ASSIGNMENT: FT 500 COO candidate
LOCATION: Piazza San Marco,
Venice, Italy
CLIENT: Global 500 company
We were sitting at a small round table on the side of the Piazza
San Marco in Venice. The famous bell tower rose high above us. There were a lot
of pigeons around. In a sudden, flapping flourish, several took off right over us.
The candidate, in his 50s, laughed as he ducked. We had been
talking for about an hour. Time was running short and I was getting ready to turn
off the small digital recorder on the table between us.
I turned back to the candidate. “Ok, one more question. This
one is for my newsletter and if you don’t mind we’ll keep the recorder going. The
rest of the interview I’ll e-mail to the client from the airport before I leave
tonight.
“Sure,” he said holding up his espresso cup signaling the furtive
waiter to bring another.
“Share with me your best tip. Something a true corporate warrior
should know. Something that helped you get where you are, which is obviously a pretty
good place despite your boss’s scandal.”
Before he could answer, a sharp comment in a language I didn’t
understand came from the next table. It was obviously cursing which has a nearly
universal tone. The candidate and I both looked over. An elegant, well dressed blond
woman was sitting alone, staring at a fresh white blotch on her navy blue jacket
sleeve. A pigeon had made a deposit. I leaned over and placed my espresso spoon
and carafe of water in front of her. “First the spoon and then all the water,” I
said smiling.
The candidate, with an understanding smile and enthusiasm that
seemed to raise the day’s fading light said, “And remember, it’s good luck!”
Following the instructions she thanked us in what sounded Slavic,
maybe Russian. But it didn’t matter. Her eloquent smile said everything worth saying.
I turned back to the candidate. “So, your best tip for high-value
managers. For true corporate warrior types.”
“Ok,” he said looking from the pretty woman back to me. “That’s
easy. You’ve come all this way to interview me because your client knows of me as
someone who gets a lot done. People think it’s a trick and it’s not. It’s a simple
mindset. At any slack moment, I ask myself what is the most important thing I can
be doing right now. Back when I started
in Belgium my mentor taught me there is never enough time to do everything you have
to do, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.”
“But how do you choose?” I asked as his espresso arrived.
“The easiest tells are things with long term consequences.”
As he finished the espresso we both looked at our watches. “We
good?” he asked.
I nodded, put a colorful Euro note down and picked up the recorder
as we both stood up, returning the warm smile from the woman at the next table.
“We’re good,” I said shaking his hand.
With that he strolled off towards his wife and daughter waiting
at nearby Harry’s Bar. As I watched him I asked myself what was the most important
thing I should be doing right then. The answer was pretty simple: I picked up my
light carry-on and headed toward the Grand Canal and the ferry ride to Marco Polo
Airport for the evening flight to Istanbul and the next candidate.
More later…
