Here are the 4 most common pitfalls of summer interns:

1. Not getting good / meaningful work
2. Not knowing how to do the work you do have
3. Not knowing how well (or poorly) you’re doing
4. Not meeting the right people

Not Getting Good / Meaningful Work

If you’re still fetching coffee every morning and spending more time by the photocopier than in team meetings, then it’s probably a sign that you’re not being challenged quite enough.  Think about what you set out to learn this summer and approach your supervisor or mentor to ask for some good practical experience learning how to do X, Y, or Z.  

Suggest a few ideas of how you might spend some time advancing your cause in the next few weeks to learn any of those particular skills (“Would it help if I put together a first cut of the presentation for you?”  “Would you like me to review the project plan?” “Is there anything I can do to help on the Seagram’s account, I’d love to learn more about the sales process.”

Alternatively, if you know you’re a great writer and you haven’t been given an opportunity to show off your stuff, think about creating an opportunity to excel.  Offer to draft a memo, edit a presentation or review a document—anything that will play to your strengths and show off your natural talents and abilities before summer is through.

Not Knowing How to Do the Work You Do Have

If challenging assignments are a dime a dozen and instead you suffer from the opposite problem of having great work but not knowing how to do that work, than you’ve got to learn to Ask for Help.  One good way to ask for help includes asking for an example or template of a given assignment—you’d be surprised at how much institutional knowledge usually exists in organizations.  Another idea is to ask for recommendations of people to speak with who can help your cause—perhaps Anthony from accounting worked on a similar project last fall.   Don’t be afraid to ask for the resources you need to get your job done well.

Not Knowing How Well You’re Performing

There’s always someone who finishes up at the end of August thinking they’ve got a full-time offer in the bag or certain they’ve knocked the ball out of the park in terms of their performance, only to find out instead that, contrary to their own rosy assessment of the summer, they actually didn’t quite make the cut.

The only way to know for sure whether or not you’re meeting expectations is to Ask for Feedback.  Don’t wait for a final conversation with your boss at the end of the summer to ask her how you did—by then it’s too late.  Take the initiative now to inquire about your performance.  Be specific about what areas of performance you’re looking for feedback on and give her some time to think about it in advance before scheduling the actual conversation.  Once you have the actual conversation, be sure to solicit concrete ideas about how to improve or contribute more to your teams over the next few weeks.

Not Meeting the Right People

If you’re halfway through the summer and the only person in the office who knows your name is your mentor, than it’s time to step it up and make the rounds.  You don’t have to start dropping by everyone’s office and chatting them up in the middle of the day, but pick three or four people and make a point to reach out to each of them in the next few weeks.

You can email people or stop by their office and ask if they’ve got a few minutes of time to speak with you.  Then ask them some smart and pointed questions about what they do for the organization, how they got started in their careers and what advice they have for newcomers.  Everyone’s busy, but people love talking about themselves.  If you show a genuine interest in their work and career progression, you’ll find that most people are pretty generous in terms of sharing their stories.

“Eminently capable” is the term I use to describe what I’m looking for in an employee. In a small business, you need to find people who can figure out how to execute on whatever you need them to do. To me, that means have a great attitude, being highly motivated and taking ownership for your work. Asking for help is key too—that demonstrates judgment and thoughtfulness and I always prefer that versus someone going down the wrong path without involving me early on with questions or issues.

As a career switcher, I don’t necessarily care about past work experience being relevant—I care more about the qualities and traits that you possess that have enabled you to have success in your past endeavors. Are you a quick learner? A strategic thinker? A problem solver? Are you going to give 110% percent to be a part of a fun, dynamic, fast-paced growing organization that hopes to seriously change the world one day with a new approach to teaching communication?

Are you eminently capable?  Would love to hear your thoughts.

