Jodi Glickman Brown (SESP95)

“I’ve had the benefit of seeing the world from a number of different vantage points, [and that] has given me a great perspective on what works and what doesn’t work in the workplace,” explains Jodi Glickman Brown (SESP95) about how she arrived at founding her own company.

At Great on the Job, which specializes in professional skills training, Glickman now shares that knowledge with clients from all sectors of business. Glickman’s workplace expertise has grown from her diverse job history. She had previously been director of finance at a large non-profit; before that, she was a vice president of investment banking at Goldman Sachs; and Glickman preceded her foray into the finance world with two years in the Peace Corps and then stints at the EPA and at Exxon Mobil.

Though Glickman met with success in each job, she admits, “I was neither a brilliant policy analyst nor a finance whiz.” The key to her achievement was that she was able to prove quickly to her employers that she was “smart, capable, competent, and on the ball,” traits valued in all industries. It is this idea — that overall competency and keen communication skills often prove more valuable than technical know-how — upon which Glickman has based her business.

What sets her company apart from other professional communication training programs is that Glickman directs attention to commonplace issues like how to introduce yourself to your office neighbor, insert yourself into team processes, or ask for help without sounding dumb. Other companies focus on skills for more conspicuous events like interviews, but Glickman maintains that these casual office conversations are just as important.

“The way you conduct yourself with your colleagues and peers has an enormous impact [on how your employer sees you],” she says. Glickman had often observed that many of her peers were missing valuable opportunities to demonstrate their intelligence or capability in everyday situations, and so she began coaching others on office communication skills. After nearly a decade of informal advising, she decided to make it her full-time job; in early 2008, Glickman launched Great on the Job.

Equipped with a curriculum of case studies and role-playing scenarios and a thorough understanding of workplace interactions, Glickman leads Great on the Job’s clients, including Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and top-ranked business schools, through comprehensive and entertaining training sessions.

“Communication skills are vital to success in the workplace,” she affirms. “There are smart people at the EPA, in the Peace Corps, and on Wall Street, but I find that the ones who really get ahead are the ones who master the communication piece.”

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Posted May 29, 2009.