Hasta La Gadget!

By: Mac Macartney

In 1984 I was employed as the head gardener at a leadership development centre for corporate executives. I had somehow survived a colourful, illegal, and occasionally hazardous decade. At the same time I was involved in a driving accident – a head-on collision with another car in which the woman driving the other car was killed. It was a terrifying experience, and made all the worse for the fact that in spite of pleading for help, the occupants of a nearby house refused my request to call the emergency services. They were beside themselves with fear, and the wildly overwrought, bloodied and disheveled man who stood in their front garden, occasionally losing consciousness and trampling their flower bed, rendered them incapable of understanding the request. I was later found unconscious in the road at the site of the accident. At the inquest it was revealed that in all probability the woman deliberately drove her car at mine. This had been her threat as she left a pub some miles away, angry, hurt, and wanting to punish the lover who had rejected her.

Some months later, intrigued by the executives who visited our training centre, I asked my boss if I could shadow one of the groups on an outdoor leadership task. He acceded to my request, only cautioning me that I must confine myself to silent observation and refuse any temptation to speak. A few days later I was in a river gorge with six middle managers from one of the UK’s leading supermarkets. The day had begun well but as the hours passed an inconsequential disagreement between two of the team erupted into a full-scale row. The trainer responsible for facilitating learning in the team had long since failed to contain or resolve the situation, and the row was allowed to escalate until one of the protagonists threw the first punch.

I had been quietly watching this drama, engrossed, entranced, and a little startled. I had no way of knowing whether this was normal for such training courses but snatching glances at the trainer and witnessing the blood drain from his face, I judged it was not. I decided to break my promise, and interceded. I didn’t know anything about leadership theory but I did know about people and aggravated situations. When, some hours later, we eventually returned to the leadership centre, the team was in great shape and profoundly relieved that the incident would remain unreported. Overnight I became a leadership trainer and facilitator, and three years later I was promoted to Head of Consultancy.

In 1989 I started my own leadership development business and by 1994 we had started two additional businesses, one in Russia and one in Poland. With many international corporate clients our reputation became increasingly strong and the business prospered. An even more exciting future drew closer when we won a contract with a small insurance company. Our task was to accompany this business as it strove towards its enormously ambitious commercial goals, so that when one day they sold the business they could truthfully claim that they had achieved their goals, while also remaining true to their values.

Five years later, and after a thrilling ride with our new client, the company was sold to Warren Buffet and a fortune was made. David, one of our client’s founders, came to me and asked me what my dream was. Without pausing I described a valley where I would create an enterprise that inspired people from all walks of life, to locate their gifts and energetically contribute them to ‘the world of our longing’. A land-based social enterprise that sought to move people from sympathetic observers standing on the sidelines to engaged participants – people who understood the Hopi Nation elders declaration ‘We are the people we have been waiting for’.

David paused, reached over for his cheque book, and filled out one of the cheques.
“Here, take this. Now you can live your dream.”

It was enough money to buy 50 acres of some of Britain’s most beautiful land.

I think back to that time and occasionally wonder how it was I found myself so immediately eloquent in describing this dream. Alongside my business I had also been enormously inspired and massively challenged by a group of Native Americans who mentored me for many years. This, and my own deep love of nature, my ever-increasing awareness of the huge social and environmental challenges confronting our world, my longing for a life in which my work was fully aligned to the things I most value, and the over-reaching desire to feel that I had indeed ‘lived while I was alive’.

Now in 2014, Embercombe has positively impacted thousands of lives. Our world is still massively and increasingly challenged, but along with many others I have the deep satisfaction of knowing that when the invitation came, I did not turn away.

About Mac Macartney
Mac Macartney is a social entrepreneur, an international speaker on leadership and sustainability, a coach and an author. In all aspects of his work he seeks to inspire people to step forward and contribute towards the emergence of a just, sustainable, and peaceful world. He is the founder of Embercombe – a land-based social enterprise located in the southwest of the UK.

