"You are always being interviewed"

I'm facilitating a leadership development program for work.  We have 16 of the brightest developing leaders in the company that are part of the group.  This week we have been on a tour of four of our campuses.

We started with a workshop on conflict which was led by Dr. Darby.   She did an excellent job of helping the participants become aware of the various ways we handle conflict and some options for being more effective in handling conflict in the future.

Following that was a tour of four campus sites along with interviews with the campus Directors at each of the sites.  This has proven to be an insightful experience for most of the participants as they were able to see various "foot-prints" of the physical locations as well as interact with leaders from different backgrounds and with different leadership styles.  The candid conversations and open questions and answers provided an awareness of the role of the campus director which, I think, will be helpful for these new leaders as they evaluate their own career tracks.  Two themes continued to surface in these interviews:  Campus Directors have to keep a sharp focus on their budget and on staffing.  "Hiring right" is far preferable to filling an empty position as quickly as possible just to have the position filled.

Mr. Mottl, System Vice President for Enrollment Management, presented the "7 Habits of the Highly Effective Director of Admissions" and gave his perspective on the key habits DOAs must have to be effective in their role.  This also was helpful to this group where most of the group do not come from admissions.

Finally Mr. March and Ms. Meyers, Regional Vice Presidents for two different regions shared insights in response to questions from the LDP group.  This allowed the participants to see from the role of the RVP how their career path might look and important considerations for them as they contemplate the future.  One quote sticks out in my mind:  "You are always being interviewed."  The quote came from a story shared by Mr. March in which he was transitioned to a new position that he had not officially interviewed for and when he asked about that, was told he had been interviewed in every contact he had had with the leader who promoted him across their acquaintance.

I believe this is more true than we might imagine.  We are ALWAYS being interviewed and it is ridiculous to assume that our conduct or comments from the past will somehow be disassociated from our current application for a position, based on a current interview.  Who we are and what we are (and have been) follow us around, and this is especially true in an age of social media.  So, keep in mind you are ALWAYS being interviewed and conduct yourself in a way which will lead to the future to which you aspire, not to mention make you proud to be who you are.