How to Succeed in Business? Some Advice.

At this time of year, when the College graduates new professionals and veteran professionals are making transitions, it is helpful to get some advice from others who have succeeded professionally.

Several weeks ago Advancing Women Professionals held a first of its kind professional development day for women working professionally in the Jewish community. In a show of the importance of networking and mentorship, over a dozen leading Jewish figures briefly shared pieces of wisdom that they had learned along their professional journeys. While their words were meant for this female audience, the advice they shared can be helpful for all Jewish professional

Adene Sacks, Program Director at the Jim Joseph Foundation, spoke of the importance of networks both in helping organizations chart courses and for personal professional advancement; a point that was demonstrated throughout the day as people connected with each other on both levels. Deborah Pinsky, Peninsula JCC went on to highlight the importance of those networks for organizations. Her advice after a career working running major organizations on both coasts is that one should “work with partners, even if they do nothing.” Ultimately these connections bring good will and broaden your influence.

Sacks also spoke of the importance of mentors in her own life and the shift to being a mentor herself. Her sentiments were echoed by Connie Wolf Director of the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, who stressed that whenever taking a job, she has looked to see if their would be mentors for her in that job. At the same time, she has also had to learn when to ignore the advice of mentors and go with her own sense of self.

That sense of self is important, especially when you work for the community and others are continually judging the work you do. Jennifer Gorovitz, CEO of San Francisco Jewish Community Federation has learned to withstand that judgment by having a laser focus on mission, being compassionate and finding a group with whom she can laugh at her mistakes.

Mistakes are more likely to happen when we are not willing to question policies or make changes. Both Toby Rubin the founder and Director of UpStart and Debbie Findling Deputy Director of the Goldman Fund discussed the need to be willing to change. Drawing on her experience with social entrepreneurs, Rubin encourages people to, “Ask what holds you back from making changes? Resources? Values?” Findling’s own experience with deciding to eat meat after decades as a vegetarian, taught her that it is important to ask yourself whether the principles you hold dear serve your purpose.

All of this happens most easily when we know ourselves and can put forward our ideas in ways that can be heard. Katie Orenstein’s OpEd Project, which ran a seminar that day, is a great way not only to sharpen writing skills but a sense of vision and purpose while the negotiating strategies suggested by Askforit.org can be helpful as we navigate our way forward.

Welcoming Others

We learn in Midrash Tanuhma B, Hukkat that in paving the way for the people of Israel to make their way across the wilderness to Mt. Sinai, God smoothed out the landscape lest mountainous terrain make the people of Israel weary on their way to revelation. This vision of paving a smooth path for people toward the Torah is one that I would venture to say guides most Jewish professionals. Yet, those who we are trying to embrace often feel somewhat weary from the obstacles they encounter.

Closing the gap between welcome we hope to extend and the welcome people experience is the work of the Jewish Welcome Network. Based in San Francisco, the Network emerged from the Bay Area communities’ need to address the diversity of those connected with and interested in connecting to the Jewish community. Founding Executive Director Karen Kushner, is aware that communal Jewish professionals don’t always recognize the ways in which newcomers or returnees to the Jewish communities encounter the community. Often being welcoming is equated with watering down the content of Judaism. Kushner, who comes from a family with many rabbis, values the work of Jewish professionals and the values of our tradition. She works with Jewish professionals to consider how, even as we uphold the norms and practices of Judaism, we can help others hear our message of welcome.

Based on her years of experience, as a therapist and with diversity of the Jewish world, Kushner has put together a significant library of materials on many topics that can help pave a smoother journey. According to Kushner, just putting a series of pamphlets in the lobby that signal that not everyone who walks in the door looks the same, knows Hebrew, has traditionally Jewish grandchildren, for example, can make a big difference to how people perceive their welcome. What I like about these booklets is that they are available online for easy download. They can be printed up in multiple copies for a waiting room or called up on demand in anticipation of a particular counseling or family concern. For example, Kushner’s most recent booklet explains in a straightforward, though not simplistic, manner, the meaning and rituals of Shavuot.

Kushner also runs a listserv that keeps Jewish professionals connect, learn and grow with regards to creating welcoming community.

As we count down towards matan Torah I hope that we will all be blessed with the ability to remove the barriers from those journeying towards the embrace of our tradition.

What KLM and British Airways have to teach us about Jewish Leadership

Leaders on the front lines?

A cloud of volcanic ash grounds European airlines and the chief executives of KLM and British Airways join their crews on test flights to show that it is safe to fly. What do these actions say about the importance of symbolic involvement by top leaders in responding to crises?

This was the question asked this morning by Steven Perlstein and Raju Narusetti in the Washington Post as part of their by weekly column “On Leadership.” I was particularly drawn to three of the nine responses. Clayton Rosa, a fellow in the Coro Public Affairs program, compared the executives to Cy Sperling of The Hair Club for Men. Cadet Christina Tamayo from Westpoint compared them to her survival swimming instructor. Dr. Marshall Goldsmith an author and expert in business leadership compared them to Jonas Salk.

Linking these three examples drawn from very different areas of leadership is Goldsmith core reason for admiring Salk, who by injecting himself with the Polio vaccine, “lived his commitment.” The swimming instructor had asked that the cadets to swim the length of a pool underwater in full battle gear. By jumping into the pool and demonstrating this himself he proved that it was humanly possible and that he was not asking others to do anything that he himself was unwilling or unable to undertake. While the least serious of the three examples, Cy Sperling was famous for the line “I’m not only the Hair Club president, I’m also a client.” In all three cases, the ability of the leader to live the message that hoped to inspire others to follow was key to their success as leaders.

Working in the Jewish community, we are often in the position of “selling” ideas or behaviors to others: Torah study, setting aside Shabbat as a day of rest, holding our tongues from speaking evil. In bringing others along for the journey it is essential that we not only preach but truly live these precepts.

During my first year of Rabbinical School I taught at a local Hebrew School. Most of the time, I had difficulty engaging them in the material in my lesson plans. During the last semester, I gave up on the curriculum and held conversations with the kids. One thing led to another and one week I ended up spontaneously describing Shabbat dinner in my home. Towards the end of the evening, a quiet boy who often chose to attend my class rather than the one to which he was assigned asked if he was missing something. I repeated back the last few sentences in case he had not heard properly. “No,” he corrected me, “am I missing something by not doing this Shabbat thing?”

I can assure you that the Shabbat I had described was far from my own vision of what I though of as peaceful. A full time student, mother of two young children, my Shabbatot were usually chaotic. Still, in describing them my passion and commitment for the rituals, my joys in these moments despite the frustrations, the power of the experience must have shone through. I had moved in that moment from being the purveyor of information, to a leader with an authentic vision. There was no question as to which was more compelling.

It is often hard for Jewish professionals to make time and space to live their own Jewish commitments; to pray not just to lead prayer, to study Torah not just teach Torah study, to embrace the complexity that is their own spiritual journey and struggle. Yet when we do make the time and space, we like executives at KLM and British Airways, have the opportunity to take our leadership roles to next level.