Page 176 - Executive Warfare

EXECUTIVE W ARF ARE

It always seemed irrelevant to me whether the people who worked for
me liked me or respected me. That was their business. What I cared about
was whether they did their jobs well.
That said, it is incredibly important to motivate talented people. I just
don’t believe that ersatz emotions like “friendship,”“family love,”or “orga-
nizational patriotism”do motivate intelligent people.We’ll talk about how
you win the loyalty of a brilliant team in a minute.
But first, I want to say a few more
words about your relationship with
PAY THE PEOPLE your coworkers. I am a big believer in
WHO WORK FOR being standoffish on the social front.
YOU THE Having an occasional group dinner with
RESPECT OF your executives is certainly appropriate,
UNDERSTANDING but having your social life revolve
WHY THEY WORK around the office is very dangerous.
HARD. IT’S NOT OUT The truth is that if there are 10 peo-
OF LOVE FOR YOU. ple on your senior management team,
IT IS TO FEED there’s a good chance that you’re going
THEIR FAMILIES. to fire three of them, and that’s simply
because things change. Your business
faces a new challenge, and one of your
managers can’t rise to the occasion, so you need somebody else. And you
have to be able to make that decision.
That didn’t mean that I wasn’t friendly with my employees in the office,
but we never got together outside of business events. I didn’t let our chil-
dren play together. I didn’t allow our lives to become entangled.
Even the business events I would keep to a minimum. For example, I
actually do play golf, but nobody ever knew it. In the 35 years I was in cor-
porate life, I never once went to a conference and picked up a golf club
and played with anybody I worked with. I never wanted to spend four
hours making chitchat with my boss, well aware that by the fourteenth
hole, it’s easy to say something stupid.

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