????你有認真對待前臺這份工作嗎？

????時任CEO對我說過的一件事，改變了我的一生和職業理想。得到工作之后，他看著我說：“恭喜你，你現在就是Hill Holliday的形象代言人了。”公司的形象代言人應該是CEO，所以當時我想，我將是前臺的CEO。我將成為史上最優秀的前臺，這就是我當時對這份工作的看法。我非常認真地對待這份工作。我沒有消磨時間，而是非常認真地對待它，并注意觀察。在這個位置上，可以很好地研究形形色色的人，了解所有人，可以想清楚很多事情。

????上世紀80年代的廣告人是一種什么樣的工作狀態？

????上世紀80年代，對于職場女性的處境來說，尤其是廣告行業，和以60年代為背景的《廣告狂人》（Mad Men）相比沒有太大變化。我經常說在過去二三十年間，我們有了更多進步。上世紀90年代，我的孩子們年幼的時候，職場女性經常會隱瞞有孩子的事實。如果你有孩子，人們就斷定你無法出差，而沒有考慮你的配偶是否可以照看孩子。公司會以有孩子為理由，拒絕為女性提供工作、升職或任務。如今，有關性別的透明度和社會對女性的頌揚，是我前所未見的。女性具有了社會意識，并且成為社會的中堅力量。

????能否舉個例子，說明一下《廣告狂人》時期廣告人的處境？

????我們公司一位執行創意總監不僅僅是在他的辦公室開了一家酒吧，他的辦公室就是一個酒吧，里面有一個U形吧臺，使用漂亮的桃花心木制成，他會坐在吧臺后面的高腳凳上撰寫文案。做了一段時間前臺接待后，我成為一名項目經理，那時候，我有一本老式的聯絡簿，上面有附近所有酒吧調酒師的電話號碼，因為我得通過這些號碼找到撰稿人，拿到文案。

????成為CEO，你是否感到意外？

????1982年成為公司前臺的時候，我并沒有決定以后一定要成為這家公司的CEO。我從沒打算在這里度過自己的職業生涯。我曾經在四年里上了四所本科學校。我是最不可能在一家公司度過整個職業生涯的人。如果你問我媽媽或我丈夫，他們總是說，我以后肯定會成為這家公司的操盤者。他們確實是這么想的。

????你是哪種類型的領導者？

????相對于已知的事情，偉大的領導者會更關注未知的事情。我認為，許多領導者會自認為無所不知。如果你有這樣的想法，那你注定會失敗。我有強烈的好奇心。我總能做得更好和變得更好，我勇于改變，我感覺每個人都能帶來不同的視角，因為每個人會從不同的角度看待這個世界。如果你不能以開放的心態面對不同的觀念，不如就此打住。我幾乎從事過Hill Holliday的每一份工作，所以我認為，任何地方和任何人都能產生優秀的創意。

????在招聘新員工時，你看重什么？

????我有一個特點，就是會給一個人安排他認為超出自己能力范圍的工作，然后相信他們能夠成功。因為你相信他們，他們便會相信自己。我本人便是這種做法的受益者。我曾經被安排做過許多沒有任何經驗的工作，但這些都成為推動我不斷成長的機會。

????你得到的最糟糕的建議是什么？

????我得到的最糟糕的建議是，要順從而不是張揚自己的與眾不同之處。對我而言，我一直希望突出自己的不同之處和個體差異性。作為女性，我不希望像男士一樣穿著，或者放棄自己的個性，隨波逐流。即使到了2014年，我經常是會議室里唯一的女性。必須強調個體差異。

????你得到的最好的建議是什么？

????我姐姐和我經常會把一些成績帶回家炫耀，比如優秀的成績單或體育比賽獎品，我父親會說：“凱倫，你知道嗎，表揚與懲罰之間，只相隔六英寸。”我當時并不理解他的話。最后我明白，父親是要提醒我，永遠不要認為自己了不起或習慣于成功。我的理解是要保持謙遜，不要把自己太當回事。（財富中文網）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????Did you take your receptionist job seriously?

????One of the things the then-CEO said to me changed my life and my career ambitions. When I got the job, he looked at me and said, “Congratulations, you are now the face and the voice of Hill Holliday.” The face and the voice of the company should be the CEO, so I remember thinking in that moment that I was going to be the CEO of the reception desk. I was going to be the best damned receptionist in history and that’s how I approached the job. I took it really seriously. I didn’t just bide my time out there. I took it very seriously and I paid attention. It was the perfect perch to study people and get to know everybody and figure things out.

????What was it like working in advertising in the 1980s?

????The world in the 1980s for working women, particularly in advertising, was not far evolved from what you see in Mad Men, which was set in the 1960s. I always say we made a lot more progress in the last 20 or 30 years. When my kids were babies in the 1990s, women in the workplace kind of hid their kids. If you had kids, people would assume you couldn’t travel, without having any idea what your partner situation was. A woman with kids could be considered an excuse for not being given a job, promotion or assignment. Now, there is this transparency and celebration of women that I’ve never seen before. Women are in the social consciousness and are front and center now.

????What is one example of working in the Mad Men-era of advertising?

????One of our executive creative directors didn’t just have a bar in his office. His office was a bar. It was a U-Shaped bar, beautiful mahogany, and he would sit behind the bar on the bar stool and write his copy. After I worked as a receptionist, I was a project manager, and I had an old-school Rolodex with the numbers of all the bartenders at all the bars around us because I would have to go find the writers to get their copy.

????Were you surprised when you became CEO?

????It wasn’t like I started in 1982 as a receptionist and decided I was going to be CEO of this company some day. I never planned on spending my entire career here. I went to four different undergraduate schools in four years. I was the last person to spend her entire career at one company. If you ask my mother or my husband, they always said I would be running the company some day. They meant it.

????What type of leader are you?

????Great leaders are more impressed with what they don’t know than what they know. I think a lot of leaders are know-it-alls. The moment you think you know everything, you are dead. I am very curious. I can always do better and get better and I embrace change and I feel like everyone brings a different perspective and everyone sees the world differently. If you are not open to that, you might as well call it a day. Because I basically had every job at Hill Holliday, I respect that great ideas can come from everywhere and anyone.

????What do you look for when hiring new employees?

????One of my hallmarks is to give someone a job that they think is beyond their capability and then to believe in them. Because you believe in them, they believe in themselves. I was really the beneficiary of that. I was given things to do that I had no experience of background doing, but I was given the opportunity to grow.

????What is the worse advice you ever had?

????The worst career advice I ever had was to conform and not celebrate my differences. For me, I always wanted to highlight what makes me different and accentuate my personal differences. Being a woman, I never wanted to dress like a man or blend in. Today, in 2014, I am often the only woman in a meeting with lots of men. Personal differences should be accentuated.

????What is the best?

????My sister and I would always run home with some accomplishment like a good report card or some sport award and my father would say, “You know Karen, a pat on the back is just six inches from a kick in the but.” I didn’t understand what he was trying to tell me. At the end of the day, that was the reminder that you should never become too impressed with yourself or get too accustomed to success. For me it is about humility and not taking yourself so seriously.