entrepreneur and creative director. After leaving the ad agency world, she continued to take on art commissions, as well as pursuits in real estate development.

Celesta is a creative problem-solver…so the message and the medium of re-cycle, re-purpose and re-sale are congruent with the Clotheshorse Anonymous brand. It’s The Perfect Fit! But it doesn’t stop there. She is part of the team doing interactive display windows for children in the downtown Dallas Neiman Marcus store. She creates custom props and sets for major commercial installations.

Another prestigious commission: She designed hockey great Brett Hull’s denim jacket for the 2011 DIFFA Dallas Auction. The package of the jacket, access to Hull VIP Suite and a kid’s day camp slot with Hull was the top auctioned item at $14,000!

So, bravo to you, Celesta. What an era of renaissance and creative resurgence — all wrapped in a clever package of strategic purpose. It’s a re-mix that is literally fabulous! To see more of her designs, visit her Facebook page.

April 11, 2011 by Nancy Keene

The New Normal

It’s the new buzzword of the economic non-recovery — the title of news articles, conferences, thought leadership digests and more.

How are we going to operate as a company…a country….or a family in the new economic environment? It’s a universal mission and focus. Things have changed drastically, that’s for sure. But is everything really normal?

Normal connotes something familiar, perhaps bordering on boring. It’s a plus – an area of comfort — for stay-the-course folks.

Normal means you know how to operate in a routine environment with expected results. Plain old meat and potatoes. Go to work. Get a paycheck. Come home. Unwind. Go back to work. For nearly 15 million million Americans out of work — and probably a similar amount struggling and uncounted in small businesses and commission-only roles — this kind of normal would feel absolutely Utopian!

In normal times, normal is typically not exciting for pioneers, inventors and change agents who thrive on disruptive opportunities. But a certain level of certainly is required to win the capital necessary to start, grow and scale a business. A certain level of certainty is required to target customers, forecast sales, buy equipment/supplies, recruit and reward talent — just the business basics.

Normal is getting into a car, turning the key and moving forward to the destination. The new normal is getting into a car, turning the key, hearing weird grinding noises, then nothing, then click, click, nothing, quiet. The car is dead. We hope it will start again…but when?

There are some glimmers of hope: Continuity in the Oil & Gas sector; SEO and others who support web-based commerce; mobile apps; some uptick in consumer spending; massive stockpiles of corporate cash for potential M&A; activity; some orders trickling into the pipeline in manufacturing.

But not anything that feels like normal.

There are millions of smart and diligent people in transition working feverishly to shoehorn themselves into an elusive next job — when maybe they should be looking for a new career or a different path to revenue. Millions of consultants, corporate managers and business owners proposing on new business opportunities awaiting purchase decisions that never come. Many medical/dental practices operating at 40% of capacity.

A former colleague is getting ready for career re-entry after having after having three children in the last ten years. Another is returning to her law practice after fighting and beating a terrible illness. Both are concerned about being out of the loop and re-gaining perceived lost ground due to their absence. Don’t worry, you didn’t miss a thing, I told them both. That’s the new normal.

How are people coping?

Some who have survived the corporate cuts are hiding out and enjoying a respite. They have no budget for new programs. They take their BlackBerries and duck out for school recitals and sports events. They get to spend more time with their children.

Others are waiting in the weeds, plotting their departure the minute a new opportunity arises. So much for ”employee engagement.”

The knowledge gurus are doing a brisk business — churning out best-selling books, corporate coaching gigs, change management seminars and tele-conferences. They offer hope, processes and a path to something better.

Here are some other ideas:

Cherish what you have
Dote on family and friends
Eat healthier
Walk
Keep up with your customers and business contacts
Add new connections
Learn social media
Help others
Do something you’ve always wanted to do, but never had time
Plant some seeds for a new career path or customer set
Re-invent!

