Can I vote for her??

Some quotes I found interesting….

Talking about playing stickball as a kid in Queens (warning, easy metaphor alert!):

Q (5:20): “So it’s you and a bunch of guys on the street?

A: “Yup, I was the only girl… usually was, back then.”

Q: “Did you have to be be better than the others or were you the last one picked every time?”

A: “You know I started out being the last one picked and then they figured out I could actually play a little bit, so I wasn’t always the last one picked. It just took them a while to figure it out.”

Obviously much of the interview focused on her being a woman in this field, and so naturally we didn’t hear much at all about what really matters to us as M’s-fans-hoping/dreading-the-next-GM: talent evaluation and overall philosophy of building a team and an organization. But I thought it was interesting how this exchange fed into a comment she made earlier about establishing your credibility by being honest with people:

(27:06) Q: “When you next sit in that chair as the candidate for a GM’s job what’s the one thing that you’ll tell the people asking the questions that will turn them and have them go “Yeah, we want that person — not that woman — we want that person for the job. What do you need to say?”

A: “I think there are a lot of things. And you know I have to be very up front with what I believe will be issues in my tenure there. And you know there are going to be issues because I’m a woman. And if we hide from that fact or if we ignore that fact I think we’re not going to be better for it. And I think they need to completely understand what my perception of those issues are going to be, and then make their decision. And I’m not sure any candidate would be that up-front when they’re going for that position, but that’s my way and I couldn’t have it any other way.”

Of course being honest to ArmLinc about what’s wrong with the M’s and what has to be done to fix them could be the one thing that most disqualifies you from getting the job.

And finally, what should be the motto for the entire M’s organization for the forseeable future (25:48):

I think it’s a big part of this process: managing people’s expectations.