Page 179 - The extraordinary leader

156 • The Extraordinary Leader

symptom of not being willing or able to face reality because it is painful? Or
is it symptomatic of arrogance and unwillingness to move across the emo-
tional hurdle to accept the fact that “I” did something wrong? Or do these
people genuinely not recognize the serious consequences of what they have
done? (“That problem I had was no big deal. It doesn’t really matter.”) Or is
it because they have never learned the skill of objectively analyzing their own
behavior?
We know the reasons differ among people, but little research has been done
on why some people learn from past experience, whereas others seem des-
tined to repeat the same mistake over and over.
An executive with a brilliant mind and many accomplishments had one
fatal flaw. He made quick decisions about people, dismissing some as being
incompetent after a 20-minute interview.
Others were tagged as his “A” team because of one thing they had done or
said. No amount of subsequent disconfirming information would change his
mind. He selected one executive as his vice president of finance. Countless
people in the organization warned the CEO of this person’s reputation for
backstabbing and sinister political behavior. Worse yet, this behavior was
exactly the opposite of the culture the CEO was espousing that he wanted to
create—a culture of openness, innovation, and trust. The pattern of hasty pro-
motion decisions continued to other key appointments, with one mistake after
another. Finally, the vice president of finance was successful in ousting the
CEO, through an end run to the board. Several people commented, “We tried
to tell him, but he would not listen.”

8. Lacking interpersonal skills
This failure comes from two sources: sins of commission and sins of omission.
Sins of Commission. When leaders are abrasive, insensitive, browbeating,
cold, arrogant, and bullying, this is a sure pattern that leads to failure in today’s
world. That behavior was tolerated 50 years ago, but less often today. This
cluster of behaviors, clearly interpersonal ineptness, is a major factor in the
downfall of leaders. In the Human Resources profession there has been the
saying, “We hire people for their technical competence and fire them for their
interpersonal incompetence.” No amount of other talent and ability is capa-
ble of surmounting this deficiency. No combination of intelligence, hard
work, business acumen, and administrative skills covers over this lack of inter-
personal skills. Being interpersonally bungling and ham-handed inevitably
sinks leaders.