Page 215 - Executive Warfare

Position

Prince did a good job of defusing the scandals and was named CEO of
the whole of Citigroup the next year. Unfortunately, he retired under pres-
sure in late 2007 amid massive losses in the subprime mortgage mess. But
for a few years at least, he was the king.
If you are a diner, I wouldn’t count
on being anointed in a similar fashion. WHEN IT COMES TO
Being a really talented diner is like being RUNNING A LARGE
a remote prince in the Netherlands BUSINESS, EVEN
who’s fifteenth in line for the English THE HIGHEST-
throne.Yes, you could become king, but RANKED DINERS
first, the 14 people in front of you would ARE OUT OF
have to go. Now, it’s possible that the POSITION.
plague will wipe out everybody in Lon-
don and you’ll become king, but you’ll
only become king by default. So it makes no sense to sit in the Nether-
lands telling yourself, “You know what, I’m going to be the king of Eng-
land because of the fantastic things I’ve done here in the Netherlands.”
My advice to diners and skinners is, go hunt something. If a revenue-
gathering job is not on your résumé when the next big job opens up, you
have deselected yourself.
However, don’t expect people to come around and hold out a Hal-
loween basket for you so that you can
pick whatever revenue-generating job
you want. Put yourself into position. IF A REVENUE-
Make it known that you want a rev- GATHERING JOB IS
enue-gathering job. Don’t just raise NOT ON YOUR
your hand when a job comes up, when RÉSUMÉ WHEN THE
people are already thinking of other NEXT BIG JOB
candidates. Raise your hand in advance. OPENS UP, YOU
Then dive right in. If it turns out that HAVE DESELECTED
you have no appetite for the hunt,you can YOURSELF.
always come back to the staff job later.

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