Page 32 - Executive Warfare

Introduction

he complained that, given the quality of his student body, his institution
was only “turning mush into mush.” Soon after, he announced that he’d
be stepping down.
You don’t have to flame out yourself, either. Have a boss who flames
out, and you may soon follow him or her out the door. You can be rising
happily within an organization for two decades, only to find the rug pulled
out from under you in an afternoon.
As a result, the very worst thing that can happen to you if you intend
to climb is to develop a sense of entitlement just because you’ve been
somewhere for a long time. You may
think, “Look, I’ve put my 15 years in,
THE VERY WORST I’ve come through six jobs, I deserve
THING THAT CAN this next job.” Well, the world does not
HAPPEN TO YOU IF work that way anymore. It’s no longer
YOU INTEND TO useful to have a ten-year plan. Even God
CLIMB IS TO had only a seven-day plan.
DEVELOP A SENSE So you’d better develop the ability to
OF ENTITLEMENT improvise above all.
JUST BECAUSE And the higher you go, the more
YOU’VE BEEN nimble you have to be. Consider this
SOMEWHERE FOR A little statistic: According to Joe
LONG TIME. Griesedieck of recruiting firm Korn/
Ferry International, 40 percent of CEOs
fail within their first year or two on the
job. There are species of fruit flies with longer life expectancies. I wrote
this book not to alleviate the uncertainty that comes with any move into
higher management, but rather to alert you to the things you should be
worried about—and what to do about them.
In my experience, the single greatest reason why otherwise talented
people get stuck in midcareer is because they believe that the same rules
that applied for the first part of their career still apply. They don’t. You
now have to master a much subtler set of rules.

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