by David D'allesandro. You can get an idea of what he's like by searching for that name on Goog video and you'll get a Businessweek sound byte. Seems okay, but, to me, seems to lack the refinement that you expect in a CEO. But who am I to judge based on one sound byte?
One thing he mentions more than once is the "room-changer" thing: Who is the room-changer? Which one creates a dramatically different and more positive aura whenever he or she walks into the room? (tell me about that one - I've seen a few types who cast a spell of doom on the room!) Even if your back is to the door, you don't need trumpets or 'Hail to the Chief' to know that a person of presence has come in.
How?
- Offer something substantial that's not just self-importance. Energy to listen, solve problems, make things happen.
- Be true to yourself and the things you believe. Don't craft a personality. If you choose to take a position on an organizational issue, how will it look in a 30 second political attack ad?
- Have a sense of perspective. The people whose paychecks you sign will only say good things about you and tell you positive stuff. You have to have friends who don't care about what your position is. (to me, this also means : "don't try to win all the time - in every conversation")
The things about Nike being a place to learn marketing but not practice it is another big thing I got out of this.
Then, about bosses - they may tell you they're interested in helping your career. What they mean is, "Wise up. I'm interested in making my own career better. If that works for you, well and good." Basically, you want to help your boss's career in the hope that you can rise with her.
I learnt some things I didn't know about GE. I thought GE was a great place where the best people were democratically chosen to be leaders because everyone agreed they were the best. In Jack: Straight from the Gut, the a.b. of Welch, he describes the politics surrounding his own contest for the chairmanship of GE as "thick."
Then, how do you find the mole? Use the CIA trick. David Lieberman would love this one. Say you have three suspects, give each one a different piece of false, damaging information about you and see which one surfaces. Get scared if all three do: You are really unpopular!
One funny part of the book is where he talks about one bad hire he made: Not only was her work shabby and inaccurate, her behaviour was so bizarre that she soon lost all credibility with the people who worked for her. Here is just one example among many: She had this strange relationship with M&Ms. She would buy a giant bag of M&Ms, and instead of having lunch, she would take them into a conference room and lay them all out, by colour, battalions of M&Ms, all with the letter "M" facing her. Never mind the sanitary issues of eating them right off the conference table, she'd talk to her candies before she ate them: "Okay, yellow battalion, your turn!"
Some of these outfits can pay a headhunter a $200k fee for hiring someone in a senior management position.
In the old days - before the 90's about 1 in 10 CEO's were sacked by the boards. In the new era, it's about 1 in 3.
Socially, once you reach senior management, don't socialize with your employees! You just increase the odds of something nasty happening to undermine your career! Damn - what this must do to the legions of young riffraff aiming for the high posts just for the social life that should accompany it.
One thing he talked about which struck very close to home was a loan shark culture at work: When I was a kid, my dad borrowed from loan sharks. The interest was five percent a week, and it had to be paid every week. If the loan shark's collector walked in, and my dad said, "Look, my kid was in the hospital this week. I can't pay you until next week," the collector would say, "I'm really sorry to hear about your kid in the hospital. Pay me my money."
At some organizations, this attitude is endemic.
Now, those who know I worked for a quality outfit might wonder about this. Was it like that in my place of work? What I can say is that the businessscape is extremely competitive. To survive, you have to compete against a lot of shady outfits and cost is king. So is delivery. If you can't deliver, you're in trouble. Which is worse, to know that you're dead if you don't get across the tracks before the train gets there or to dread nasty meetings on a daily basis? My take.. it trickles down from the top. If you're careful about how you hire, you'll never get into such problems. I've seen entire teams dragged down because one or two resources don't care about pulling their weight. And they'll wrestle - they're pigs, and they love it. Hiring is one of the toughest decisions that involves so little work. Really, what can you do? You can ask questions, but how hard is that? This is where experience and judgement come in. Even the smart ones who can deliver can become tyrants and terrorize the other members of their team and make other worthwhile contributors walk up and leave. I've seen that happen too.
Based on what happened to me, the next time you contemplate changing groups internally, you're looking at getting a whole bunch of answers. Which business group are you really part of? What is the history? Why do you guys sit here when the rest of that business group sits there? Who is really responsible for this project? Which business group is going to pay for new hires to staff this project? What if things don't go well? Who cracks the whip? If I do deliver, what can I expect in one year? In two years? In three? And the thing you might find really hard - telling your present boss about this opportunity and getting his take on it. Sure, things aren't going well. But, he has a stake in seeing you depart gracefully. It makes your boss look bad if you just up and go.
What d'Allesandro says is to walk quickly if you find you're in a loan shark culture - at least start looking now!
And the part of the book I really liked :
At John H, we had a simple cultural goal: We wanted to make the company a great place to be at and a great place to be from.
A great place to be at, in my opinion, is one where there is a free exchange of ideas, where there is some humor and fun, and where people's contributions are rewarded. Why did we want to make it a great place to be from? Because no organization can hang onto all of its good people. There is only one head of marketing slot, only one CFO's job. If nobody leaves, you wind up with many highly talented but extremely frustrated men and women.
Great one! Reed Hastings, in "No Rules Rules" talks about building a team with high talent density. Part of that is - adequate performance earns a generous severance package 😊
No comments:
Post a Comment