Great Q&A was Teresa A. Taylor, the chief operating officer of Qwest. An excerpt follows.
Q. How do you hire?
A. I never hire somebody without having a meal with them. I am absolutely convinced that that’s how you see what people are really like. You can tell by the way they order, you can tell by the way they treat the wait staff, you can tell by the way they drink too much or what they drink — you can pick up all these lifestyle things that you can’t get out of questioning them sitting in your office. Maybe they can’t make a decision on what to order, or they’re very snotty to the waitress. I absolutely have changed my mind on individuals after doing that.
Q. Is there anything unusual about the way you run meetings?
A. Well, the first is by saying, “Do we all know why we’re here?”
Q. What about presentations?
A. I use a little saying, which is, “Be brief, be bright and be gone.”
