Page 141 - Executive Warfare

The Team You Assemble

across the table from me. I’d leave that judgment up to technology
people I trust.
Choose carefully, particularly outsiders, because getting rid of some-
body at the levels we are now talking about is no longer a casual matter.
It is a big deal. It may even make it into the newspapers. As a result, those
meetings where you have to explain to your superiors why you want to
get rid of somebody you brought into the organization are generally an
inquisition.
You may very well hear something
like this: “You just hired this person a
year ago. You told us this person had a FINDING TALENT
great résumé. What changed? You do WITH A WELL-
remember, don’t you, that we just spent WRITTEN RÉSUMÉ
$200,000 on the headhunter’s fee to get IS RELATIVELY
this person?” EASY. FINDING
It can get worse: “In the last three CAPABLE TALENT IS
years, you have hired seven people from HARD.
the outside at senior-level positions, and
three of them are gone. Is it really them,
or is it you? Is it that you are difficult to work for, or do you just make bad
choices? Maybe next time we should interview your candidate, too.”
Make too many bad choices, and not only will you suffer a loss of face,
but also a loss of power.You will start getting more “help” with these per-
sonnel decisions and find yourself constantly second-guessed. And the
very last thing you want is to have people forced on you.

GOOD PEOPLE CAN STILL COST YOU
It’s not just the incompetent or crazy hires who can hurt you. You can also
be hurt by somebody who is actually doing a good job but presents badly or
has otherwise made a bad impression on your CEO or board of directors.
When I was CEO of John Hancock,I once attended a conference in Italy with

121