A few weeks ago my blog was featured on Mama Mia and my fantastic colleague forwarded it on to a number of people at work, it was on this same afternoon I was sitting at my desk and my phone started ringing. I answered it (as you do) and heard a voice I've only heard on voicemail or at State of the Nation, "Ellison, it's Giam". At that point my brain shut down and filled up with cotton wool so I didn't hear the next few things he said.
What's the big deal? Giam is the CEO of Deloitte Australia and he'd been forwarded the email Luke wrote via @rexster and he wanted to take the opportunity to meet me. He asked was I busy and could I come downstairs to meet him. Because my brain was full of cotton wool I said I was busy and then slowly regained my composure and said I'd be down straight away.
Anyway, back to the moral of the story (see, this is still filling my brain with cotton wool). So I went downstairs, I sat down, Giam asked me about myself, what I do at Deloitte, asked me how I got there. I managed (I think) to string a few sentences together and tell him about me and why I started my campaign to work at Deloitte (he told me he'd read my blog at the time, I blushed).
Then he asked me two questions:
- Where do you see yourself in the next 3-4 years at Deloitte?, and;
- What can I do for you?
I'll be honest, I sat there in awe a for a little bit, while I was digesting all of this. Here is the CEO of the company asking me where I want my career to go and asking me what he can do for me. I've talked a lot about why leadership is important, why manager's matter, and the difference just a little bit of interest can make to employees - and here it was in action.
I've relayed this conversation to many people over the last few weeks and they're all impressed by the exchange and that Giam took the opportunity to call me and make a personal connection. But like me, many of them are stumped when it comes to the question, 'what can I do for you?'
So I'm wondering, if you got called in to meet the CEO, what would you say?
What a great experience for you and some fantastic leadership!
ReplyDeleteIf a CEO asked me what they could do for me I'm sure it would revolve around embedding a coaching & mentoring culture - great for leadership, engagement, learning.... I think Deloitte has this already though!