Career Lesson from a Senior Manager Long Range Planning at Patagonia
A significant lesson learned by the Senior Manager of Long Range Planning at Patagonia is the importance of "building trust and solid relationships with everybody" one works with, impacting both individual career trajectory and company response to challenges. This involves actively cultivating connections, observing how people answer questions to gauge trust levels, and ensuring that even during mistakes, a supportive environment exists where "we got Jenny's back."
Communication, Teamwork, Leadership, Trust-Building, Relationship Management
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Undergrad
Grad Programs
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Jenny Tang
Senior Manager, Long Range Planning
Patagonia
University of California, Berkeley
MBA & M.S. Business Analytics at Arizona State University (ASU) - W. P. Carey
Environmental & Related Sciences
Apparel, Beauty, Retail & Fashion, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)
Finance
Took Out Loans
Video Highlights
1. Building trust and strong relationships with colleagues is crucial for career success. Investing time in getting to know people, even seemingly small gestures, can significantly improve collaboration and support during challenges.
2. Understanding how to gauge trust levels with colleagues is vital. Recognizing genuine responses versus canned answers allows for better communication and collaboration.
3. Mistakes are inevitable; having a supportive team built on trust can significantly influence how setbacks are handled and lessons are learned. A strong support system helps navigate challenges and facilitates company-wide growth.
Transcript
What is one lesson you have learned that has proven significant in your career?
I will say it would be the importance of building trust with everybody that you interact with. In terms of my career, I've both followed career instructions to a T and then also ventured out on my own. No matter what you do, how you do it, it is important to build trust and solid relationships with everybody that you work with.
That's easy to say, so I'll give an example. If there's ever a time when you're debating between finishing your work or going out to lunch with somebody, or even spending an extra five minutes after a meeting to ask how they're doing, go off script a little bit to try to know the person and earn their trust.
Sometimes you can learn a lot not just from what someone answers, but how they answer. If a person gives a canned answer, it's different than if somebody takes a deep breath and actually shares their genuine thoughts.
It is important when working with people to keep in mind that level of trust. You're not going to become everybody's top confidant, and that may not be a good goal. But at least understand where you fall in that.
Mistakes will happen. We will always try our best, and the results may or may not be what we want. During those situations, it's important for everyone to feel supported. For example, saying, "Look, we've got Jenny's back. She did everything she could. This is something we all agreed upon."
That's very different from saying, "Oh, we don't know what happened there." Those are two different outcomes that affect not just you and your career, but how the company moves forward and responds to learnings.
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