philanthropissed

I tend to read a lot of career-oriented blogs – both general career blogs and ones oriented towards my own particular profession of nonprofit fundraising and development. My favorite career blog is definitely Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist. Not just because of the similarities between Penelope and I that allow me to identify with her perspective (we’re both brunette Jewish overachievers with workaholic tendencies who used to play volleyball), but because Penelope has this amazing ability to cut through the bullshit that most career writers dance around, and she writes like you’re talking to her.

One of my favorite Brazen Careerist posts is about the importance of social skills in the workplace. Penelope stresses that likeability, the ability to know how to help yourself and others, the ability to connect with others, and the ability to navigate workplace politics all have the potential to take you farther (or hold you back more) in the workplace than your actual, job-related skill set. In re-reading this post, I had a flash of brilliance and a sudden realization: A cappella has helped my career.

Sure, I had nonprofit internships, but professional staff do their best to shield interns from office drama and politics rather than expose them. Maybe they shouldn’t, but that feels like a topic big enough for another time and blog post.

Being in an entirely student-run a cappella group at a large, prestigious university filled with smart (maybe too smart) people taught me more of what I’ve really needed to succeed in my career than any internship. In some ways, the group was like a workplace – people working hard for a common purpose, with a defined vision, goal(s) and leadership structure.

• Elections for Music Director and President at the end of each year taught me that people, once in power, are loathe to give it up – the implications of which have affected every single job I’ve ever had, from determining who owns a project to who runs a committee to who decides how a budget is used to the closing lines of a solicitation letter.

• The politics of intra-group cliques and the resulting drama of solo auditions taught me that plum assignments don’t always go to the person who does the best job, but sometimes to the people are liked most.

• Being section leader of the altos my senior year taught me how to herd cats and make sure my responsibilities – so much of which depend on other people and factors outside my physical or psychological control – have great outcomes. It also taught me that truly helping other people – giving them something they couldn’t do or have on their own – makes them your allies and bonds you in ways that organizational politics can’t tear down.

• The grind of Spring Musical rehearsals every April and May – the marathon sessions where we rehearsed four hours a night, five nights a week, for a month straight on a play we’d written to show off our music – taught me that team members need to feel respected and appreciated, and you need to amp up showing that respect and appreciation during times of stress and overload. One of our sopranos stormed unceremoniously out of the penultimate rehearsal shrieking, “that’s the last sacrifice I ever make for this shitty group!” and we replaced her with a sock puppet.

I think everyone needs to find an avenue that allows you to develop your organizational social skills outside the workplace, because you will need them.

I think about all the situations I’ve been in professionally where I needed to use the skills I learned in my a cappella group – being liked, making people feel you care about them, negotiating delicately or firmly, finding ways in which you can provide added value to someone, and having to work with people you absolutely can’t stand – and I shudder at the thought of the outcomes if I didn’t already have the necessary social skills to deal, navigate and succeed.