Page 107 - Executive Warfare

Peers

Nonetheless, this hurt me in my boss’s eyes, who thought it showed an
unpleasant lack of generosity, as well as a problematic disregard for com-
munity relations.And I was only able to defend myself by walking into his
office with canceled checks proving that
I’d donated a great deal of money to
causes that happened not to be United WHAT YOU REALLY
Way causes. HAVE TO DEFEND
The really clever among your ene- AGAINST ARE
mies will try to weave a theme, using CAMPAIGNS,
a series of stories about you to illus- WATER-COOLER
trate why you are a risky choice for a CAMPAIGNS,
promotion. RUMORS THAT
For a while, I had to answer a series MAKE THE PEOPLE
of rumors suggesting that I was irre- IN POWER
sponsible. Some of them arrived at my UNCOMFORTABLE
boss’s doors via the grapevine, others WITH YOU.
via anonymous letters (I am amazed
that anyone attributes any credibility to
an unsigned letter), and others via the press.
For example, one of our lower-level public relations people at John
Hancock once got a call from a reporter who said he’d heard that I’d
been arrested on a DUI charge in Hol-
liston, Massachusetts. I had never been
to Holliston and could not find it on a THE REALLY
map. Nonetheless, the PR people felt CLEVER AMONG
that they had to have the legal depart- YOUR ENEMIES
ment look into the issue, and soon my WILL TRY TO
bosses knew about it. I had to spend a WEAVE A THEME
day and a half saying, “Where is Hol- USING A SERIES OF
liston?” before it became apparent to STORIES ABOUT
everybody that there was no truth to YOU.
the rumor.

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