Moment 84 - VP Of META Explains How To Get Exactly What You Want: Nicola Mendelsohn
This episode offers actionable career advice, emphasizing self-awareness, proactive communication, and leadership. It covers understanding core strengths, building a support network, embracing vulnerability, and negotiating effectively for career progression.
Deep Dive Analysis
8 Topic Outline
Understanding Your Core Strengths and Skills
Leveraging an Informal Board of Advisors
Nicola Mendelsohn's Leadership and Management Style
The Importance of Bringing Your Whole Self to Work
Leaders' Responsibility in Shaping Company Culture
Why and How to Ask for What You Want in Your Career
Effective Strategies for Salary and Career Negotiations
Reframing Nerves and Imposter Syndrome for Growth
4 Key Concepts
Core Strengths and Skills
This refers to understanding what you enjoy and what you are intrinsically good at. It's often best identified by seeking feedback from people around you, like family, friends, and colleagues, as you may not always be the best judge of yourself.
Informal Board of Advisors
This is a personal, informal network of people, including mentors and sponsors, who are a few years ahead in their careers or have relevant experience. They provide different points of view, perspectives, and advice to help you navigate your career and make decisions.
Bringing Your Whole Self to Work
This concept advocates for creating a workplace culture where individuals feel safe and encouraged to share personal aspects of their lives, such as health issues or family responsibilities. It's believed that this openness leads to higher performance, greater happiness, and fair judgment, as opposed to hiding parts of one's identity.
Data Wins Arguments
This principle emphasizes using objective evidence and facts to support decisions and discussions. It encourages looking at data to understand what is working or not, allowing for pivots and changes with humility when evidence suggests a different path.
6 Questions Answered
You can identify your core skills and strengths by understanding what you enjoy and what you're intrinsically good at, and by actively seeking feedback from family, friends, and work colleagues, as you are often not the best judge of yourself.
Bringing your whole self to work allows for honesty about personal life circumstances, which prevents unfair judgment and ultimately leads to higher performance and greater happiness because people can be who they are.
Leaders have a significant responsibility to lead by example, demonstrating vulnerability and openness, as culture is shaped both top-down and bottom-up, with strong cues coming from the leadership at the top.
It is crucial to ask for what you want because nobody else will do the homework on your career for you, and not asking means people won't know your aspirations, potentially leading to missed opportunities or being undervalued.
You should do your homework by researching market value, detailing your achievements, outlining how you've met or exceeded Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and using this data to support your request and negotiate effectively.
Nervousness should be viewed as a rush of adrenaline and a 'getting ready moment' that helps you perform at your best, rather than a sign of imposter syndrome or a reason to retreat from a challenge.
13 Actionable Insights
1. Proactively Ask for What You Want
Do your homework on your worth and desired opportunities, then clearly articulate your requests (e.g., pay raises, new roles) rather than assuming others know or will offer them. The worst that can happen is a ’no,’ which then prompts a decision on your next steps.
2. Bring Your Whole Self to Work
Foster an honest and open work environment by sharing aspects of your personal life, as hiding challenges or pretending to be someone else hinders performance and overall happiness. This allows for fair judgment and ultimately leads to higher performance.
3. Embrace Nerves as Growth Signals
Reframe feelings of nervousness as an adrenaline rush and a sign of impending growth, using it as motivation to prepare thoroughly and perform at your best. This mindset shift helps you get ready and be on your A-game.
4. Build an Informal Board of Advisors
Assemble a personal ‘board of advisors’ consisting of mentors or experienced individuals who can offer diverse perspectives, advice, and inspiration for your career decisions. These are people a few years ahead who have done similar things before.
5. Seek External Feedback for Self-Awareness
Actively ask trusted friends, family, and work colleagues for honest feedback on your strengths and weaknesses, as you are often not the best judge of yourself. This helps you create a stronger vision of yourself to work from.
6. Negotiate Your Value with Data
When discussing compensation or career progression, research market value, present your achievements, and align them with clear deliverables or KPIs to make a data-backed case for your worth. Do not simply accept what is offered without understanding your value.
7. Lead with Empathy and Tailored Motivation
Understand the individual motivations and challenges of your team members, adapting your leadership style to help each person perform at their very best. This personalized approach ensures you can effectively motivate your team.
8. Leaders Must Model Vulnerability
As a leader, demonstrate vulnerability and openness by bringing your whole self to work, setting a crucial example that encourages others to do the same and builds a more authentic culture. This top-down approach helps form a supportive environment.
9. Pivot Based on Data, Not Ego
Be willing to change your mind and pivot strategies when evidence and data suggest a different course, demonstrating humility to admit when something isn’t working and move forward. Remember, ‘data wins arguments’ and helps you avoid stagnation.
10. Set Clear Written Deliverables
Establish clear, written deliverables and expectations for your team, maintaining a ‘North Star’ to guide efforts and ensure everyone understands their objectives. This clarity is reinforced through regular one-on-one meetings for updates and advice.
11. Understand Your Core Strengths & Enjoyment
Focus your career on what you genuinely enjoy and are intrinsically good at, as pursuing only what you’re good at without enjoyment leads to less fulfillment and happiness. Aligning these two aspects creates a more satisfying career path.
12. Inject Fun and Laughter into Work
Consciously incorporate fun and laughter into the workday, especially during meetings, to alleviate tension and create a more positive and productive environment. This helps to break the seriousness and foster better team dynamics.
13. Respond to Rejection Constructively
If a request is denied, ask for specific reasons why, present your supporting data, and seek a clear path or criteria to achieve your goals in the future. This transforms a ’no’ into an opportunity for understanding and future planning.
5 Key Quotes
Often you're not the best judge of yourself.
Nicola Mendelsohn
Meetings are made for laughter.
Nicola Mendelsohn
Data wins arguments.
Nicola Mendelsohn
The times I've grown the most have been the times where I felt most nervous, the times that I thought I wasn't going to be able to do it.
Nicola Mendelsohn
Nerves... it's a rush of adrenaline. It's the, it's the moment before you do something to go, all right, you've done the prep, you've got this.
Nicola Mendelsohn
1 Protocols
Preparing for a High-Stakes Industry Leadership Role
Nicola Mendelsohn- Practice and prep extensively for the role.
- Think long and hard about your vision for the position.
- Meet with past leaders in similar roles to gather their advice.
- Talk to existing members or stakeholders to understand their needs and desires.
- Do thorough homework to feel prepared for setting out your vision.