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PROUDLY PRESENTS
Ronald GutKowski
Resident of The United States and 3-DNET® VIP member
Email contact : anand@exec.org
INTERVIEW WITH 3-DNET®
Listen to sample sound "bites" from the interview:
Question 1 : Tell me about yourself
I'll start with what other people tell me: I'm intense and plain-spoken, a fellow who can't say no to a challenge and a man you can count on in a crisis. But they also say I'm easy to work with, and someone who never forgets how to laugh when a situation turns grim. I was raised in a large family that owned and ran a small bakery, where even the children went to work as soon as we were old enough to make ourselves useful. That was an education most children miss. In high school and college I was an athlete, a runner, with teams that set records and won championships. In my various careers since then I have always been attracted to high-performance organizations. I have always been a generalist, a manager who could be trusted to get the most out specialists, but lately I've found a specialty of my own as a writer who can find the words that best express what the specialists want to say.
Question 2 : What can you offer to your next employer ?
What I offer is a wide range of experience. I've been a counselor, a teacher, a manager in several varied enterprises, a programmer and a consultant. I have worked in corporate, non-profit and government environments. I doubt there are many business issues I am likely to encounter that aren't similar to ones I have seen elsewhere.
Question 3 : What are your strengths ?
One of my strengths as a manager and consultant is my ability to focus on a problem, a challenge or an opportunity and see it though to completion. As a writer what I do best is make complex subjects simple and easy to read, and make sleep-inducing subjects entertaining. But the ability to communicate effectively and to listen carefully to what others have to say are probably my greatest strengths, whether as a manager, a consultant or a writer.
Question 4 : What are your accomplishments ?
Fresh out of graduate school, I was a counselor in the high school of last resort for teenagers who had been expelled from every other high school in Philadelphia. Three years later I was the chief executive of a non-profit organization. As a college instructor I introduced a course to the school curriculum that had never been taught there before. I managed government contracts for a fuel-oil distributor that totaled more than one-half of the company's product volume. The employees of a civil engineering firm I left seven years ago still joke today that everywhere they look, they see a policy, procedure or system that I designed and built. When I left that job for a software consulting firm, I was the only field consultant hired by the company's New York and New Jersey office who had not previously been a CPA, a corporate controller or an accounting manager. During my tenure there I was twice one of the top ten quarterly revenue producers. That was all before I taught myself to write. You can examine samples of my latest work and decide for yourself what I've accomplished.
Question 5 : What are your limitations ?
I am more of a generalist than a specialist. As a result I've learned to respect expertise I lack. However much I might be able to contribute to a sales and marketing effort, I would never attempt to personally close a sale. Likewise, in highly technical matters I know that despite my skills at communicating technical information, I'm not the person you should ask to revive a dead file server.
Question 6 : How much are you worth ?
Thomas Hobbes said it best: "And as in other things, so in men, not the seller, but the buyer determines the price ... their true value is no more than it is esteemed by others.” My business specialty puts me in that position more often than most people. To anyone who doesn't appreciate the importance of high quality corporate writing, and the impact it has for employees, clients and a company's mission and objectives, my services won't be worth much. But to someone who does, my question is: "Are you willing to settle for less?" The rest is a matter of budget priorities.
Question 7 : What are your ambitions for the future ?
For the next five years I plan a gradual transition from business and technical writing to writing for general audiences. I want to spend the rest of my career as a free-lance writer and journalist. Corporate writing will allow me to do that without suffering any loss of income. Brevity, precision and clarity of expression are the qualities I value most in my own work and in the work of writers I admire. They are essential to making any business and technical writing effective too. Until I reach my ultimate goal I will continue with corporate writing, which is not only work I enjoy, but also the best preparation.
Question 8 : How long would it take you start contributing to the firm?
As long as it takes for someone to show me the work that needs to be done.
Question 9: What is your management style?
What you may find surprising to hear, in light of what I've said above, is that my management style is very relaxed. My first priorities as a manager are to focus intensely on the specifics of whatever has to be accomplished and make sure all team members know their roles and responsibilities. Then we all work as hard as we can and try to enjoy ourselves as much as we can. Maintaining a standard of excellence at any activity always hurts, as it should. The least any manager owes his subordinates is the opportunity to kill some of the pain with a little fun.