He has been a faculty member for IMD Business School/WWF ‘One Planet Leaders’ Programme in Lausanne for three years, and regularly contributes to the Exeter University Business School ‘One Planet Leaders’ MBA programme. Mac has co-facilitated leadership, values, and sustainability workshops with INSEAD Business School (Singapore), Lafarge, P&G (Europe), PepsiCo, and Nokia Siemens Networks amongst others. Recent and forthcoming speaking engagements include the Harvard Business School Club of New York, the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (South Africa), the International Academy for Collaborative Professionals (Vancouver), and the EC Retail Forum for Sustainability (Brussels). He has also spoken at three TEDx events.

For twenty years Mac was mentored by a group of Native Americans. This prolonged and challenging training has profoundly influenced Mac’s worldview and continues to inform all aspects of his work with organisations, children, families, and youth.

Short version: Liz Elting is the co-founder and co-CEO of TransPerfect and Translations.com. TransPerfect’s Translations.com is a leading provider of software, website, and enterprise-wide localization services, as well as translation-related technology products. Elting has received numerous awards for her outstanding entrepreneurship, including Working Woman’s Entrepreneurial Excellence Award for Customer Service, the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Inc. 500 Award and the Deloitte & Touche Fast Tech Award, six times. TransPerfect has appeared five times on the Inc. 5000 list as one of America’s fastest growing companies, and the Women Presidents’ Organization featured TransPerfect in its list of Top 50 Fastest Growing Women-Led Companies six times. The company was named Delta Airlines’ Women Owned Business of the Year in 2014.

How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
My father was a successful businessman who also tried his hand at entrepreneurship, so I was fortunate to be exposed to the entrepreneurial spirit at a young age. My parents also instilled in me a strong work ethic, insisting that I have a job from the moment it was first feasible. Given that early start to the working world, I had many odd jobs – everything from babysitting to working at a dry cleaner to being an usher for the Toronto Blue Jays. As a result of this foundation, I quickly learned the importance of putting the time in and taking pride in your work, which I believe are the cornerstones of a successful business venture.

I was also fortunate enough to have the opportunity to live and study in several different countries in my younger, more formative years, including Portugal, Spain, Canada and Venezuela. Being exposed to foreign languages and cultures from a young age sparked my interest in international business, which grew into a desire to work in an industry focused on globalization and connecting people around the world.

How has your previous employment experience aided your position as a leader today?
My first job out of college, before I began my degree at the New York University Stern School of Business, was at Euramerica, working in the sales and production departments. The translation industry was (and still is) very fragmented, so to be successful you have to find ways to stand out. Working at Euramerica, I saw there were holes in the company’s capabilities– a lack of growth in technology, not meeting rush requests — which I knew I could fill by creating my own company. I was confident that this would allow me to stand out in the industry.

I started TransPerfect on the basis of 10 core values that still form the heart of our business to this day: integrity, quality, service, empowerment, urgency, respect, teamwork, diversity, financial responsibility and results. Each one of our more than 3,000 employees hears about these principles during her first days at TransPerfect and then consistently throughout her time with us. Dedicating ourselves to these values has allowed us to provide the best quality and client service in the industry, and has enabled us to stand out the way I initially envisioned.

What have the highlights and challenges been as a CEO?
Every single day, I am motivated by my team. It is remarkable to watch people start out as entry-level employees and then develop into senior-level managers. Seeing our people flourish on a daily basis, while the company grows at the same time, is special. This goes beyond the business; having the opportunity to make an impact on people’s lives, personally and professionally, and giving them the chance to build their own business within TransPerfect (i.e. “intrapreneurship”) is hugely rewarding and reminds me why we do what we do each day.

However, as every business owner knows, success does not come without challenges. Right now, our biggest challenge is maintaining momentum while maintaining our culture. We continue to exhibit strong growth, and it’s an exciting time for the company, but with that development comes a challenge to maintain the small-business feel that we have cultivated over the years. We built our company by delivering exceptional client service. Providing a personal touch and creating that wow factor for our clients continues to be a differentiator for us in this industry, and we can’t lose sight of that as we scale.