To read the whole interview, including if and how communication strategies differ for people at big companies versus small start-ups, and what workplace TV show I’d most like to work in (Mad Men!) click here

I wrote a post for HBR on nailing your elevator pitch that outlined the Great on the Job strategy to make a powerful introduction.  The three key steps include:

• Thinking relevant, not recent
• Focusing on skills-based qualifications versus industry or experience-based
• Connecting the dots

Last week, Peter, a retired trade-show executive, participated in a GOTJ training workshop at Kellogg.  Peter had recently joined a non-profit board and had been asked to provide a brief bio to the board.  He had planned on including his typical spiel—30 years of experience building and running trade shows in North America.

The non-profit had just lots its spiritual leader, was losing members faster than it was gaining new ones, and was going through an identity crisis of sorts.  As Peter thought about introducing himself to the board as the trade show guy, he realized that snapshot didn’t really do him justice.  How did trade show executive communicate the sense of value and purpose Peter hoped to bring to the board?  Why and how was it relevant?

After sitting through the GOTJ training, a light bulb went off for Peter.  What he had in fact done for 30 years of his career was build communities.  He had brought buyers and sellers together.  What he could and would help this non-profit do was rebuild their fractured community.  His experience as a trade show executive was actually directly relevant and transferrable—he just needed to change his thinking around what it was he was skilled at.

After the presentation, Peter came up and thanked me.  He said he would have never connected the dots without the GOTJ strategy.  “I was so focused on ‘recent’ that I never took a step back to focus on ‘relevant’ he said.  Once I did, I was able to connect the dots and it was crystal clear that I’ve been building communities for the past 30 years.”

 How can you change your mindset from being a tradeshow executive to a builder of communities?

I’m adding my own personal plug for Professor William J. White’s From Day One: CEO Advice to Launch an Extraordinary Career.  I spent a fabulous 90 minutes at Kellogg with Professor White last week guest teaching his  “Managing for New Managers” class and it’s no suprise his classes are standing room only!   From Day One is loaded with actionable items of how you can make a contribution to your organization from the get-go.

So without further ado: Lindsey’s list…with a few of my own comments peppered in

A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink Essential reading about the skills that will dominate in the new economy (reading it now and loving it!)

Finding Your Own North Star by Martha Beck My favorite book on figuring out what to do with your life

Getting from College to Career by…me! (it’s as good as she says it is) Of course I had to include my own book! I wrote the guide I wish I’d had when I was in your shoes. It includes everything I’ve learned along my professional path so far.

Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogarty How you write is how you are perceived. This book is the best modern writing primer I’ve seen.

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi (seriously, buy this one!) The best book on networking at any age, in any profession

Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office by Lois Frankel Like having your own personal career coach

Roadtrip Nation by Mike Marriner and Nathan Gebhard with Joanne Gordon A fun, insightful look into a wide variety of career paths

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron An absolute must-read for anyone who wants a creative career

They Don’t Teach Corporate In College by Alexandra Levit The best book on thriving as a young professional in the corporate world

Your Best Year Yet by Jinny Ditzler The ultimate guide to setting and reaching your goals over the next 12 months

Recently, an elementary school teacher told me that her former principal had failed to respond to her request for a letter of recommendation.  I asked if she had included a template for her principal of what to say, to which she replied no, and then admitted sheepishly, “Honestly, I wouldn’t have any idea how to write the letter myself.”  At the risk of stating the obvious, if you can’t imagine writing the letter yourself, how do you think someone else is going to write it for you? 

When you are asking for a recommendation, take the time to create a template for the person writing the recommendation. This can be a draft of the letter itself or a simply a roadmap—a set of points that provides them with an outline, the context and content for their note.

A strong ready-made template hits upon three key points: your motive, your credentials and the impact you expect to have on your new organization. To be most effective, you need to answer three key questions:

1. Why are you applying for the position or academic program? (Motive)
2. How or why are you uniquely qualified for the position? (Credentials)
3. What will you contribute to your new organization or program? (Impact)

Let’s see what this might look like in a particular case:

Alex Wallace was a human resources professional who worked in financial services for ten years.  Alex earned her MBA from a top tier school and most recently covered the multimedia team at Reuters.  After two years at Reuters, Alex decided to make a major career shift and jump from human resources to broadcast journalism.  Alex reached out to the head of HR at her former employer to ask for a letter of reference for her application to Columbia’s Graduate School of Broadcast Journalism. She included the following bullet points in her template to assist her former boss in writing in the letter:

Motive: Why Are You Applying?