Question 10: Why do you think you have a good potential to be a manager?
I have the potential to be a good manager because I'm a natural leader. People like working under me. I have a track-record of accomplishments that I have already described above.
Question 11: What would you look for in hiring people?
The first things I look for when hiring people are the ability to communicate, and what psychologists call interpersonal skills. Beyond that I look for evidence of initiative, persistence and patience. Finally, I look for an understanding of what excellence means. Aside from any job-specific skills required for a position, I firmly believe that anything else that might be needed can be taught.
Question 12: As a manager, have you ever had to fire someone?
No, but I've come close. I used an approach I had seen work very effectively. I advised the employee that she would be fired immediately unless she made significant changes in her conduct and the quality of her work. I made sure she knew exactly what she needed to improve. Then I gave her the rest of the day off and told her to return the next morning as if it was her first day at work. Finally, I told her that when she did return, whatever she had done to put her job at risk was forgotten as far as I was concerned. That young woman continued to work as my trusted personal assistant for the next ten years.
Question 13: What do you see as the most difficult task of being a manager?
The most difficult task I have had as a manager is encouraging people who work for me to help me perform most effectively, which helps them perform at their full potential. In most instances a supervisor doesn't have the opportunity to build a team of subordinates from scratch. You have to work with the people and the organizational culture in place when you arrive. Even in groups of very talented people, building a culture that will settle for nothing less than excellence takes time.
Question 14: Describe what you feel is the best work environment?
The best work environment is one where employees are paid what they are worth, rewarded for exceptional performance, treated fairly and with respect, and given all the resources they need to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. In return an employer should expect nothing less than excellence. A company that continually tries to achieve those ideals will always be an enjoyable place to work and a more profitable one for all involved.
Question 15: Looking back how do you describe your past employer?
My last employer, ePartners, came as close to meeting the standard I just described as any company I have ever worked with. As far as I was able to determine, few of our clients came as close. It was an extremely demanding but delightful place to work.
Question 16: What have you done to increase productivity, performance, efficiency, etc..?
In an emergency I was once asked to take on the management of all the government contracts for a fuel oil distributor, amounting to half of the total volume of products it sold. Receivables turnaround time had created cash flow problems that had reached the point where it couldn't afford to buy enough oil to fulfill the contracts. Instead it had to borrow money at rates that exceeded its net profit. I turned what certainly would have been a total loss into a profit making venture.
Question 17: Whether you are a "computer wizard", how do you respond to the financial side of your responsibilities?
Every manager and consultant should know how to learn whatever needs to be learned to get a job done right on the first try, within a specified deadline and budget. Whether the wizardry involves computers or financial statements, I'm equally comfortable working at either end of that spectrum.
Question 18: How many people have you supervised in your recent job?
As a project manager for ePartners, the teams I supervised were small, typically consisting of no more than four or five consultants, developers and technicians. Usually only one or two members of the team worked on-site at any time. They were "virtual" teams, in effect. Meetings of the entire group were rare, which made supervision a logistical challenge in its own right on every project.
Question 19: What do you like more, working with figures or words?
I prefer working with words more than working with figures, but for me one of the most challenging and enjoyable experiences when I work with words is describing what numbers mean. Translating a table of numbers and their many relationships into plain English and making the result easy to read and understand is one of the most difficult tasks a writer can face.
Question 20: How do you think that your subordinates receive you?
I avoid any confusion in this area with a simple rule I learned long ago. Whenever I'm leading a team, I tell them exactly what they should expect when we first meet, so there will be no surprises. Then I remind them periodically to tell me if I anything I say or do ever surprises them in an unpleasant way.
Question 21: What do you think of your previous boss?
My last corporate supervisor was the head of the software development team at the New York and New Jersey office of ePartners. He was excellent at defining the scope of work for a project and the results to be achieved, and identifying key issues and requirements to be addressed. Beyond that he left the details up to us. He was more of a coach than a boss, which is one of the highest complements I can pay to any manager.
