
《工作伴侶》,,作者艾瑞卡·塞璐珞與克萊爾·瑪祖。概要: 艾瑞卡·塞璐珞與克萊爾·瑪祖是時(shí)尚電子商務(wù)企業(yè)Of a Kind公司的創(chuàng)始人,。該公司在2015年被Bed, Bath & Beyond收購(gòu),,但這兩位女士在成為合伙人之前就已經(jīng)是密友。也正是基于這個(gè)原因,,她們決定撰寫一本有關(guān)職場(chǎng)友誼的書,。這兩位女士在本文中分析了以友誼為基礎(chǔ)的合作實(shí)際上是可行的。下文節(jié)選自其新書《工作伴侶:助推商業(yè)成功的女性友誼力量》,。 當(dāng)被問及最令人驕傲的商業(yè)成就時(shí),,我們的答案一直都是“我們!”,,也就是我們之間形成的友誼以及通過在Of a Kind公司共事建立的成功合作關(guān)系,。它是我們2010年共同成立的一家時(shí)裝電子商務(wù)公司。當(dāng)我們近距離審視雙方之間的這種關(guān)系所發(fā)揮的作用時(shí),,我們意識(shí)到,,雙方所形成的這種職業(yè)合作關(guān)系一直受益于女性友誼賴以存在的基本原則——親密無間、敏感,、熱衷于合作以及相互支持,。這些品質(zhì)具有獨(dú)特的力量和潛力,能夠激發(fā)奇思妙想,,并為打造強(qiáng)大的業(yè)務(wù)奠定基礎(chǔ),。 多年前,為了從朋友向企業(yè)合伙人轉(zhuǎn)型,,我們意識(shí)到,,雙方即將建立的這種關(guān)系比我們?cè)谥ゼ痈绱髮W(xué)讀本科期間所形成的關(guān)系要復(fù)雜得多。從每周會(huì)面到經(jīng)常性見面,,我們?cè)谝黄鸬臅r(shí)間比各自睡覺的時(shí)間還多,。財(cái)務(wù)成為了雙方經(jīng)常討論的話題,內(nèi)容不僅僅是討論自己感覺窮的連共進(jìn)晚餐的錢都付不起,。我們?cè)谝归g,、周末會(huì)面,很快就成為了朝九晚五的共事同事,而且各自也會(huì)制定影響對(duì)方的決策,。我們的職業(yè)和未來緊密地交織在了一起,。 盡管這種轉(zhuǎn)變對(duì)于我們來說十分順暢——在進(jìn)行創(chuàng)業(yè)這種恐怖的事情時(shí),有一位密友作為自己的合作方難道不是一件值得慶幸的事情嗎,。但當(dāng)聽到我們講述將個(gè)人友誼轉(zhuǎn)化為職業(yè)關(guān)系之后,,很多人對(duì)此感到驚訝不已。我的天,,多么恐怖的故事,!完全是電影《社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)》橋段的再現(xiàn)!當(dāng)然我們意識(shí)到,,為了追尋創(chuàng)業(yè)夢(mèng)想,,我們可能是在拿友誼做賭注,但我們共同度過的那段時(shí)光讓我們感到異常舒心和愉悅,,然而在充滿動(dòng)蕩和不確定性的白手創(chuàng)業(yè)過程中,,這種感覺令人向往不已。 在合作時(shí),,我們深知大家是平等的個(gè)體,;雙方之間不存在權(quán)力爭(zhēng)斗,我們相信這是一種恒定的關(guān)系,。在某種程度上,,在經(jīng)歷了足夠多令人沮喪的投資者會(huì)議和尷尬的求職者面試之后,有關(guān)我們是否能夠在合作之后成就一番事業(yè)的恐懼感逐漸消失,。一旦我們?cè)诠就度胱銐蚨嗟臅r(shí)間,、歲月和精力之后,我們明顯感到,,我們的關(guān)系不會(huì)因?yàn)闃I(yè)務(wù)的不順利而消亡,,就當(dāng)是進(jìn)入低潮期罷了。我們一直同舟共濟(jì),,即便是“業(yè)”不存在了也是一樣,。 盡管某些(大多為男性)人喜歡將不同的女性進(jìn)行對(duì)比,似乎每一個(gè)女性二人組合都會(huì)是美劇《比弗利山莊》中連正裝都要配對(duì)的布蘭達(dá)和凱利,,但證明這些人是錯(cuò)的——友誼也好,,職場(chǎng)也好——一直都是職業(yè)亮點(diǎn)。我們并非是唯一發(fā)現(xiàn)配對(duì)合作魅力的女性:在準(zhǔn)備拍攝新大頭照時(shí)——年年照,,年年都感到恐懼,,我們上互聯(lián)網(wǎng)尋找照相姿勢(shì)的靈感/竅門,為的是不會(huì)與《沆瀣一氣:如何毀掉你的第一次約會(huì)》海報(bào)中的瑪麗·凱特和阿什利·奧爾森撞車,。我們通過谷歌的圖片搜索結(jié)果意識(shí)到,,不少新企業(yè)都由兩位女士共同經(jīng)營(yíng),而且具有世界影響力:SoulCycle的伊麗莎白·卡爾特與朱莉·萊斯(照片中的她們受益于自行車道具,有失公允),;Shondaland的貝絲·比爾斯與珊達(dá)·萊姆斯(采用了奧爾森的姿勢(shì)),;2 Dope Queens的菲比·羅賓森與杰西卡·威廉姆斯(別惹我的面部表情真的是絕了),;Rodan + Fields 的凱蒂羅丹博士與凱西費(fèi)爾茨博士(她們熱衷于抱手這種氣場(chǎng)強(qiáng)大的姿勢(shì)),。 然而,在有夢(mèng)想著達(dá)成這種備受矚目的商業(yè)合作伙伴關(guān)系之前的10年,,尷尬的男性合作伙伴快照在業(yè)界滿天飛,,例如喬布斯與沃茲尼亞克;蓋茨與阿倫,;普羅科特與蓋博,;本與杰瑞等等,我們?nèi)缃褚灿辛舜罅康呐园駱?。這種轉(zhuǎn)變并非巧合,,它是商業(yè)環(huán)境不斷變化的直接結(jié)果。男性在辦公室的主導(dǎo)地位在緩慢而又持續(xù)地崩塌,,也為女性在職業(yè)方面的合作(而非競(jìng)爭(zhēng))留出了空間,,并為變化奠定了基礎(chǔ)。 兩名或三名女士在領(lǐng)導(dǎo)職務(wù)上進(jìn)行合作為職場(chǎng)的重塑鋪平了道路,,而且這種職場(chǎng)注重同情,、相互支持和透明度這些品質(zhì)。她們會(huì)實(shí)施有遠(yuǎn)見,、能夠帶來強(qiáng)勁業(yè)績(jī)的措施,。這些合作關(guān)系不僅僅改變了女性在職場(chǎng)中的意義,而且也改變了整個(gè)職場(chǎng),。 這種商業(yè)環(huán)境的進(jìn)化勢(shì)必會(huì)引發(fā)早就應(yīng)該發(fā)生的文化轉(zhuǎn)變,,這種轉(zhuǎn)變認(rèn)為女性友誼并非只是放暗箭或陰謀論。電影《賤女孩》故事中,,主人公被巴士撞了,,醒來后則創(chuàng)建了拉拉隊(duì)和Shine Theory。這種思想自然而然也適用于辦公室的友誼,。 “工作伴侶”這個(gè)術(shù)語(yǔ)源自于“辦公室妻子”,,后者起源于20世紀(jì)30年代,并被男人們用于描述那些有著超凡個(gè)人能力的秘書,。最近,,人們借鑒了這個(gè)詞語(yǔ),用其描述女性之間一種捆綁了私人和職業(yè),、相互支持的健康緊密關(guān)系,。這是一種動(dòng)態(tài)關(guān)系,要求人們本著同舟共濟(jì)的態(tài)度,并采用能夠在任何商業(yè)場(chǎng)合下與正直人士打交道的方式,,而且在我們看來,,這是一種顛覆式的關(guān)系。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)) 節(jié)選自艾瑞卡·塞璐珞與克萊爾·瑪祖撰寫的《工作伴侶》,,艾瑞卡·塞璐珞與克萊爾·瑪祖版權(quán)所有 ? 2019,。在使用時(shí)得到了Ballantine Books的許可,后者是企鵝蘭登書屋有限公司下屬業(yè)務(wù)部門蘭登書屋出版集團(tuán)的出版品牌,。版權(quán)所有,。未經(jīng)出版商書面許可,不得對(duì)本節(jié)選文章進(jìn)行復(fù)制或翻印,。 譯者:Pessy 審校:夏林 |
