NEVER HAVE I EVER

“It is not going to come to you, you have to go after it.”

Post number three in a series featuring “Getting Further with Honey” An Oral History of a Successful Female Vice President.  Recorded and dictated in 1997……  

The last two weeks of posts have entailed the sharing of the “herstory” of the first ever female Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Hershey Entertainment and Resort Company interviewed in 1997.  Her honest stories changed my life forever, many of them still ring true today.  Her vulnerability has caught me by surprise.  Her bravery has inspired me.

This week, I am featuring her direct quotes and thoughts on managing people (dictated in 1997).  Her slightly controversial opinion on the difference between men and women will make you laugh and yet the differences do exist.  It seems ironic that all these years later, I would find a similar passion in management and mentoring.  As a junior in college, I could not have ever known that our personal and career paths would end up being very similar.  For anyone in management, her brutal honesty will ring true.  Time has not changed the struggle or the rewards.

“The difference between men and women, I find that I enjoy men and I really enjoy the relationships I have with men.  I also enjoy women too, but I find that women are just better workers and they have this need to prove themselves but they get caught up sometimes in shit that just totally counteracts their productivity.  Whereas, I think men are less productive, men can’t find their way sometimes, they can’t figure stuff out but they don’t seem to get caught up in the nonsense that women do.  Sot there are pros and cons with both.

Although men and women both have their pros and cons, I would not for one minute want to be a man, I absolutely love being a woman.  Being a woman leader.  It is perfect time to have broken this good old boys’ network within our company and with the industry in general.  In ten years, it won’t be as unique or out of the ordinary to see a woman in a top position, and right now I like that it is unique, I like being unique.  Never have I ever thought, it is a man’s world and I wish I was a man, never.”

“I used to think that I hated managing people because there are so many problems with managing people.  People are a pain in the ass, they are babies, they whine and they are waiting for things to be handed to them.  And then one day, I really don’t know when it changed but then I really started to love it because I realized that if I really had good people around me than that was less work for me… I think good people make me look good and so then I really started to love good people and I to work with a good team around me.

I have had to fire people, I have had people sitting here crying, a situation a couple of weeks ago where I had to eliminate a position, a single mom.  Those are the things I lay in bed at night thinking, isn’t there another way?  But there isn’t.  I know where we are going and in order to get there, I have got to have strength all around me.  You give someone as many opportunities that you can and then you have just got to say, this isn’t working.

I also think you have to communicate, that is yet another battle.  I don’t have enough time to communicate as much as I would like but I think it is very important.

Don’t think that things are just going to come to you, that also drives me crazy.  People think that it is owed, like I owe you an opportunity and I don’t.  If there are opportunities that are created, and you create those opportunities than you be right there and ready and willing to jump in.  It is not going to come to you, you have to go after it.”