Page 160 - Executive Warfare

EXECUTIVE W ARF ARE

The bad news is that many of them will know a lot more than you know
about their own particular subjects. Since you are responsible for the suc-
cess of their endeavors, you are really at their mercy.
And the truth is that you cannot afford to have any great number of
people who work for you be negative about you. That is not an option.
Often, in a race for the top job, it’s the person who isn’t a complete jerk
who wins.

HEY, SMARTY PANTS—YOU ARE NOT
AN EXPERT AT EVERYTHING
It’s inevitable, as you rise, that you wind up managing areas of your organ-
ization that are completely unfamiliar to you. If you’re a professor of
chemical engineering at a university and you end up as provost, there are
going to be parts of that university about which you will have no clue. The
law school may be aflame over an issue that only puzzles you. In my case,
marketing and communications were my areas of expertise. But as I rose,
I found myself managing people who designed computer systems, made
sophisticated investments, and devel-
oped complicated actuarial formulas—
YOU CANNOT
none of which I could do to save my life.
AFFORD TO HAVE
Most management books will tell you
ANY GREAT
that the answer to this dilemma is to hire
NUMBER OF
people who are smarter than you in those
PEOPLE WHO
areas you know little about.That’s half an
WORK FOR YOU BE
answer,as far as I’m concerned.Of course
NEGATIVE ABOUT
you do that, but it’s not that simple. First
YOU. THAT IS NOT
of all, how do you know they’re smart
AN OPTION.
enough? If you know nothing about their
subjects, they only have to be a little bit
smarter than you to seem really smart. And how do you get these people to
do what you want when you don’t fully understand what they do?

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