Day 39: Tilly Pick
“I would also say that the work that I do, I need to feel that it’s making a difference someplace. It’s not about philanthropy, it’s about being meaningful and thoughtful and contributing to something that will add value somewhere along the way.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Tilly, for agreeing to become part of this project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Tilly Pick: Sure. My name is Tilly Pick. I live on Boston with my family. I’m a marketing professional in the business about 16 years or so.
Toni: In the work that you do and just in everyday life … I’m just going to jump right into the first question … Who do you inspire and how do you do so?
Tilly: You know, I have to be very honest. I’m not sure that I inspire people that I overtly know how to do it. What I mean by that is I don’t see a lot of people necessarily going around telling you, “Hey, you’ve really inspired me”, so are you really to know? I think it’s actually … Inspiration is a little bit more, in my mind anyway, determined through the eyes of the person that gets inspired and maybe they’re people to ask that question or maybe there’s a way to ask that question.
The most simplistic example: I have used a Liberty Mutual advertising campaign — I’m not sure if you are familiar with it — but in that campaign, someone sees someone do a good deed, and in turn they do a good deed themselves, which triggers yet another person observing that good deed, and so on and so on. So in many ways, I personally get inspired when I take in things, when I see things, when I observe things, and when I process those. So I wish I knew exactly how to do it or what people I have had that effect on.
My hope is that I inspire my kids first and foremost probably, about what’s important in life — how to be a good person, how to make a difference in this world — and I say that I try to do that by setting a good example. And in my mind, work situations aren’t really all that different. Again, you try to set a good example; at least you aspire to do that. Sometimes, you probably are better at it than other times. Sometimes you fall down. But that’s how I guess I try to do it.
Toni: Tell me, as an example, how you might set an example in the workplace.
Tilly: In terms of the values and the principles that you try to reflect in the work you do; and how you treat your clients; and how you listen to them; and how you solve their business problems and really putting them in front of your own personal needs, for instance.
Toni: So you put your clients first, and so what you do is try to unravel their business problems?
Tilly: Yes, essentially. In the client service-oriented business, you are there to support your clients and address their problems and their needs. And typically if you do that well and you’re thoughtful about it and you have integrity in it, your relationship with your clients will continue to grow and develop, as opposed to you looking to sell them yet another product off your shelf.
Toni: So basically it’s that customer relationship that you’re building, being authentic, setting a good example, using your values and principles in order to help your clients.
Tilly: Yes.
Toni: And do you get any type of feedback that that works for you?
Tilly: Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t. A lot of people don’t take the time to provide feedback in this day and age, unfortunately, because they’re either afraid of repercussions or being misunderstood. Feedback mechanisms, in my opinion, are not where they need to be. I myself try to give feedback whenever it happens.
An agency that I used to work with referred to it as “on-the-level feedback”, which is basically just open and honest dialogue that goes both ways about how things are going. And you like to know when you’re on the right track as well as when you’re on the wrong track. So do I also know? Sometimes you read the leaves, the tea leaves if you will, but are people very overt about it? I would say probably not.
Toni: They may not verbally come to you with that feedback, but I would imagine then that your validation comes from repeat business.
Tilly: Sure.
Toni: So, it may not come to you verbally but it definitely comes back in repeat business. When you are working with your clients and then also when you’re making a difference, teaching your children to make a difference in the world, do you use any other similar approach?
Tilly: I think with our kids, the role modeling is a little bit more simplistic in terms of how you treat others, how you treat the environment, how you treat animals and people in relationships. In the work environment, it gets to be a little bit more economically driven.
Toni: But you’re also doing your own role modeling with your clients.
Tilly: Yes.
Toni: Okay. From what I’m hearing from you, with how you inspire others and help them also explore their potential is not only … In the very beginning of this interview, you weren’t sure how that happens, but it became very clear to me that it does with your children, with teaching them how to make a difference with the role modeling and then using a similar approach with the economic return to your clients by being authentic, using those values, the principles, and helping them by setting a good example yourself. So it seems to me like it’s happening all over the place.
Tilly: Yeah, maybe.
Toni: So let me ask you this – when you’re seeking inspiration, where do you go? What do you need?
Tilly: I don’t know if there is necessarily a place to go. I know that I get my energy from … I used to be an ENTJ, now I’m an INTJ, so this was a difference of 15 years where I used to get my energy from the outside and from being around others all the time. I like to be a little bit more reflective nowadays, and that may be just part of maturation or whatever.