• Throughout my career, I’ve lived and worked abroad have always had a strong interest in business journalism and international affairs.   
• My work at Reuters has inspired me to make a leap I’ve considered for a long time and which I believe will tie together many diverse aspects of my career.

Alex gave both a personal reason and a professional motive—her work in HR in the news industry ultimately inspired her to make a change.   Why are you applying for a new job or program? Are you hoping to learn a new skill, make an industry, firm or career switch, or are you, like Alex, following a life-long dream of doing something you’ve always wanted to do but were never sure how to?

Credentials: How Are You Uniquely Qualified?

• I have a strong background in both finance and business issues, having spent ten years on Wall Street supporting finance professionals and two years at Reuters learning about the news industry
• In my current role,  I am responsible for managing employee issues related to ethical standards of stories, quality of writing and knowledge of key figures and trends in the news industry
• I am strong writer, a skilled presenter and a quick learner—I am able to discern the important and relevant pieces of information from large amounts of data and make decisions quickly and effectively

Alex highlighted both her relevant experience and her inherent skill-set.  Together, these combine to make her an excellent candidate for the program.   As you think about your own qualifications, consider coursework and academic programs, relevant work experience, extra-curricular or volunteer activities, or even your own natural talents or strengths that will be better utilized in your new endeavor.

Impact: What Will You Contribute?

• I believe that the reporting and writing classes will give me the tools I need to become an outstanding broadcast journalist
• With my quick grasp of the issues and my in-depth understanding of finance and news organizations,  I hope to bring a unique perspective to the program

Alex’s impact—her unique perspective—could even be more compelling if she talked about how her news coverage would be different or unique from what exists today.  Regarding your own contribution, what is your vision of how you will impact your new organization—do you have new ideas, better ideas, a different way of thinking about things or a richness of experience that will impact your new environment?

At the end of the day, your goal is to give your former boss or colleague a clear-cut outline of what to include in your reference letter.  By providing a thoughtful and well scripted template, you’ll greatly increase the chances of getting your reviewer to agree to write the letter of reference and make that letter of reference communicate and convey exactly what you want.

In the real world, getting a reference letter is far more difficult and often a source of much anxiety. Whom to ask, how to ask, what to say?

But getting an outstanding reference letter is entirely within your control and easier than you think, even if you don’t have a benevolent benefactor at your back…

Here are three tips to ensure your mentor, former boss, or academic counselor writes you a rave review:

1.Highlight their qualifications

2.Provide a template

3.Offer a “no questions asked” policy

Let’s look at each of these individually:

Highlight their Qualifications

When reaching out to ask for a letter of reference, explain up front and center why it is that you value that person’s opinion and respect their professional expertise enough so that you chose them (of all people) to vouch for you in your next professional endeavor.

Beyond mere flattery, show why you think that person is uniquely qualified to accurately assess and communicate your personal contribution to your future organization. Why did you enjoy working for them, and why do you value their opinion? Why do you look up to them? How do the qualities match your own, or speak to the authority you want your recommendation to convey?

Provide a Template

It’s almost impossible to get a good reference letter from someone if you don’t provide the tools necessary for them to actually write a good letter. It’s also terribly inconsiderate not to give ample guidance. The last thing anyone wants to do is spend hours or days thinking about and drafting a letter which you yourself could have composed far better and more readily in about half the time.

