GUEST COLUMN – Lavonne Zdunich

In a world that is changing day by day and moment by moment, it is difficult to say with great confidence what you know for sure. Some days it doesn’t seem like much. However, I decided to take stock of my learnings in life and based on this I have come to realize that there are a few things I know for sure. I believe the four cornerstones of what I know for sure provide a foundation for success in both our professional and our personal lives. While the two are often treated as separate, I have learned that what makes a person successful in each is actually quite similar.

Building Relationships Will Reap Benefits

When you begin your career, success is largely defined by your technical ability. However, once those initial impressions are made, success is all about developing relationships. I recently joined a company, taking over from a Vice President of Investor Relations who is extremely well respected within the company and by ‘the Street’. I was told on numerous occasions that I had some very big shoes to fill and therefore went on a mission to figure out why. Was this guy a rocket scientist? Did he actually walk on water? Well much to my relief, the truth was he didn’t have magical powers. He created value for the company by developing genuine relationships with everyone he worked with. He always had time for people, time to explain the intricacies of our business, time to get to know people personally and time to stop and say hi no matter how busy he was. These relationships were genuine and people respected him for that. Building relationships will reap significant benefits…this I know for sure.

Everyone Has Something To Offer

At work and in our personal lives we encounter many people. They have different interests, different beliefs, different ways of approaching situations, and so on. While we may not ‘bond’ with some of these people, ignoring them is a lost opportunity as everyone has something to offer. Throughout my 20-year career, I have worked with people I have connected with, while others…not so much. Early in my career, I decided to challenge myself to find at least one thing I could learn from each person I interacted with. Much to my surprise, I soon discovered that if I checked my biases at the door, I could learn something from everyone. For example, I originally thought one of my bosses was lazy, as he would always push back on requests from the ‘higher powers’. I thought he didn’t want to do the work but I soon realized that his pushback was saving us hours of work. The requests were often ‘nice to haves’ rather than actual needs. My boss wasn’t lazy. He was brilliant! If you dig deep enough, everyone has something to offer…this I know for sure.

Saying Sorry Always Helps

We’ve all experienced the anger, hurt and frustration of being disappointed by people. Maybe it was a colleague, a friend or a family member. Throughout my IR career I have worked for companies that have...well let’s be honest here...messed up. I can recall one situation where the company’s stock price plummeted overnight and shareholders were angry to say the least. Management’s first reaction was to go into hiding and not talk to anyone. However, calm heads prevailed and we decided that the best thing to do was to hit the road, look our shareholders in the eye, admit we were wrong and let them get angry. Overall our meetings were quite respectful and shareholders just wanted to hear the story. Months later, I had a shareholder tell me how much our effort to visit personally and admit we were wrong was appreciated. Our personal lives are no different. When we have been hurt by someone all we really want him or her to do is say, ‘I’m sorry’. Now while I’m not sure how two little words can be so powerful, the fact of the matter is they are. Saying sorry always helps…this I know for sure.

Expect the Unexpected and You Won’t Be Surprised

Many of us remember the world before the Internet, instabank machines, iPhones, tweeting, texting, and other innovations. I think most of us would agree that these changes are ones we would have never imagined. So if you expect the unexpected, you won’t be surprised. I remember a time when we were only hours away from sending the annual report off to print. Suddenly, the President burst into my office exclaiming, “Young lady, you have a lot of work to do”. Typically the President loved my style of writing, but obviously not that time! Somehow I was able to pull myself together and ask a few questions to figure out specifically what he disliked about the content. Fortunately, at that point in my life I had learned to expect the unexpected and had a backup plan in place. My external writer was on standby ‘just in case’. While we cannot predict the changes that are coming, if you expect the unexpected, you won’t be surprised and you will survive…this I know for sure.