March 24, 2011 by Nancy Keene

ReMix — Re-tune your Life!

re·mix

(def.) To recombine (audio tracks or channels from a recording) to produce a new or modified audio recording: i.e., remix a popular ballad and turn it into a digital hit.

* * * * *

In the age of re-invention, how far do we have to go to find a new path?

To get to the future, a first step might be to explore the past.

This goes back to Morris Massey, the organizational development guru who was early to articulate generational differences in the workplace… and how our values are shaped early in our formative years.

His work was entitled What You Are is Where You Were When, a throwback to who you were growing up and the inflection points that made us look beyond our immediate personal world to see the bigger picture and how it all fits together.

It’s why nostalgia is so compelling, why we are drawn to the music and memories of our past.

As we evolve through adulthood, do we lose the core elements that created delight, satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment in our childhood? Do we morph into process and efficiency masters in order to function and succees in an uber-competitive world?

To create a fresh direction, you might not have to write a completely new song. Revisit the memories of early childhood to find the clues. What were your earliest skills? What were the passions that attracted you to games, social activities or pursuit of a particular study?

For those seeking a tweak for a new phase of life, a look back can help you move forward. The old music is still good music. Maybe it just needs to be modernized.

Do a remix!

In future posts, look for profiles of those who are who are successfully mixing it up — creating a work/life blend that is The Perfect Fit!

March 2, 2011 by Nancy Keene

Behavioral Blur: Is a Date a Job Interview?

Those in pursuit of career advancement know the importance of putting the best foot forward in every step of networking, interviewing and “onboarding” once they obtain the new role.

Yet, when searching for romance, it is easy to slip into sloppy personal habits – feeling you are relaxed, off-duty from work and displaying characteristics that merit self-examination.

With technology, access to other candidates is easier than in earlier times. Selectors are pickier because they can be. Thus, the same behavior that derails one’s candidacy for a job can also wreck prospects for a courtship.

Being Late. Would you ever consider being late for a job interview? Of course not! Likewise, keeping a date waiting is dangerous grounds for elimination. It sends a signal of narcissism and a lack of respect for others.

Diva! The date starts as soon as you leave your home or near the destination. Any snappish behavior to cab drivers, valet parkers or wait staff will be noticed. Points will be deducted. Be nice to everyone!

Rants about the Dating Process. The phenomenon of on-line dating has bred a very bad habit — rounds of anecdotes about the frustrations and comedies of match.com, eHarmony, etc. This is a very unflattering opener and poor use of time. Would you ever devote precious minutes of a job interview complaining about the process? Would an interviewer ever make fun of the previous candidate? Never!

Dissing the Ex. Ditto discussions about the former spouse or significant other. The rule of thumb in “interview-speak” is to describe previous positions as “a wonderful opportunity, but I was ready for a new challenge.” Again, why would you spend valuable minutes describing something negative — a life experience that was not successful?

Talking Too Much. Be a well and not a fountain. As in an interview, come prepared with lots of questions to put the focus on the other person. Babbling on about oneself gives the impression of being self-centered. And, of course, you’re not. Right?

Inappropriate Attire. Dress for the occasion and never “over-dress.” Your goal is to look like a potential spouse.

Too Much Fragrance. Lots of people have allergies. Your date might be one of them. Create a neutral packaging and don’t give someone a reason to de-select you.

Re-Engineering the Menu. Be decisive when ordering, whether a date or interview meal. Do not parse the entree and request that the chef do a recipe re-do – with everything “on the side.” If you are impossible to please, who would want to sign up for a full-time hitch?

Foul Language. Keep it clean. Imagine that your date’s boss or mother is in tow.

Getting into a Debate. No arguing! Do not let the conversation gravitate to a heated discussion of differing opinions. Focus on finding areas of commonality.

Negativity. Avoid criticism of others. When women complain and go negative in a conversation, my husband categorizes it as being judgmental. Stifle your inner pickiness and focus on the joy of the possibilities!

Now you’re well on your way to finding The Perfect Fit. Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

February 13, 2011 by Nancy Keene