Providing a template, therefore — an outline, bullet points, or even a fully-baked draft — of what you’d like the reference letter to say is the most effective (not to mention generous and thoughtful) approach to asking for a letter of reference. The goal isn’t to put words into your former colleague’s mouth or to co-opt her into vouching for you in an untrue or disingenuous manner; it’s simply to do some of the work for her and provide all of the pertinent data points that you’d like included in the letter. Moreover, as boastful, bragging or full of yourself you may feel writing your own referral, often people will be even more generous than you will when talking about your skills and contribution to an organization. So go ahead and toot your own horn.

“No Questions Asked”

Finally, once you provide your reviewer with a useful template and make it clear that your intention is to make this process as painless as possible for her, then it’s time to hand over the reins and offer a “no questions asked” policy. First, give your colleague an easy “out” to decline your request for any or no reason. Then, assuming she agrees, give her ample leeway to change, modify or edit your letter as she sees fit. You want to convey a sense of trust in her and give her an opportunity to write a letter she is entirely comfortable with.

Let’s take a look at what this request might actually look like:

Highlight their Qualifications

Dear John,

Hello, I hope you are well. I am writing to ask a huge favor — I’m applying for a senior marketing position with Merck and I was hoping you’d consider writing a letter of recommendation on my behalf. I always appreciated your perspective and judgment while working together. You have so much credibility within the product development space that I thought you’d be a perfect person to act as a reference.

Provide a Template

I have included a list of bullet points along with a draft letter you might consider using as a template. I’d like to make the process as easy as possible on you and I know it’s hard to recall details about the many different projects we worked on together in 2007 and 2008.

“No Questions Asked”

If for any reason you don’t feel comfortable writing a letter on my behalf, I completely understand. If you are willing to do so, however, please feel free to take the attached sample letter and use it as a template however you see fit. I have tried to address my core strengths as a strategic thinker and team player and I have highlighted several marketing campaigns I’m particularly proud of. To the extent that you’d like to make any changes or modifications to the letter, please go ahead and do so. I trust that you’ll include only those topics you feel comfortable commenting upon.

Further, I would welcome the opportunity to see a copy of the letter, but I of course understand your position if you’d like to keep it confidential.

Finally, finish your request with all the grace and charm you can muster — thank the other person profusely for their time and help and offer to make yourself available for any further questions he may have.

Stay tuned for next week’s post on how to write that template and make your reference letter stand out from the pack.

Both strategies begin with a polite interruption followed by a quick retreat.  The first one takes some chutzpah, aiming itself at the whole group while the second strategy targets a single person first before gaining an entrée into the larger group soon thereafter.  Both can give you the opening you need to break the barrier of closed-circle groups and save you from a night of eating alone at the bar during a conference or event.

Let’s take a closer look:

The Group Tackle

The group tackle involves a brief introduction followed by an immediate retreat—an emphatic statement that the group continue the conversation without further ado.  Last summer, I attended a Mediabistro conference with headliner Tim Ferriss.  I was dying to meet Tim so I stuck around after his keynote to introduce myself.  Not surprisingly, nearly a dozen people had beaten me to the punch. Tim was holding court at the periphery of the auditorium with a rapt audience.  Undeterred, I approached the group assertively, waited for Tim to see me and said the following:

1. Hi Tim, I’m Jodi Glickman Brown with Great on the Job, I didn’t want to interrupt but I’m fascinated to hear about what you do
2. Please, continue and I’ll just listen in

By not engaging in further conversation other than my quick intro, I made it explicitly clear that I didn’t intend to take over the conversation or change the natural direction or momentum of the dialogue.

After lobbing in your quick intro, the next step is to go into “listen mode” for several minutes before venturing into the conversation again.  Get a sense of the context and players around you.  Then, once you’ve got your footing, feel free to chime in after the others know who you are and see that you’ve been listening respectfully to the dialogue going on around you.

After listening to Tim and the group for several minutes, I lobbed in a question related to Great on the Job and my own book deal with St. Martins’ Press.  I will never forget Tim’s gracious response and his practical advice, and I’d be willing to bet both were to some degree due to the way I skillfully handled my entrance.

