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Gregory H. Wingfield
interviewed by Anthony Qaiyum on February 15, 1996
"I think you can get a sense of your boss's reputation within the business by checking in with peers. "
Gregory H. Wingfield is president of the Greater Richmond Partnership, the economic development organization that markets and promotes the city of Richmond, Virginia. He was recently cited in the Wall Street Journal for his criteria which help you determine if your job has a future.
Tripod: You start with the question: "Is your boss well regarded and on his way up in the organization?" Now, if you've just been hired, what is the best way to figure this out? You can't really ask around, can you?
GW: Well, I think you can ask around to a degree. I think you can get a sense of your boss's reputation within the business by checking in with peers. There's that informal network. Also, take a look at the way your boss communicates. You can get a sense of someone's skills by watching how they interact with their current employees.
Tripod: What strategies can you recommend if you decide that your boss is not moving up, but you still want to stay with the company?
GW: I think that means that you then have to select a mentor within your organization that's going to be able to help you learn, grow -- to be able to get additional skills that you're not going to be able to get because your boss or your immediate supervisor is not in a position to offer them.
Tripod: Would you go through the peer network to find that person?
GW: Exactly. You want somebody who has reached out in the past, who looks to be somebody you can trust and somebody that you want to emulate. Look at what kinds of skills that person has and be very direct in asking for assistance from them.
Tripod: Next you ask, "How much time do your superiors spend with you developing your skills?" Is there a target number or percentage that you're looking for, or is it more of a personal satisfaction issue?
GW: It's a combination. I would add that it's also being comfortable. It's not an exact science, but you have to feel comfortable that you're getting nourishment, you're getting direction, you're getting guidance.
Tripod: And probably you don't want too much -- if the person is always in your face and doesn't let you have any freedom then ...
GW: That's right. I mean you don't want someone hovering over you, constantly giving you feedback. There are certain types of projects that take longer to come together. Also, I think, the amount of face time you get with your boss is directly proportional to the amount of time that you have been with the company. If it's early, you want to get guidance, you want to make sure you're going in the right direction. Then, after both of you feel comfortable that you understand your mission, your objective, then you've got latitude, and then you operate by exception. You're going down the track except if you have a problem. Then you come back and say, "I need your guidance. I need your help." But if everything is going down the path, you don't need to have somebody giving you any feedback.
Tripod: You advise workers to ask themselves, "Do you still feel challenged by your job? Are you still learning?" It seems to me that there are different levels of learning. One involves immediately applicable skills and another might be a knowledge that is involved with years of experience in a field. To which are you referring?
GW: I refer to both. You can have somebody that is knowledgeable, that has a number of years of experience -- I use the analogy that you can have someone with 20 years of experience with the same one year of experience repeated 20 times. So, you go back to: what are you learning, what are the skills, what is the knowledge that you're gaining in that job, and how is that helping you grow and develop within the framework of that position?
Tripod: Can you give an example of what you mean by explaining how you are still learning in your job?
GW: Yeah. I'm in the marketing business. Early in my career I may have been sent out to a trade show to work a booth. Now, over time, as I've grown on the job or been elevated in position, I'm working out marketing plans and strategy. So it's more big picture, it's more: what is the product that we are marketing, what are we selling, and what are the ways that we are going to get the message across to the consumers and to the customers. So, I've been in the trenches, I've been doing the sowing, I understand how that works. Now I can work backward from that and say, "OK, I know trade shows. I know how that works. I know direct mail." In developing the overall mix of a marketing plan, I have the intimate knowledge of how those various implementation measures work.
Tripod: What is the next step for you, just out of curiosity? Or is that a position that will keep you learning for a long time?
GW: I think that keeps you learning for a while because there have been so many changes in the way that you market. Just think, in the three year time frame -- and you're younger than I, and so my horizon going back is longer -- but when I first started there weren't homepages, there weren't faxes, there wasn't the use of toll free numbers. There's a whole host of marketing vehicles that you and I now take for granted that weren't part of the mix years ago. Part of the growing is understanding and using new technology. When we got involved in setting up a homepage about a year ago, that wasn't on our radar a year before.
Tripod: "How does the company view you," is an important question for any employee. You identify a whole series of questions that center on that issue. Can you explain some of the ways that you can judge the company's estimation of your ability?
GW: The really easy one is dollars allocated to you, both as direct as your salary and as well as other compensation and bonuses or other perks. That's the one that I guess that everybody uses as a benchmark and a measurement. But I think also, outside of that, you look at: Are you given initial responsibilities? This goes back to one of your questions of how the boss views you. Are you given additional assignments? Are you given a longer leash, in other words, to do your job? And then, the logical follow-up: Are you rewarded proportionally as you increase those responsibilities?
Tripod: If you find that the company does not value your contribution or use you to your full potential, is that a sign that you should get out?
GW: I think that would be one of several signs that I would be looking for. You've got to go back in and see. Is your input being filtered back through an unreceptive boss? Is the input that you're providing not relevant to the direction of the company? You've got to put it into context, but that, to me, would be a red flag. If your contributions are not used, or if you're not being used to your full potential, you have to evaluate if it's a management problem, a personality problem, or an industry problem.
Tripod: Finally, you suggest evaluating the company's position in the industry. What is the best method for doing that?
GW: I'll tell you a couple ways you could do that. You could take a look at the stock earnings. You can take a look at PE ratios -- things of that nature. I think a better indicator, long term, particularly for someone inside the company, is to look at the amount of funds allocated to research and development. Are they on the cutting edge? Look for placements on various industry lists. Are they a well managed company? Say they're a transportation company -- how do they fit within the ten or twelve transportation companies that are usually lumped together? That's a good way of evaluating objectively what other experts feel about your company.
Tripod: With the boom in the technology industry it seems that more young people are joining startup companies. How can you determine whether such an organization has potential, especially when the industry is so volatile?
GW: You know, the nice thing about being young is that you can take those kind of chances. Seriously, I think that a twenty-something can take the chance to go out and see if a company has potential, and ride it for a while. And if it crashes and burns, you haven't lost a lot, except for time. Whereas somebody like me -- I'm in my mid-forties -- I'm looking at the cash flow. I'm looking at putting the kids through college, retirement, etc. You don't use the same kind of criteria to measure getting in a start-up.
Tripod: If you have just started a job it might take a while for you to settle in. How long do you think that you should wait before applying these questions to your job?
GW: I think a rule of thumb would be about six months. It gives you a good gauge of your boss, your interaction with your peers, getting a feel for the industry itself. Six months, I think, seems to be a good time horizon to start those questions.
Visit the Greater Richmond Partnership at: http://www.grpva.com/
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