General Counsel's Last Lecture

As the general counsel for our company left, he gave a great speech on what the common attributes of a star are. These notes are valuable to me, so they might be to you too.

1. Emotional intelligence




• You need other people to help you


• Ability to know others' needs and fears




• What are people thinking about and feeling and where are they coming from


• Imposter complex - everyone is afraid of being exposed in a group


• You constantly have to communicate to people that they are safe


• Confession of weakness






2. Judgment




• Moving an answer around in time and space. How would this decision look in a year? In front of Congress?


• Figuring out what things mean


• Gained by screwing up and remembering the effects of your mistakes


• You must step away from what you do to maintain perspective. Judgmnt requires perspective.


• Sleep a lot. It helps your brain interconnect everything you learned.


• Keep up hobbies, family activities.




3. Effective Communication




• All knowledge is wasted that is not communicated to someone else.


• People need to breathe




• make your messages easily digestible




• You need someone who loves you to give you honest feedback in order to improve your public speaking skills.


• Presentations are not the time to be cool; it's distracting


• Don't let your equipment and materials distract from you: you are the show




4. Dare to Be Dumb




• Ask the "dumb" questions when no one else will.


• People appreciate it that they didn't have to reveal their own ignorance and need the knowledge




5. Building Reputation




• It's built all the time with every encounter with every person you meet


• There's no time off


• There's no difference between the person who empties the trash and the CEO