Episode 291: Do you do this one thing to build trust in your organization?

This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.

I would love to. My name is Lauren Greif. I am the founder of Portfolio Rocket. What I do is I help— I actually empower senior-level creatives and marketers to get found in the hidden job market so that they find the opportunities that they love and get well paid for them.

Oh, that's really exciting, especially if I was a creative. I'd be all over that. So Lauren, thank you so much for being on the show. Question number 2: What is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?

My smiles happen all day long and primarily because I love to smile at action takers, people who are proactively driving for what they love and how they want to be valued in their career. So they are not sitting back and waiting for the phone to ring. They are taking action. They are connecting, networking, building personal and professional capital.

I love it. And I can hear the passion in your voice. That's awesome. Question number 3, I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?

The chapter that most companies should read is how to eliminate your unconscious biases. And right now, our labor market is going through a lot of changes. I actually call it the labor market circus. And there are a lot of conscious but lots of many unconscious biases, specifically around people who, you know, may have been long-term unemployed. And that could be conscious or unconscious. People who classify as ageism, people who have done quote-unquote, a lot of job hopping. There are usually reasons for that. And at the end of the day, I believe you should be hiring for behaviors and attitudes, not necessarily what's on a resume.

I like that a lot. Yeah, it's, it's so interesting how, you know, that initial resume has such a determination on whether or not an organization actually talks to a particular candidate. And what, what I'm hearing from you is, is that, you know, it, you, you're bypassing passing the opportunity to really connect with someone who could be a perfect fit for your organization. Am I reading it right?

Absolutely. And I think that there's also— I just wanted to say, you know, clearly, um, any kind of diversity candidate, and that could, that could come, come up in seeing somebody's name or making an association with, with a religious background, and we, we don't want to do that. Because not only is diversity valued and required in the workplace, but the results that come for— from it are, are so incredibly valuable to organizations insofar as being able to meet their target needs, insofar as being able to drive better collaboration and an influx of new ideas. So we really want to steer away from any unconscious biases and those of conscious bias as well.

That's great advice. Thank you so much. Question number 4, other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what insight would you like to give to other business leaders?

Yes, I think it boils down to integrity. And how I define integrity is making your words and your actions match. I've been in situations— I know all of us have— where Things are promised and they're promised and then they come back and they go, oh, well, you know, it wasn't in your contract. Or, you know, oh, do you have it in writing? I believe that your word is your bond. And if you as a business leader are not able to follow through on it, then either own up to it or follow through. So I really have a hard time with, uh, you know, just allowing that kind of bad behavior, especially in the workplace where so much of our identity, our financial security, our relationships are at stake.

And absolutely, because that also makes the people who work with you or work for you or work with you as a vendor or something like that, that you lose that trust. And when you lose that trust, I'm assuming that basically it's going to go downhill from there. Would you agree?

100%. And if you are the employee, that's the standard that they hold for you. So there cannot be a double bind. It's not OK to be a leader, have a title, sit in a corner office, and wield that kind of power without really considering that that is, um, it's just not good ethics.

Great, great insight. Thank you so much. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?

So I'm gonna recommend, uh, two of some of my dearest, uh, business leaders that I rely on very heavily. The first is a gentleman by the name of Brendon Kumarasamy. I don't know if you already know Brendon, but he is a, he's a mentor of mine and also a coach of mine. He is democratizing the gift of communication so that people are able to overcome any fear of public speaking. And also he teaches kids how to do this in a very early stage of life. So I am a student of his, and he is also a very close colleague. And also, um, my coach, Bomsi, who I'm happy to introduce you to, and he's a mastermind coach, and, um, he has— he is really, uh, I can't even explain, but he has really caused a lot of paradigm shifts, seismic shifts in the way that I do business, and also has a business called Make More Leaders. So how perfect is that for you?

Absolutely. Thank you for those two referrals. I look forward to talking to them. And our final question, question number 6: please tell me about your first job.

So this is kind of a haha funny story. Um, so my first job, I lied I lied about my age, not in the way that I would lie about my age perhaps later in my life. I just wanted to get a job so I could earn money. And I grew up on the East Coast and we had a little chain restaurant group, like maybe the way that you could see like a Baker Square or some like, you know, burger and ice cream place called Friendly's. And why this was so funny was because I had to wear those suntan stockings. And I also had to wear the white nurses' shoes and a really heinous polyester uniform. But boy, I like, I like loved that job. I didn't realize how ugly and distasteful this was at the time because to me it was just a job. And I remember when I had to— oh, and a hairnet. I remember my mom like telling me, telling my mom that I got this job and she needed to take me to get the uniform, and she was crying in the car. But I tell that story also because it taught me a lot about synchronizing projects and being able to meet the needs of customers and, and juggle a lot of things at the same time and make sure that my end user, who was the burger or ice cream eater was cared for. And I think that having, uh, jobs in the restaurant industry are amazing and humbling experiences. And, and I will never forget that, especially I burned the uniform.

Great story there. And yes, I can totally appreciate what you're saying, uh, working in it when I was younger in, in the restaurant industry as well. Very hard work, but Wow, uh, it gave me a much more of an appreciation, uh, for the people who do it now as well. So, uh, so thank you for bringing me back to that. And Lauren, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?

Please come find me. I, um, have an address online and it happens to be at LinkedIn, so you can find me Lauren Greif at link— on LinkedIn. I also have a pretty robust website which explains a lot about my services and who I serve and their success stories and all of the good kinds of goodies on their freebies called, uh, portfoliorocket.com.

Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Get hundreds of amazing business insights from previous guest episodes on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening.