When I first started I was receiving the women's networking emails and one email contained the piece that Corbette Doyle put out on "Coloring Outside The Lines". I have this on my wall and really try to remind myself of these 10 points to live by in my career. Recently, at lunch, I was reminded of the importance of a well rehearsed elevator pitch. Point 3.
Our offices are on the third floor of a three story suburban office building primarily occupied by Xerox on the 1st and 2nd floors. On the first floor we have a small deli frequented by the people in our building and the rest of the office park. The second floor of our office building houses many of the Xerox executives including the Vice President of HR, the Global Chief Diversity Officer and the President of Xerox, Ursula Burns. (Recently ranked by FORTUNE as "Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business")
http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/fortune/mostpowerfulwomen/27.html
At noon, I was getting my lunch at the deli and guess who walks off the elevator and into the deli? Ursula Burns.... We briefly talked about the weather and the weekend while waiting for our lunches. Once we both paid we collected our lunches and walked back towards the elevator. As we are waiting for the doors to open she turns to me and says "What's your name and who do you work for?" I replied, "I'm Mike Griggs and I work for Aon". Her reply was, "I think I have heard of Aon, what is that you do again?" My reply was, "We are the leading provider of risk management consulting services, commercial insurance and reinsurance brokerage services as well as human capital, and management consulting." Her reply was, "Wow, I didn't know that!" I mentioned that I thought that Aon currently handled some of their risk management & insurance programs. Just then the door opened and she got off the elevator and said "Hey great talking to you." "See you at lunch on Monday!"
Thanks for sharing this.. It really has helped!
Michael Griggs
Rochester, NY
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