This applies internally, as well. We now have more than 3,000 employees with offices on six continents in more than 80 cities. I have made it a point to visit as many of our global offices as I can to meet the most team members, but it’s now impossible for me to meet every single person like I did in our early years. Maintaining the flat structure we’ve built–giving our employees open-door access and the opportunity to approach upper management with suggestions and concerns–is as important to me today as it was 20 years ago, so this is a challenge I work to overcome daily.

What advice can you offer women who are seeking to have their own business?
First and foremost, work hard. This applies to young entrepreneurs (men or women) in any field–you cannot achieve success without putting your whole self into the process. Secondly, listen to your clients and focus on their needs. Elicit genuine, constructive feedback, and make it a priority to continuously improve your strategy to reflect what your clients have to say. At the end of the day, it is what they think that truly matters.

How do you maintain a work/life balance?
Maintaining a healthy work/life balance is one of the most difficult parts of being a successful entrepreneur, especially as a woman. There is a stigma surrounding motherhood for women in positions of power, and a constant implication that it’s impossible to do both without sacrificing some aspect of one or the other. This is an implication I prove wrong regularly.

Timing played a large part in my getting to where I am now with my work/life balance. When the company was founded, we worked around the clock to get it off of the ground. The business was my child, my future. I gave it everything I had. At the time, though, I wasn’t married and didn’t have kids, so there wasn’t as much of a need for that balance. Once the company began to grow, we built up the internal structure so that strong managers were in place to maintain accountability for each of their teams. As a result, I was able to move away from the 24-7 work schedule, and I can now spend nights and weekends with my husband and two sons.

What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?
We’ve all heard that playing nice is not going to get women to the corner office, yet when businesswomen demonstrate assertiveness or try to remove emotion from the professional world, they can be accused of being “pushy,” “cold,” or “uptight” – words that are associated almost exclusively with women. When men exhibit the same characteristics, they are applauded for being “strong,” “self-assured,” and “business leaders.” This double standard makes it difficult for women to find a comfortable balance in the workplace, because no matter how similarly they act to their male counterparts, their actions can be perceived in a completely different way simply due to their gender.

In the same vein, there is the mindset that business isn’t personal, and that emotions should be kept out of the workplace, for men and women alike. For entrepreneurs, however, you put your entire heart and soul into making your business succeed. It’s unrealistic to think that something so intertwined with your life as a whole can be detached entirely from emotions. I think this sentiment affects women much more than men, for when they exhibit emotions there tends to be the stronger reaction that they are somehow out of control or letting their feelings get the better of them, regardless of how unquestionably rational and well thought out their decisions may be at any given time. There needs to be an understanding that displaying emotion and still keeping a cool head when it comes to the final calls are not mutually exclusive.

How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?
I was fortunate enough to be mentored by my boss at my first job in the translations industry. Not only did she provide valuable guidance for the field that I ultimately chose to pursue, but she was a crucial role model for me as a woman and rising executive at a time when I had very little else to direct me in those capacities. She helped give me my first glimpses into work/life balance techniques and gave me the confidence to pursue my professional and personal goals without feeling the need to stop and apologize for either one along the way.

Which other female leaders do you admire and why?
I have a lot of respect for any woman who has been able to break into the upper echelons of the corporate world, but Marissa Mayer and Angela Ahrendts are two particularly strong examples of the success women can achieve in business. Mayer was able to rise through the ranks of a male-dominated industry, which takes a lot of dedication, in addition to a very tough skin. Ahrendts is a shining example of someone who started from the bottom of the ladder and worked her way to the very top, a truly commendable feat. I also admire that fact that she has not let her career get in the way of raising a family. Women can have both, but like any successful multitasking endeavor, it just requires a little extra work.

A pair of pinstriped pants is hanging from the lamp. A breakfast bowl of oatmeal, half eaten, sits at the desk. A mini-trampoline, turned on its side, issues a challenge to a pair of five-pound free weights. A keyboard, clarinet, flute and a couple of saxophones are aching to band together to sing their stuff.

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Carol is the founder of Astoria Big Band.

