Managing Your Career

LESSON ONE

Choose Your Words Carefully

Paul Anderson

Chairman, Spectra Energy

AS I PROGRESSED in my career and got into increasingly more responsible or powerful roles, I had to be more sensitive to the impact that my words had on individuals and organizations.

It was almost like my words took on the power of the position, and things that were casual before were no longer casual. I had my first example of this when I was a manager. It was fairly early in my career, and a young woman named Sarah had come in. I was running a planning organization, and Sarah came to me and said, “Look, I don’t have any background in planning—I’m from the IT group—but I would love to join your organization. I’ll work hard to learn what I need to learn to do a good ...