I guess if you were ask to me what I need to be inspired, a couple things come to mind. One is this balance, this fine line between the freedom to invent things, kind of finding my own way and entrepreneurial spirit and passion and so forth, so having kind of … Carte blanche is the wrong word, maybe it’s too far, but then on the other hand being also expected to deliver the goods. Somebody who is holding the bar up to me and saying hey, you need to do X, Y, and Z, and the tension between those two is, I think, something that I need too.
I would also say that the work that I do, I need to feel that it’s making a difference someplace. It’s not about philanthropy, it’s about being meaningful and thoughtful and contributing to something that will add value somewhere along the way. And then, I would say that the last thing that I need just on a purely personal level is, given the business that I’m in, periodic compassion and understanding.
Toni: Compassion and understanding?
Tilly: Periodic compassion and understanding. The occasional … I think in our business — maybe it’s in other categories too — the occasional “atta boy” goes a long way, and I know it’s important to me. A lot of times you don’t get it or you have to seek it, but those are probably the things that I need to get inspired, if you will.
Toni: When you’re looking for that — with that periodic compassion and understanding — are there certain resources that you reach for or tools that you might use? Even in the freedom to invent, you know, are there things that you find yourself reaching for when you’re in that place going, “You know what? I need to stay inspired or to be inspired at the moment.”
Tilly: You just ask people. You have to be overt about it. You can’t expect people around you to come your way, in terms of if you want to know how people feel about something. If that’s part of your DNA, you need to go out and ask for it.
Toni: So you basically will say “Hey, how am I doing?”
Tilly: Sometimes you have to. Sometimes you can get a sense of it just by different cues in the environment or progress on a project or how people feel or even their body language. But sometimes you do have just ask, “Well, what did you think of this?”
Toni: When you’re working on yourself and you’re looking for that periodic compassion and understanding but also working on that inventing process, where do you go to explore your potential in moving forward in those areas, maybe when you’re in the inventing part?
Tilly: Where do I go to explore my potential?
Toni: How do you keep yourself fresh?
Tilly: How do I keep myself fresh? You know what I’ve learned over time is a sense of self or awareness of myself, my strengths, my weakness. Strengths oftentimes become your weakness. That has probably taught me more than anything else.
Toni: Can you explain that a little bit?
Tilly: With respect to me, for instance, I’m very much driven by my values, my principles. And a lot of that comes back to my family, my parents, how I was raised, and all that kind of stuff, and that is almost my compass, and I what I need from people. What I need to be inspired in my situation is people that recognize that a little bit, that recognize that compass and know to play to the strength. Because certainly if everything is about your values and everything, you might lose objectivity in something. So you have to make sure it stays on the right track, that you’re using it as a strength as opposed to letting it kind of handcuff you or slow you down. Does that make sense?
Toni: It does, but that also then, I would imagine, is why the feedback is so important to you, because you are so driven by your values. That is why that feedback, periodic feedback — whether it’s compassion, understanding, or maybe negative feedback — is important to you to make sure that that compass doesn’t need to be, I don’t know, maybe regulated a bit.
Tilly: Yeah. For me, the marketing business is very much about passion and energy and pushing yourself and looking for better solutions and new ways of thinking of old problems and all that kind of stuff. For me to be able to push myself in that space, one thing I’ve learned is that I need to be in a place and with people that recognized that piece about me and that helped me play to that strength. That’s when I’m at my best. That’s when I probably feel most inspired.
Toni: Is when those strengths are recognized.
Tilly: Yeah.
Toni: And you can build on that.
Tilly: Yes.
Toni: That’s really interesting. And I think the lesson in this interview for me from you is the honesty that you put forward saying that you’re not sure that there is inspiration from you to others because you don’t get that feedback. However, in your work you do work authentically, your values are incredibly important to you, and you need that feedback. And also personally then, you’ve spoken to needing that feedback, needing to make a difference, and how those values are so important. So, to me, this interview is all about your honesty and how important those values are to you, putting them out there, but how absolutely critical to you the feedback to those values and playing to those strengths are.
Tilly: I would say that’s accurate. And I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I think feedback — and feedback may be the wrong term — but open communication that goes two ways is very important whether it’s supervisor and an employee or whatever. But when you know what people are thinking, what people are feeling, I think when you’re aware of that and when you’re aware of that in the middle of that, it makes a huge difference in the level of inspiration, motivation, and energy you have towards something.
Toni: Well, you have provided a great insight today, and I think others are going to definitely benefit and learn from it, and for that I truly appreciate your time and giving of this 15-minute snapshot. So I thank you so very much, Tilly, for your time today.
Tilly: You’re very welcome.
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For more information about Tilly Pick, Partner at 360 Development Practice 360, LLC : www.linkedin.com/in/tillypick
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