Carol Sudhalter, the founder of Astoria Big Band and the quartet that bears her name, walks into this improv stage, which is her living room and the room she does most of her living in.

She hoists Betty, a big brassy baritone sax, and cradles it in her arms like a baby.

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Carol’s apartment is filled with music and memorabilia.

A reed-thin woman with a tightly wound crop of iron-thick curls and deep brown-black eyes, she manages to do this without looking awkward.

Betty, she remarks, is a big girl who has a full-throated, feminine voice. The other smaller sax, a tenor that Carol hasn’t named, makes more macho music.

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Music and mundane life intersect.

There’s this funny thing that happens when Carol smiles: She squints. When she’s holding Betty, her eyes turn into slits.

She’s grinning because she wasn’t supposed to be a sax player. Or, for that matter, any kind of professional musician.

Her father, Albert, was a noted sax player, and her brother Dick was a trumpeter and music scholar/critic. Her other brother, Jimmy, switched from the sax to business. Their history, as well as hers, plays out in her apartment.

Family photos line the walls. Dick’s books are in the cabinet with her CDs. And her father’s pipes are displayed by her music stand.

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Carol with her sax Betty.

But Carol’s parents, children of East European Jews, had a different career in mind for their only daughter. They didn’t realize that Carol, who learned her steady scales at the piano bench, wasn’t interested in playing the role of wife and mother.

“I came close so many times to getting married,” she says, “but I always ran away from it at the last minute.”

When it came time for college, she left her home in Newton, Massachusetts and enrolled in Smith College in Northampton as her parents instructed her to do.

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Hands of steel, on brass.

She studied biology, which, she hoped, would lead to steady employment.

The thing was, she got very depressed the summer before her senior year. Therapy and playing the flute made her feel better.

“The music made me so happy I was flipping out,” she says.

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Carol started playing the sax 40 years ago.

When she graduated, she took a government writing job in Washington, D.C. She stuck it out only six months.

“I was having more fun moonlighting at clubs,” she says.

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
The sax waits solo.

In short order, she moved back to Northampton and began taking music lessons. Her studies — and gigs — took her to Italy and a variety of venues near and far.

It was at this time that she established the pattern that put her on her life’s path: work at anything and everything during the day (as a house cleaner, typist, secretary, Italian translator, medical transcriptionist and even music teacher) and jam jazz into the evening hours.

In 1978, she came to Manhattan to play in a band and two years later settled into the second-floor walkup she shares with her band of instruments and revolving roommates.

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Carol wants to study arranging and composing.

She focused on the flute until her father died some 40 years ago.

“The sax was his instrument,” she says. “He was such a perfectionist — he kept practicing the same parts over and over — that I never felt free playing it. It was at his funeral that I decided to pick it up.”

She brings out his sax. It’s a Selmer “Balanced” that she declares has a “beautiful, dark sound.” She got it from her brother Dick, who inherited it.

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Carol playing Gonna Light the Lights Tonight.

“I love performing,” Carol says. “It gives me the chance to play beautiful tunes with excellent players; it’s an honor to play the tunes. And it gives me the chance to reach people.”

In the mornings, Carol rehearses and tends to bookings and other band business.

She devotes her afternoons and early evenings to teaching flute, saxophone and piano in the homes of her students, most of whom live in Queens and Long Island.

She’s not booking as many gigs as she used to. She sounds sad when she says this.

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
The stage is empty.

“Many of the clubs don’t hire bands any more,” she says. “They want them to play for free, promising them exposure in exchange. At this point, if I want more exposure, I’ll take off my clothes.”

She’s not going to fret about this. Instead, she’s decided to study composing and arranging.

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
Where did the last 50 years go?

When Carol thinks over her musical journey, she’s amazed that she has managed to do what she loves for more than a half century.

“It’s been interesting,” she says. “And everything gets more pleasant as the years go by.”

Reluctantly, she places Betty, mute, back in the music stand.

Nancy A. Ruhling may be reached at Nruhling@gmail.com, nruhling on Instagram.
Copyright 2015 by Nancy A. Ruhling

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