Page 29 - Executive Warfare

Introduction

That good intentions do not count. That every foolish word out of your
mouth is now subject to scrutiny by the people both above and below you.
That there is so much at stake—money, prestige, the power to make real
decisions—that the competition will be ruthless. That bosses at this level
will not put up with anything or anybody who risks embarrassing them.
That this is a new game called hardball, and the problem is, you can strike
out without even seeing a pitch.
When you are promoted to senior management,my advice is to celebrate
the night before you start the job, because there is no celebrating afterward.
Just because you’ve been made a field general and given a spiffy new uni-
form with epaulettes doesn’t mean that you won’t have battles to fight.
You’ll now have to impress that complex matrix I mentioned earlier,
everybody from the commander-in-chief to the lowliest private, from the
other generals to the Pentagon corre-
spondent at the New York Times.And
you can’t always expect to be judged THIS IS A NEW
fairly. GAME CALLED
Some of these people will know you HARDBALL, AND
intimately. They may well have worked THE PROBLEM IS,
with you for years. In any case, you’ve YOU CAN STRIKE
moved into a smaller orbit near the top OUT WITHOUT EVEN
of the organization. The trouble with SEEING A PITCH.
that, of course, is that familiarity can
breed contempt, and people may discount your hard work and dedication
just because they are in the mood for a new face.
Even worse, some of these people will be actively rooting for you to fail.
There are your peers, a much smaller group now, some of whom will ben-
efit directly if you go down in flames. There are also those people with
nothing to gain, who simply enjoy a crash scene if they stumble across it.
Of course, if it’s a nuclear event for the organization, that’s one thing. But
a nuclear event for your career? Don’t kid yourself.A lot of people will not
mind that at all.

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