Carmen Bowen is executive director of the Proxy Parent Foundation, a nonprofit that provides special needs trust administration and personal support services to individuals who live with disabilities. From her Santa Clarita office, Bowen talks about her biggest mistake several years ago, when she chose the wrong player for her winning team.
“I like to be a mentor and give people a chance. But sometimes you have to let people go their merry way when all your coaching, counseling and retraining efforts have failed.
I was leading an entire entity, and my team and I worked together amazingly. A person on my team left to take another job, and they were dynamic and was able to do all kinds of things. Their departure left me with a gaping hole (in our organization) – he was also well liked in the organization, and I really liked him personally. He was so good at running his division – and it was a key division, in education. Again, it left me with a big hole.
I began interviewing (candidates) and a lot of them were lackluster or they came completely ill-prepared for the interview.
Eventually I hired a person to serve in the job, and I realized that I made a mistake – even though it took several months to see it. I still made a mistake.
This person obviously put on a really good ‘show’ in their interview with me. The responses (to my questions) were polished. I was impressed by them. But I realized after hiring them that sometimes you have to look past the “show.” You have to ask those other deeper questions and don’t let anybody’s personality outshine their abilities. And this was such a vital role (running a division) in our organization.
My team was saying that she wasn’t working out, and I would do everything that I could to help her – I counseled her, trained and retrained her. I had others from my team to come in and work with her. The person just couldn’t get it together. I quickly learned that a poor leader in a short period of time can wreak so much havoc.
Again I should have kept asking this person questions, dug a little deeper – instead of being impressed by the show. I also should have noticed at the beginning that this wasn’t going to work. But my heart says, “try it and help them.”
Since then, I have learned that the “representative” shows up for the interview, but the real person shows up for the job.
I also lead differently – lead with my knowledge and lead my experience; and when it doesn’t feel right, fix it.”