The Single Sideliner

For those who are intimidated by the group approach, there’s also a way to gain access to the group incrementally.  Stand nearby a member of the group until you make eye-contact and then politely and unobtrusively introduce yourself to that person.  After a one-line introduction, throw in a soft-sell about how you’d love an introduction to the broader group at the appropriate moment.  It goes something like this:

1. Hi, I’m Jodi Glickman Brown with Great on the Job, how are you? I don’t want to interrupt but I just wanted to listen in to the conversation…
2. I’d love an introduction to your colleagues at some point if you don’t mind

Then, if and when you do get that introduction to the broader group, follow up with a “so nice to meet you all” and then go back immediately into listen mode until you feel comfortable that you have something of value to add to the conversation.  Alternatively, you now have the opening you need to follow up individually with any other members of the group once the gang has dispersed or there is a natural lull in the conversation.

In both of these approaches, you join the group as a voyeur, but a voyeur with a free pass—because you’ve made the cursory personal introduction without stealing anyone’s thunder or rattling any feathers and you’ve explained your benign intentions—you’re just here to listen and learn.  From that point of entry, you can then come from a position of strength to follow up with your new found friends/colleagues/potential clients to begin a lasting and meaningful conversation.

Last week, my husband Eric was caught in the crosshairs of an overzealous museum curator eager to impart his knowledge about twentieth-century model trains

Fortunately, there is a way to exit gracefully.

We have all been in Eric’s place, stuck in a tedious, boring or uncomfortable conversation, at work functions or social gatherings. Common courtesy dictates that you don’t cut someone off mid-conversation and I personally know of no way to politely let someone know that you find their debate over live steam versus diesel-hydraulic powered model trains, well, boring.

This three-step signoff, however, will get you on your way without leaving your collocutor feeling slighted:

1. Start with “Thank you”
2. Discover a spontaneous transition
3. Suggest forward momentum or a consolation prize

“Thank you.” This part is easy. Whether or not you are enjoying someone’s company or conversation, it’s not hard to thank them for their time. You don’t have to be insincere and tell them how much you’ve enjoyed the conversation if in fact you haven’t, but there’s no harm in being gracious and thanking them for their time.

Discover a spontaneous transition. Polite excuses are easy to come by after the fact, but they often trip us up in the moment. The tried and true, “I’ve got a call to make,” “I’m going to be late for an appointment or lunch date” or even “I’d better go find my [wife, colleague, friend]“ are standard but often feel forced without a plausible transition. A spontaneous interruption is the glue that holds your alibi together and makes the polite excuse work. A few good ones include:

• “Oh my goodness, I just realized its eight o’clock, I’ve got a call to make”; or
• “You know what? I just noticed the time, I’m going to be late for an appointment”; or
• I’d love to continue the conversation, but unfortunately I do need to run, “I’d better go find my husband”

Suggest forward momentum or consolation prize. This is where true skill comes in. Adding a hint of forward momentum or offering a “consolation prize” in lieu of your continued presence turns an uncomfortable or awkward excuse into a graceful exit. Examples include offering to stay in touch with someone (only if you mean it), recommending the person’s business or hobby to someone else who might be interested, or committing to follow through on a topic the two of you just discussed””You will make sure to read the latest Wired article, try out that new iPhone surf report app, or visit that hole-in-the wall dive on your next visit to Memphis. It might be as simple as reminding your chatty new acquaintance of the fabulous dessert they should go try.

In Eric’s case, what he needed to do was thank the curator for his time, politely excuse himself and then offer to recommend the exhibit to a friend who would certainly be interested in taking a tour. It would have gone something like this:

“Thanks so much, what an interesting perspective. Unfortunately, I’d better get going, but I will definitely tell my father in law about the exhibit, he’s an avid history buff. Thanks again.”

If you feel like you can’t find any grounds for establishing forward momentum without being disingenuous (you wouldn’t dare subject a friend to the curator’s oration), then a final strategy is to simply acknowledge your counterparty’s passion and enthusiasm for a particular topic and express your gratitude for the quick lesson on model trains.