"Work Wife" by Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur. Credit: Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur are the co-founders behind Of a Kind, the fashion e-commerce business that was acquired by Bed, Bath & Beyond in 2015—but they were best friends before they were partners. That’s why the pair decided to write about female friendship in the workplace. In this excerpt from their new book, Work Wife: The Power of Female Friendship to Drive Successful Businesses, the pair analyze how friends-first collaborations can actually, well, work. When asked about our proudest business accomplishment, the answer is always “Us!”—the friendship we’ve nurtured and the successful partnership it’s fostered through Of a Kind, the fashion e-commerce business we founded together in 2010. What we’ve realized in taking a closer look at the ways in which our relationship functions is that our professional partnership has been the beneficiary of the tenets that anchor female friendship: emotional intimacy, vulnerability, a penchant for collaboration, and a pattern of mutual support—qualities that have unique power and potential to spawn great ideas and create foundations for strong businesses. In making the transition from friends to business partners all those years ago, we knew we were signing up for a much more complex relationship than when we met as undergrads at the University of Chicago. We went from seeing each other weekly to spending more time together than we did sleeping. Finances became a constant topic of conversation, and not just in the context of whether one of us was feeling too broke for a dinner date. We spent our nights, weekends, and soon 9-to-5s each making decisions that would affect the other. Our careers and our futures became intertwined. Though this transformation felt natural to us—how else would someone do something as scary as start a business other than with a close friend by their side?—we encountered plenty of people whose eyes popped out of their heads when we told them we were taking our personal relationship professional. Oh, the horror stories! The whole plot of The Social Network! Sure, we recognized that in pursuing this at all, we could be putting our friendship on the line. But our shared history brought us immense, intense comfort—a much-sought-after feeling during the constant turbulence and uncertainty that come with building something from the ground up. We also walked into this knowing we saw each other as equals; there was no power dynamic to contend with, and we trusted that would remain a constant. At some point, after enough soul-crushing investor meetings and awkward interviews with job candidates, the looming sense that we could walk out of this venture short a business and a bud faded away. Once we’d put enough hours, years, and life into Of a Kind, it was clear that if something didn’t work out with the business, our relationship would survive, just as it had plenty of other lows. We were in this together, even