10. Q: What if you worked with someone who managed to take credit for all your great ideas. How would you handle it?
A: First, I would try to credit her publicly with the ideas that were hers. Sometimes, by being generous with credit, it spurs the other person to return the favor.
If that doesn't solve it, I'd try to work out an arrangement where we each agreed to present the ideas that were our own to our bosses. If that doesn't work, I would openly discuss the situation with her.
However, if the person taking credit for my ideas was my boss, I would tread cautiously. To some extent, I believe that my job is to make my superiors shine. If I were being rewarded for my ideas with raises and promotions1, I would be happy.
11. Q: How many hours a week do you usually work, and why?
A: I work pretty long hours most of the time. With the extra time, I try to find ways to add value to each assignment, both my own and the firm's. When our clients read our reports, I want them to think that no one else could have possibly written them, except for our company.
12. Q: Does a company need B players? Or is it better off only having A players on staff, and why?
A: I believe that a company needs both A and B players. When you're pitching new business, you want the A players on the front line. But behind the A players, you need the B players who can hammer out the details of the projects and stick with them on a day|to|day basis. Having too many A players on the team leads to ego2 clashes and a disorganized, anarchical way of doing business.
13. Q: Are you better at managing up or managing down?
A: If you aren't good at managing up, you rarely get the opportunity to manage down. Fortunately, I've always been quite good at self|management. I've never had a deadline that I didn't meet.
14.Q: Would you rather get permission from your boss before undertaking3 a brand|new project, or be given enough rope to hang yourself?
A: During my first week on the job, I would ask my boss how she would prefer me to handle projects. If she indicated that she wanted a take|charge person under her, I would take the ropes. If she told me she wanted me to run ideas by her first, I would comply. I think the real challenge is being able to adapt to your work environment, and I'm flexible.
15. Q: Please give an example of the most difficult political situation that you've dealt with on a job.
A: I was hired by a woman who was on her way out. She asked me to be her fall guy on a number of assignments. I just learned to drop the assignments off with my boss on the day that they were due, and when the managers would ring me up, I would recommend that they simply follow up with her. This kept me out of hot water with my boss and with her superiors.
16. Q: Is it more important to be lucky or skillful?
A: I think that it's more important to be lucky, although being very skilled can help to create more opportunities. Certainly, [at my former job, my boss'] confidence in me inspired the decision makers4 at our firm to trust that I could do the job. But clearly, I also happened to be in the right place at the right time.
17. Q: Have you ever been so firm that people would describe you as stubborn or inflexible5?
A: When women are firm, they are sometimes pinned with these unattractive labels. I am not shy or mousy, so probably one or two people I've worked with might have thought that I was inflexible on a given assignment. But this adjective never came out about me on any kind of a performance review, and neither did the word stubborn. I believe that, all in all, I've managed to be firm and flexible.
18. Q: When do you think you'll peak in your career?
A: I come from a long line of healthy, hardy6, mentally active types, and so I confess that I never even think about peaking in my career. That having been said, I do think it's important to have some self|knowledge, and to recognize when one is past one's prime.