Question 22: Describe a situation in which your work was criticized?
As a consultant I was once the point-man on a large and complicated project. Though I was not the project manager, about half of our work for the client was my direct responsibility. Our resources were stretched to the point where the manager in charge couldn't spend the time he should have spent on the project, and he missed serious problems looming ahead. I was so focused on my work I didn't see them coming either. But I should have seen them, advised our team's manager and kept the situation under control until more help arrived. I let both my team and the client down. The problems were eventually set right, and I still use the former client as a reference, but I bore most of the criticism for what happened at the time and deserved it.
Question 23: If I spoke with your boss what he would say about your greatest strength and weaknesses?
You would hear that my greatest strength is my ability to focus intently on any task and see it though to completion, regardless of any surprises or setbacks I encounter on the way. You would also hear that my greatest strength sometimes prevents me from stepping away from the details and viewing things from a larger perspective. It's a weakness I have to keep under careful watch. I always try to keep someone handy to remind me watch it.
"If I spoke with your boss.... ?"
Question 24: How can you handle life under pressure and with tough deadlines?
There are very few professions more demanding than consulting. Information technology consulting is particularly difficult, because information systems have become so complex that success or failure often depends on how well other people perform jobs that are effectively beyond a consultant's control. Demanding work environments, pressure and impossible deadlines are things I've learned to manage.
Question 25: What do you think you do better: staff work or line work?
I prefer staff work to line work. I am better at analyzing problems and communicating solutions than I am at managing people, and have always enjoyed it more.
Question 26: In your current position, what problem have you identified that was previously overlooked?
For nearly 20 years, either as a manger or consultant, one of my primary responsibilities has been to look for problems that have been overlooked. For example, my area of expertise as a consultant was designing and implementing project accounting and management systems. The most important part of the job was to understand what a client wanted to accomplish as early as possible in the process, and show them every possible way their plans would cause trouble down the road. If I missed anything at that early stage, any changes months later would be extremely expensive, and the client would be extremely unhappy.
Question 27: If you had a choice of job and a company what would you choose?
For me, an ideal job would be to work full-time as a writer, for a company or companies with high standards for corporate communication, preferably in the field of information technology.
Question 28:Do you have any objection to take a psychological test?
I have no objections at all. I always enjoy reading the results.
Question 29: Do you consider yourself as a creative person?
No, I don't consider myself creative in the way most people use the term. I do consider myself an original thinker though, which to me is nearly as important, but very different. What impresses me most about the people I call creative are the flashes of insight that occur to them that the rest of us don't see. My talent is burrowing into details and fishing out insights that aren't obvious. Some people call that creative, but my own experience tells me it's not. In my opinion anyone can learn originality. Creativity can't be taught.
Question 30: How do you describe your personality?
I'm easy to get along with. I prefer the company of people who force me to think, and who make me laugh
Question 31: What is your outside reading you do?
I find that the more I write, the less I read. I still read all sorts of things, from daily newspapers to classic literature, but when I do I am usually less interested in a particular subject than in what I can learn from the quality of the writing. That once presented a problem for me. Since I had always enjoyed reading for the sheer fun of it, once I began writing I had to teach myself a new way of reading. Reading anything as a practicing writer is like watching a magician and knowing the secrets behind his illusions. You have to learn another way to enjoy the show.
Question 32: What are some of your outside activities?
When I'm not working to earn my living, I'm most often working for the community in which I live. It's a small, rural town, and I'm a member of our municipal planning board. In New Jersey local planning boards bear enormous responsibilities for protecting the health and safety of the people they represent. Over the years I've spent thousands of hours working on behalf of my friends and neighbors. It is one of the most satisfying things I've ever done.
Question 33: Are you continuing your education?
Right now my continuing education consists of the intense study of writers whose work I find instructive. Writing is a craft like any other, no different from carpentry or cabinet-making. Taking a craft to its highest level requires constant study and practice. My first priority for furthering my education is finding a workshop of writers to critique my work. Otherwise, my education will take whatever path that my employers' writing assignments dictate.
Curriculum Vitae Confidential
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