The More You Known: Fran Hauser, the ‘Fairy Godmother of Networking’
Digital media’s “nice girl” explains why you need to spend one hour of your week ‘heads up’ from your computer, meeting someone new.
Anyone who has met Fran Hauser remembers when they first connected. In my case, I was working at Fortune when my boss first introduced us at an internal event. At the time, Fran was President of Digital for the Style and Entertainment group at our parent company, Time Inc. We exchanged a few pleasantries and went our separate ways.
It wasn’t until nearly a year later that I truly understood why she is so special and known as the “Fairy Godmother of Networking.” I was in Washington, DC, covering Fortune’s Most Powerful Women summit and awkwardly milling about in the hotel lobby. It’s intimidating to be a mid-level editor at an event where the majority of attendees are C-level executives of major corporations and/or founders of multi-billion dollar companies. Fran came up to me and said, “Hi Heather, how are you?” I was flabbergasted that this executive had first recognized me as someone from her company (and no, she didn’t slyly look at my badge), and second, remembered my name!
Fran thrives on mentorship, connection, and supporting other women. Her two books, The Myth of the Nice Girl, and the just-published Embrace the Work, Love Your Career, emphasize getting ahead in business without sacrificing your soul. Kindness doesn’t mean being a doormat, and you never know when a small gesture will make someone’s day (or career).
Beth Superfin, Known SVP, Client Experience, and Cheria Young, Known VP, Culture and Experience, sat down with Fran for March’s edition of The More You Known. Beth, Cheria, and Fran discussed empathy, the importance of speaking up, and how to find your “zone of genius.”
Here are some edited excerpts from the conversation, where Fran shares how the pandemic influenced her new book and gives tips on navigating your career without being a jerk.
Why another career book?
I came up with the idea about a year ago. It was in the middle of the pandemic, and I noticed that so many of my friends and colleagues were really struggling with their career, trying to figure out their purpose, their day to day work. Frankly, we’re all still going through an existential crisis, I think, where we’re questioning the meaning of a lot of things in our lives. I decided I really wanted to do something for them and for the millions of women who have left the workforce — they’ve left in droves — and the millions more who are not feeling fulfilled in their career.
I realized I was sitting on so much content. From all of the mentoring that I had done over the years, all of these talks, I have scripts, techniques, strategies, exercises and writing prompts, and I thought it’d be so fun to package all of that up into a guided workbook. It’s very different from your typical career advice book.
It all comes down to empathy
I think it plays such a critical role because when you’re empathetic, it allows you to build trust, and then when you have trust, you can truly build a deep relationship. And being successful at work and in business at the end of the day is all about relationships.
And one of the things that I found so interesting when I was doing research for the first book, for The Myth of the Nice Girl, I talked to a lot of negotiating experts because I really wanted to understand what are the factors that contribute to a win-win outcome. And hands down, every single one of them said that the single most important factor is empathy. When you enter into a negotiation and you start the conversation by understanding the other person’s point of view, asking them: “what value are you looking to create out of this partnership?” It really shows that you care, you care about what’s important to them.
Find your empathy mentor
Look at leaders at [your company] who do have high EQ, and watch them: the way that they lead, the way that they interact with people, the way that they answer questions, the way that they have a conversation or debate. Find those people, and talk to them, because I feel like with this kind of topic, with emotional intelligence, there’s nothing better than learning from other people who do it well. And you have access to those people in your own organization. Really watch them, and pay attention to how they handle certain situations. That’s the best way to learn.
How to be a networking pro
I don’t think I’ve realized the importance of really building out my network until I was probably 15 years into my career. I remember asking Pat Fili-Krushel, who was the number two at Time Warner, what she attributed her success to. And she said, hands down, her network and her relationships. She shared with me that she would do two networking meetings every single day. I remember my jaw dropping because I’m like, how do you even make time for that? It was at that moment that I decided I was going to do one a week.
I thought, “Gosh, if I do this, that’s like 50 new people that I could meet in a given year.” It really took some discipline to say, “You know what? Heads up from the computer instead of heads down. Do all the work, but make it a priority to reach out to people. It’s not only good for your career, it’s also good for your work and your company because you’re meeting people.”
I remember becoming really close to the head of digital of The New York Times. They had already launched their paid content model. I learned so much from him because we were trying to figure out what we should do with Time Inc. And guess what? Instead of reinventing the wheel, here’s this person who could share all of this incredible information and knowledge with me. So I can’t stress enough the importance of building out your connections, your network, your tribe, your community — whatever you want to call it. It’s really one of the most important things that you can do.
I don’t think I’ve realized the importance of really building out my network until I was probably 15 years into my career.
Don’t be invisible. Speak up!
When I was starting out, I had such a hard time speaking up in meetings. I really did. I was really shy, I was very nervous — especially if there were really senior level people in the room, I felt so intimidated. I had a moment in my career that was so special because after one of these meetings, my boss, Lou Sciaretta, who was an incredible mentor, pulled me to the side and he said to me, “Fran, you’re really smart, you have important opinions and points of view that need to be heard, and right now you’re invisible in these meetings. It’s really important that you speak up.” It was such hard feedback to hear, but let me tell you, it was so generous of him.
Before the next meeting, I looked at the agenda, and I picked one topic that I felt really comfortable speaking about. I actually rehearsed what I was going to say, because when you rehearse and you prepare, you’re more confident. So I did that, and I did speak up in that meeting, and I got such positive feedback from Lou and from others. That was a strategy that I used for a little bit, but then guess what? I started feeling comfortable speaking up — I didn’t have to do as much prep work. I think this is also a great example of mentoring in the moment. Lou could have waited until the annual performance review to give me that feedback.
And by the way, the most senior level person in those meetings that I had a hard time speaking up in? He ended up hiring me to be his number two at Coke. And that never would’ve happened. I’m telling you, he wouldn’t even have known who I was if I hadn’t started using my voice.
Find out what you’re known for
A lot of it is about tapping into your natural strengths. I always talk about your “zone of genius,” — that thing that you’re really good at, you’re really knowledgeable about, you enjoy doing it. It’s really a superpower.
It’s important to be known for something, especially at work. You want to be the go-to, you want to be indispensable. I’ll give you an example. When I was at Coca-Cola, very early on in my career, I was in my 20s, I became known for taking really complicated information and simplifying.The task was to take the quarterly board of directors report, which was thick and simplify it. I created a little pamphlet, 8.5 by 11 trifold, one page. The board loved it, and my boss loved it.
My point is that it was something that I was good at. I enjoyed doing it, and it made me valuable at work. So really think about, what is that for you? If you don’t know, you could also ask your colleagues. What comes to mind when they think about you? What are the words that come to mind? That’s your personal brand. Text three of your colleagues and ask them to send you a few words. You will have guessed and some of it, and you may also be like, “Whoa, that’s interesting. That’s how I’m perceived.”