if “this” ceased to exist. Though a certain—mostly male—breed of human loves to pit women against one another, as if every female duo is Brenda and Kelly on the matching-formal dress episode of Beverly Hills 90210, proving those people wrong—both in friendship and in business—has been a career highlight. We are hardly the only women who’ve found something appealing about pairing up: While prepping to have new headshots taken, as we do and dread annually, we turned to the internet for inspiration/instruction on how to pose without looking like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen on the poster for Two of a Kind: How to Flunk Your First Date. It was there, in our Google Images search results, that we realized how many of the new ventures taking over the world were run by pairs of women: Elizabeth Cutler & Julie Rice of SoulCycle (who, in photos, benefit unfairly from the use of bikes as props), Betsy Beers & Shonda Rhimes of Shondaland (who have taken the Olsen approach), Phoebe Robinson & Jessica Williams of 2 Dope Queens (who excel at giving don’t-mess-with-us face), Dr. Katie Rodan & Dr. Kathy Fields of Rodan + Fields (who love a crossed-arm power pose). Whereas 10 years prior our vision board of high-profile business partnerships likely would have been littered with awkward snapshots of men who’d monopolized the space—Jobs and Wozniak, Gates and Allen, Procter and Gamble, Ben and Jerry—we now had plenty of female icons to reference. This shift isn’t a coincidence—it’s a direct consequence of an evolving business environment. Slow but steady progress toward dismantling male dominance at the office has carved out space for women to collaborate instead of compete professionally, and that’s set the stage for change. Duos and trios of women who have partnered in leadership positions are paving the way for a reimagined workplace that leads with qualities like compassion, mutual support, and transparency. They’re implementing long-view practices that result in strong business outcomes. These partnerships are changing not just what it means to be women in the workplace, but the workplace as a whole. This evolution in the business world coincides, unsurprisingly, with a long-overdue cultural shift that recognizes that female friendships aren’t all about backstabbing and cattiness. The Mean Girls narrative got hit by a bus and in its wake came #squadgoals and Shine Theory. Naturally, this ethos also holds true for friendships at the office. “Work wife,” a term spawned from “office wife”— which itself dates back to the 1930s, when it was used by men to describe an especially high-functioning secretary—has more recently been co-opted to describe a combination of personal and professional bondedness and healthy, supportive closeness among women. It’s a dynamic that requires an in-this-together attitude and approach that’s viable in any business setting with right-minded people, and in our experience, it’s a game-changing one. Excerpt from WORK WIFE by Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur, copyright ? 2019 by Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur. Used by permission of Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. |