Women, Work and The Art of Savoir Faire

#learningIsAGift ?
#rituals of #theBeautifulJourney 

Women, Work and The Art of Savoir Faire: Business Sense & Sensibility by Mireille Guiliano is a book I had on my bookshelf for more than 5 years. Finally, its turn has come and what a nice read it was, for various reasons. The book is very straight forward, with many frank and transparent recommendations that have an abundance of kindness as well.

Mireille Guiliano is the former CEO of Clicquot, Inc. (LVMH) and she shares inspiring stories from that experience, as well as from the path that led her to it. Hence, the book covers many topics from how to make your path, things to pay attention to in the workplace (management styles, expectations, romantic relationships at work, the issue and root cause of why not many women are mentoring other women), how to present yourself (personal style), how to entertain for business, differences between men and women in business, and many other subjects as well.

As I was reading about Clicquot, memories from the time I used to flirt with the wine & champagne industry have come flooding back. I was visiting wineries in Romania (e.g. Nachbil, Carastelec) and even very small independent producers, learning about the art of making wine and sparkling wine as well. For me, it was an exciting new experience, so I wanted to learn more about it. I’ve gone through a wine tasting class run by Ioana Bidian Micu, the organizer of the Wine Up event that happens in Cluj Napoca, Romania, and where I’ve had my first Moët & Chandon masterclass. I like the art of making wine, the development of one’s senses to appreciate it, the fine tasting, yet I’m not a person that enjoys drinking alcohol, in general. If I would have continued on this path, I would have been one of those people that can’t have much wine and need to spit it out. This chapter of my life was closed (or maybe just put on hold) when I moved to UK 4 years ago. Mireille does talk about the idea that life has its stages and episodes. So, this one, was probably one episode in my life’s movie of explorations. Will it turn into a series?

Now, I’ll extract a few topics from the book and many other ideas and recommendations will be left for you to discover while reading it. There are plenty left in the wonderful pages of this book!  What follows:

• Know Thyself
• Act with enlightened self-interest!
• Management Style
• Personal Style
• Entertaining for Business
• Success metrics

Know Thyself

A few times throughout the book we are reminded how important it is to know yourself. Do a personal SWOT. Be aware of yourself, so that you can prepare and plan to your advantage. If you don’t know yourself, events and other people will be in control of you.

This reminded me of a quote from a book about discipline:

• People who think they have the most willpower are actually the most likely to lose control when tempted. Why? They fail to predict when, where, and why they will give in. – Kelly McGonigal

Act with enlightened self-interest!

To be able to act with enlightened self-interest, you must know thyself and always remember what you want to achieve and discover what behaviours will get you there. This takes time and learning. Here are a few ideas:

• Choose the right position – it is not what feels good today, but what prepares you for tomorrow (e.g. you might want to look at revenue generating roles for top careers)
• Be open/prepared to change position/domain to gain the skills you need for your higher goal
• Periodically do a cold analysis in context of your company’s plan, your unit’s and supervisor’s and your own
• Choose to work for good companies (they also look good on your resume)
• Choose ‘brand-names’ for training as well, if you can
• Talk about people’s ideas, never about their person
• Find a mentor outside your workplace
• Be informed of cultural differences
• Make your boss look good
• Practice discipline
• Learn to say no

Management Style 

Mireille talks about style as well, from personal style (do’s and don’t’s) to management style. She was known for a management approach of no nonsense, no job-hopping, no rehire, promote from within (“the best grow, the rest go”) and desiring respect, not love.

She also admits that management does take more time than other roles, thus one should expect putting in 60h/week worth of work.

And reminds us that from high positions, whatever your role is, from your company’s perspective you are a box and a function on an organizational chart. This translates to: everyone is replaceable. Prioritize with this in mind.

The author also talks about romantic relationships and friendships at work. I’ll extract just this “Even if you are friends outside of work with some key decision maker, or at least you think you are friends (it is a common mistake to think that colleagues you get along with are really friends when it is only the circumstances of your employment that create the bond), when tough decisions are being made, they will make business decisions in the interest of the company.” Remember this, whichever side of the friendship you are.

One must also remember that “the higher you go, the more bottom-line and revenue encounters of the profit-and-loss kind will factor into your promotability.”

Mireille also talks about interviewing and how the process varies depending on the role you are looking to fill, why you might want to meet even the spouse of someone you are hiring. Interesting perspective!

She presents decisions she’s made, changes she’s implemented within the Clicquot business and made me think she is a Rebel Talent. She has made significant impact by addressing even the smallest things that others assumed that everyone else would just know how to handle or do or things that others thought unnecessary in this business.

Start simple. Keep it simple. And through the change process, through the mentoring, and even in the most basic discussions or presentations, remember it takes time for an idea to sink in, hence “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them.”

Personal Style

Personal style is also important and the book covers aspects that might seem unexpected for a business book to some, yet this book is about business sense and sensibility, and the change in covered topics is quite nice. I will not go into the clothing, accessories and all manners related topics, but I will extract a few other tips:

• Be yourself. That will be efficient use of your energy.
  • What is unique about you? Find out and use it to your advantage.
• What is your story?
  • Come up with one, practice it, be humorous, be ready to share it.
• What is your message?
  • Be consistent about it, don’t confuse people.
• Pay attention to your Hello and always do your Thank You’s
  • Write actual Thank You cards and cards for other occasions as well
  • This reminded me of a case study presented in Francesca Gino’s book Rebel Talent about the positive impact on morale and productivity personal Thank You cards from leadership had on employees.
  • I have been doing this for many, many years, even throughout my PhD, before joining the workforce. For me, this gesture associates itself with creativity, art and a form of beautiful living and these are things I value.
• Remember people’s names, look them in the eyes (culture specific)

Entertaining for Business

I won’t say much about this, I’ll leave this to the book. I love the diversity and practicality of the topics covered in this book and enjoyed this chapter. It covers manners, etiquette and even recipes for entertaining for business at home. Brilliant!

Success metrics

In the workplace, there are metrics we need to work towards, yet that might not be sufficient to define success for a person. You might share this idea that success is about living a good life. And each of us need to define what that means. Mireille present her four pillars for a good life:

• Good health
• A functional social network of friends and family
• A solid employment situation
• Time, space, principles and policies for yourself

I’ll stop here. I’ll keep this book. I hope you’ll enjoy it too!

The picture used for this article is a picture I took of Mireille’s book.

Until next time… enjoy a good life!