Page 275 - Executive Warfare

Afterword

I was once having dinner with a
board member at a large and important organization, and we were
nearing the end of the main course. I’ve had enough experience at
business dinners to know that the moment of truth always occurs when
you’re finishing up the entrée. People don’t tell you what’s on their minds
over cocktails or the appetizer, for fear of making things awkward when
there’s still a lot of evening left to slog through. In my opinion, business
dinners would be a lot cheaper and more efficient if everybody just
ordered an entrée and got to the point.
Anyway, as our plates were being cleared, this director let me know that
he was worried about his organization’s succession plan and wanted my
opinion. There were three possible can-
didates to succeed the CEO, and he was
torn. One had great financial skills, IF YOU WANT TO
another one was great at marketing, and RISE INTO THE
the third was good with people. To him, SENIOR RANKS IN
it was a real dilemma. YOUR
I said,“The choice is easy. Who is the ORGANIZATION—
room-changer? Which one creates a dra- OR DO THE HARDER
matically different and more positive THING, WHICH IS
aura whenever he or she walks into the STAY THERE—YOU
room? Even if your back is to the door, MUST BECOME A
you don’t need trumpets or ‘Hail to the PERSON OF
Chief’to know that a person of presence PRESENCE.
has come in.
“That one,” I continued, “is the
leader, the one who is comfortable with himself or herself, the one who
won’t be afraid to make the right decisions. That’s the CEO you want.”
If you want to rise into the senior ranks in your organization—or do
the harder thing, which is stay there—you must become a person of pres-
ence. This is the underlying quality we have been talking about through-
out this book.

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