I’ve always wanted to see what it’s like to take a class on Stanford. So when I saw a weekend leadership class being offered I immediately signed up for it. 

The professor for this class was Elizabeth Wu, a successful executive in a Bay Area technology company. She is the type that doesn’t believe in any of the typical “ceilings” you often hear about, and she was able to push through with determination. Along the way, Elizabeth had also encountered many generous mentors that helped her in various areas, and all of those mentors wanted in return was to see her succeed. So she wants to do the same in helping others to succeed, which is part of the “4L”s that she lives her life through: live, learn, love, leave a legacy.

Of course it’s always good to be skeptical of survivor bias so as you read on it might be helpful to keep the following points in mind:

• Know yourself. Everyone is different, but many doesn’t take enough time to truly know yourself.
• There are 3 type of goals: survival – successful – significance. Do not try to look for the answer to one type of goal by asking a question of another.  
• If you really can’t stand your boss then look for a different team or company. Life is short. There’s always a different choice.

With that said, below are just a sample of the few tips I’ve picked up during the class.

Person Brand

One of the first points Elizabeth talked about is personal brand. Person brand is about who you are, and who you are going to become. It consist of both how you act, and how you don’t act. The focus should be 30% on who you are today, and 70% on who you want to be.

Construct your brand as if you were marketing a book, complete with title, front image, preface/summary, table of content, chapters, references, and back page. All of it tells a different part about you. Just like how you decide which book to buy when you’re browsing through the book store, someone else should be able to tell what type kind of professional you are within minutes.

Think outside of your own box

Everyone is made up of different values, so to be able to effectively communicate with your managers you need to understand what makes them tick. To do this you can construct virtual boxes of the personality and priority of who your managers are, and your manager’s manager, and beyond.

• Write down all the questions and who asked it in meetings to gain an understanding of what their concerns are.
• See other people in their own “box”, and look at the situation from their view. Then go beyond to see what conflicts can arise from different views, and think through how you can mediate the conflicts. This will make you truly valuable to others, and elevate your position.
• Reverse mentoring – help the new manager understand the current issues and tasks in the group. Great way to build trust and establish credibility early.

How to be an effective manager, and in turn more likely to get promoted.

“The 20th century is the century of super heroes; the 21st century is the century of collaboration because the problems and challenges is much more complex.”

• Tactical is about getting through today, strategical is about where we will be tomorrow. A leader have to think about both. The higher you go, the more winner you should make.
• A manager that can successfully train/groom someone to take over their job will be more successful in getting to the next one.
• Earn the trust of your employees through recognition, respect, and helping them grow. It’s something you earn little by little, day by day.
• Work for your employees, ask them what you can do to help them in their career.
• Focus on building team capability, and not just on task accomplishment
• Be a professional. Just because your are a supervisor, you are still judged by the same standard of quality. 

How to managing more experience and technical employees

• Admit your own weakness
• Understand where they are coming from and what
• Help them to get resource or mentors that they can’t get on their own
• Help them get on projects that can increase their visibility and make it easier to nominate them for promotion later

Mentoring

• How to find mentor – don’t restrict yourself to just your work, look for mentors in your family, business partner, friends, colleagues, and through social networks.
• The quickest way is through a common project. Think about what skills you can offer.
• Why be a mentor – because you retain 90% of what you teach, and you will get back ten-fold more than what you give.

Some of other topics covered during the class include:

• How to make an affective personal plan
• How to manage time
• How to do small talk (find interest in life) 
• How to build your own team 
• How to have a work/life balance
• How to handle stress 
• How to reward your teams
• How to interview effectively 

In the end it was an extremely enjoyable class and Elizabeth’s passion to help other succeed really came through. It’s a great class to ask about any management or career advice that you didn’t know where or who to ask before. Hope it’ll be offered at Stanford again. If not make sure to look for her new book when it comes out later next year.