“Thanks so much for your time. How amazing””I could have never guessed these trains were actually hand built and powered by steam engines. Good luck with the exhibit and thanks again.”

A gracious and appreciative, “I never imagined there could be so much detail and precision in a model train!” goes a long way toward making the curator feel good about the conversation”“and allowing you to skip away guilt-free.

It’s hard to argue that a primetime network T.V. show that debuts after the Super Bowl has any mission other than to entertain the masses. It’s perhaps unfair then to ascribe any responsibility to the “Undercover Boss” other than the blatantly obvious—we all knew what we were getting—another reality show.

In reality T.V., however, there is an endgame separate and apart from mere entertainment. The Bachelor promises love, American Idol fortune and fame, and The Apprentice, a dream job with The Donald. In the case of the Undercover Boss: the chance for an executive to “garner an up-close look at his company and workforce to see how and where improvements can be made.”

And so I found myself hopeful that Larry O’Donnell, President and COO of Waste Management might provide both entertainment and some real lessons on management and leadership. Unfortunately, Larry missed the boat on the valuable learning of the day—namely the importance of a feedback loop within an organization.

Initial praise for the show ran deep, with the New York Times quoting executive producer Stephen Lambert “Anybody who has had a boss, or who has worked in a company, will understand this show…and for the person in charge, to be able to see what their employees are really doing seemed like an exciting idea.”

Exciting isn’t exactly the word many would use to describe a manager’s responsibility to know what his employees are doing. Shouldn’t it be expected (or at least aspired to) that leaders know what their front-line workers are up to?

With the five employees Larry shadowed on candid-camera, he proposed tailor-made remedies to each of their complaints—a task force here, a new policy there, a modest wage increase for another. Larry was genuinely touched by the challenges his employees faced and was humbled by the dignity and respect with which they carried themselves and contributed to the organization. Yet it’s not what Larry learned that was disappointing—it’s what he didn’t learn.

Standing on a podium presenting his “findings” to a raucous crowd of WM employees, Larry failed to consider the issues facing the remaining 45,000 employees of Waste Management. Larry didn’t look at the big picture of what the show revealed. Instead of fixating on the individual problems that surfaced during the show, Larry should have realized that WM appears to be an organization in which no effective feedback loop exists. To be sure, the five lucky employees who spent a day with Larry weren’t the only ones suffering at the hands of the productivity missives barreling down from the top.

It’s not just a problem that female garbage collectors aren’t given the decency of bathroom breaks: it’s a problem that Larry didn’t know that that was the case. It’s not just a problem that employees were dashing out of the cafeteria, petrified of being docked pay–it’s a problem that their behavior had never reached him. If Larry heads back to WM and makes only incremental changes in a few of the company’s practices, he’s missed an enormous opportunity to improve something much more critical to his company.

The key lesson for Larry is that productivity initiatives are a two-way street. There’s got to be an information channel that goes from bottom to top as well as from top to bottom. Based on his week in the field, Larry might have realized that Waste Management wasn’t doing a good job of listening to and soliciting feedback from its frontline employees—hearing from them what was working and what wasn’t, what was helping them and what was hurting them. Making people happy, giving them ownership in processes and policies, and treating employees like valued and respected members of a community or organization—that’s the way to increase productivity.

Senior leadership has a responsibility to know what employees are doing on a regular basis—it shouldn’t be treated as a special event. I believe management has a responsibility to work the front lines of every organization. There’s a reason we have a “take your kids to work” day and not a “take your boss to work day.” It’s expected that the boss knows how to pick up trash, make a widget or close the deal. Many companies are on top of this: Zappo’s CEO spends time talking to customers and filling orders and the CEO of Burger King knows how to work a cash register. And even on Wall Street, you’re hard pressed to find a managing director who didn’t cut his or her teeth pulling all-nighters as a lowly analyst. Wouldn’t it have been great if Larry had taken his moment on reality TV to learn that lesson–and to show the rest of us what that transformation could look like?

To see the HBR comments, click here