Page 209 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

190 • CEO Material: How to Be a Leader in Any Organization

proportionate reduction in salaries), or the company is requiring you
to be based somewhere farther than within 50 miles of the company
office you’re hired in, it might be a sign that the smell of the place is
changing.
And finally, place the e-mail or letter that notified you of the rejec-
tion news on a gravel road and drive back and forth over it several times.
It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway, you had better have
done exemplary work in your current role before taking on another. You
had to be productive and valuable, and you had to help your coworkers
be productive and valuable.
As it relates to your current job, you have to be the one who books
sales, produces outcomes, grows the department, or takes on a troubled
project—whatever mission you have, you accomplish it yourself and
cause others to be similarly effective. When you and your people meet
the short-, intermediate-, and long-term goals and objectives in your job
description and your company’s mission statement, you will have enor-
mous power. One CEO said, “I will put up with a lot of nonsense if they
accomplish their goals.”
If you are effective personally but not with your coworkers, you will
not move up far or fast. One CEO said, “I have a long history of firing
the top sales person and have sales go up. The same is true in engineer-
ing and finance. You can’t be a star and eat your young.”
Two groups I met with while writing this book were high-level man-
agers from a collection of companies. The first group all shared having
been promoted recently (group A). The second group all had been passed
over recently for a promotion (group B). I asked individuals in both
groups to explain how it happened in their own words.

Group A—recently promoted: “What I did”:

■ I took an assignment no one wanted and nailed it... . I committed
to a senior customer to get a large project done in an extremely
short period of time and then delivered it ahead of that time.
■ I performed consistently well at a higher level (two levels above)
while taking on challenging, high-risk assignments.
■ I supported my boss.
■ Right time and place.