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Get Uncomfortable
May, 2003 If you're comfortable in your job, you probably aren't learning enough. Don't be afraid to hire people who are smarter than you are or to fire people who aren't getting the job done. These were some of the nuggets offered by Myrtle Potter, Genentech executive vice president of commercial operations and chief operating officer, at the 20th annual Black Business Students Association conference, "Building Black Economic Power," held Feb. 1 at the Graduate School of Business. Potter urged students to "get comfortable getting pushed out of your comfort zone. You might be making incredible contributions to your company, but you're not learning anything. Push yourselves and ask other people to challenge you." Potter, who said she hires the smartest people she can find, inherited a mediocre team when she was hired to run the poorest performing company at Merck. A trusted advisor told her, "You're trying to run a $1 billion business and your team is flipping you off." She cleaned house. "It was the most courageous thing I'd ever done." Within three months, her company had risen to number one within Merck. "Companies hire you because they believe the business will be better because you touched it than it would have been if you hadn't come along," Potter said. "I ask myself, how is this job going to be better because I'm in it?" |
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