What I Learned from Sallie Krawcheck

Popular,
I know about popular

-from the musical Wicked.

Sallie Krawcheck is a very successful businesswoman, but she has been fired a couple of times and has written about the experiences.  When I went into LinkedIn today, I saw an article Sallie wrote titled "The 7 Things I Learned When I Got Fired (Again.)"  So let's look at Sallie's seven lessons.

1.  If it feels too good to be true, it probably is.  She did not get to meet any of her peers before she started, or the Board members, which should have warned her.
2.  The power of culture.
3.  Face time still matters.
4.  A sponsor matters even more.
5.  Business results are not everything.  Here she says that on the day she left, the business was ahead of budget and gaining share.

Let me interrupt for a second here.  I think that at least numbers 2 through 5 are summed up by number 5.  It's not about results, it's about...relationships, and...synergy, and...leadership...

It's all about popular.
It's not about aptitude,
It's the way you're viewed

OK, but isn't that the same lesson you learned in high school when you couldn't make it onto the cheerleading squad, not because you couldn't bounce around in a skirt, but because you didn't flirt with the right boys or wear the right clothes, so the other girls didn't like you? 

What bothers me is that this article legitimizes the nebulous, undefinable, un-measurable corporate buzzwords that are used to make indefensible behavior sound defensible.  Really, you were let go because of failing to meet your peers, "culture," face time," and lack of "a sponsor" and despite business results, and you learned valuable lessons from that?  About what you should do differently?

Time to move on...

6.  A strong outside network helps a lot.  Yeah, in case you get fired from your job for no discernible reason.

7.  Gratitude helps even more.  As my mother would have said, oh for criminy's sake (not sure how to spell "criminy," but it's pronounced "cry-mini," accent on the first syllable.)  Perhaps I'm an ingrate, but I think I would have been pissed.