Page 205 - Executive Warfare

Outsiders with Influence

If a couple of directors are already friendly toward you, enlist their help.
Have them sponsor a dinner that will allow you to become better
acquainted with the directors you don’t
know.
Or engineer a relationship yourself.
OUTSIDE
Sometimes there are committees within
DIRECTORS ARE A
an organization that include both board
GREAT EXCEPTION
members and nonboard members. It is
TO MY BIAS
very smart to get yourself on one of
AGAINST
those. It’s also smart to get to know
NETWORKING. YOU
the people in your organization who
ARE RUNNING A
arrange the meetings and conferences.
SERIOUS RISK IF
Then, if you’re going to a conference and
YOU REMAIN
an outside director is invited, ask those
UNKNOWN TO
people for a favor—to be seated next to
THEM.
the director.
The CEO generally won’t look askance
at a move like this because often the CEO
doesn’t want to sit next to her board members. She sees—and hears—
enough of them as it is.
And your rivals? The good news is that most of them will simply be too
dumb to think along these lines.

UNDERSTAND THE POWER OF HAPPENSTANCE, AND BE WARY
Everywhere you go, there is a chance that you will run into somebody who
has some influence with the powers that be in your organization. Here is
an example: I had a guy working for me who was a perfectly sane, normal
person as far as I could see, and I thought highly of his abilities. Let’s call
him Tony. Then one day I was talking to a friend of mine who happened
to live in the same town as Tony. He asked, “Does Tony work for you?”
I said, “Yeah, he’s a good guy.”

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