One unforgettable lesson from my 1st boss [An interview with Zoe Brent]
What kind of boss makes you tattoo the team chant on your body? You’re about to meet her. My first boss was a cult leader an incredible and fearless leader called Zoe Brent. I did spend my first month reporting into this awesome Scottish dude, but that a story/lesson for another day.
No challenge too big
No target too high
I will succeed
I am IR
Every single member in Sthree’s internal recruitment(IR) team knew this by heart. It was part of the induction to the team, and it was the thing that glued the team together and kept us going in the hard times. We were all spread out across the globe and working in different offices while reporting to Zoe who was based in the UK. Despite the geographical and time zone distance between us, we never ever felt like we were working by ourselves. Although I was the only internal recruiter in Sthree’s Singapore office, I still felt part of the global team and we celebrated our successes and bantered over emails and calls.
My induction into her team started with a trip to the HQ in London, where I got to meet the London team. It was there that I was introduced to British slang, work ethic and strange customs such as making tea for everyone and taking turns to buy colorful shots at Revolution. More importantly, I got to work with die-hard Sthree internal recruiters who lived and breathed the values of the business and gave me world class training in recruitment. All while having lots of fun at the same time! Even after having left the business we have stayed in touch as friends and met up in places like New York and Sydney.
In Zoe’s recent trip to Singapore, we got to spend 4 hours with each other catching up. She even tried exotic Singaporean delights such as freeze dried durian and salted egg chips. Oh, and I spent 15 minutes doing an impromptu interview so that I can share some life nuggets of wisdom from this female role model of mine.
C: You’ve done a number of different roles and have been pretty successful in what you do. What’s the secret to your success?
Z: I would put it down to characteristics and people. The characteristics definitely are the fact that I work very hard, doesn’t matter what to do, but to apply yourself, and a positive attitude. When it comes to people, it was this lady called Mauritia, she was only 21 when I met her, she ran Progressive in Reading. She joined Sthree when she was 19, and she was an incredible salesperson. She’s just full of energy and passion, and as soon as she met me she said, ‘You’ve got to do recruitment!” I’ve been a PA, it’s a very reactive job where you are being told what to do. I found it really frustrating it but I didn’t know what else to do. She inspired me to try recruitment. So I think the positive attitude, the willingness to try anything and finding a solution are the attributes that make me successful. But fundamentally there are people who change who you are by sending you to a different path so I have to properly credit her.
C: I think you were like that to me as well.
Z: Aw, I’m glad honey.
C: Can you share a memorable aspect of your time as the leader of IR?
One of my most memorable part of the team was in 2009, before you joined. I remember holding a meeting in Reading, when they first asked me to take over the team.There were 42 people in the team and they made me lay off everyone except 6 people. They said we wouldn’t be recruiting for a long time. This was back in 2009. It was a full on crazy exercise where I had to lay people off and try to inspire a team of 6 to do a job where there were no vacancies.
I remember we had this 2 day meeting in Reading and they were all like, “this is ridiculous, what are we going to do?” And I said, “Right, we are going to get everything in place. We are going to build pipeline.” I remember they were all sad and depressed. On the second day we went in and everyone was just like moaning. I went in the board meeting and said “Right, you lot! if you want to do this job, you better do it right or f*** off. I will do this on my own, I don’t need any of you if you don’t want to be in here.’ And they were all like, “no we want to be good, we want to be in here.” And then within one month, we had our first vacancy go live and then it was just manic.
It was just such a fun time, how we grew that team. It was tough but it also allowed me to rebuild it with people I really wanted, so that was good.
C: Was there any memorable life lesson that that team taught you?
Z: Yea from that meeting, I think you have to as a leader believe in where you are going. And you have to believe that no matter what, you will make it work. And it will be successful just because you will make it successful. I think that second day of the team meeting in Reading taught me for sure a leader can never doubt what needs to be done. You can hope to inspire and take people on that journey with you but ultimately if they don’t match your values and passion, it won’t matter. But the other thing they taught me more than any other is to have fun.
C: LOL, you weren’t having fun before that?
Z: It was a different kind of fun. When I was in Huxley, I loved my job, but I don’t think I loved my team. I didn’t know how to love my team, and that team taught me to really still be the leader and have the same amount of fun with the people who work for you. That chant we came up with showed me the importance of bonding the people to a vision. Most of us probably can’t even remember the chant but anyone in the team you can say the chant to, they could still feel it even if they don’t remember it.
C: Yes, definitely there are lots of emotions and memories associated to that chant for me!
Z: Do you remember when we used to do bathroom situps? Were you in Paris for that meeting? For some reason whenever we went drinking I would want to do exercises. We would lay down and do planks on the floors of nightclubs.
C: Haha, well you made us do belly farts on our clients! I have a photo of that!
Z: You and me, on Stuart, in a car park. I remember that!
C: Well, one of the life lessons you taught me is to make memories. I still remember the exact moment you said that to me. We were walking to a bar, and I can’t remember the exact topic.
Z: I think it was either you or Rose not wanting to do something. Or maybe it was about me not wanting to do the G-Swing.
C: LOL, I don’t think either you or Rose wanted to do it.
Z: Cindi, I think it was only you wanting, I mean forcing us to do it. If you ask me if I’ve tried something, I would want to try it. Because you are reminding me that this is something that could pass you by and you might never have a chance to do it again.
The GX-5 Extreme Swing where Zoe made us do the IR chant
C: Where did you get that from, because not everyone thinks like that?
Z: I think it was more born out of a frustration of when people don’t try things. When I look back at the things that made me the happiest, like bungee jumping, I hated it at that time. I hated it. But it’s those stuff that you remember.
C: Have you ever regretted not trying something?
Z: I live my life believing you can’t ever regret something. I almost never think about regrets. No regrets, cos everything got me here.
C: That’s my ONE lesson from you. Make memories and leave no regrets. :)
Thank you Zoe Brent, Rose Mengi and Team IR for the lessons, the laughs and the memories!
This is the second of my #1lesson series where I write about one lesson from a person or book who has inspired me. Let me know if you have enjoyed reading my one lesson!
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on September 4, 2018.
