Read The Mobile MBA: 112 Skills to Take You Further, Faster (Richard Stout's Library) Online
Authors: Jo Owen
The Mobile MBA: 112 Skills to Take You Further, Faster (Richard Stout's Library) (28 page)
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Analytical and insightful.
Doesn’t get people and achieves nothing.
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Very goal focused.
Ambitious, tramples over people.
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Entrepreneurial.
Not a team player; largely uncontrollable; won’t fit in.
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Great team player.
Yes man; little drive or initiative; blindly follows insane orders.
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Good networker.
Politically devious and untrustworthy.
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Honest and reliable.
I can find no meaningful strengths in this person.
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High achiever.
Puts self ahead of anything or anyone else.
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Empathetic.
Likes hugging people and trees; expect neither action nor insight.
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Mature.
Past it, low energy levels.
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Expert.
Anorak who will bore you to tears, cannot manage and lives in a silo.
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Strong values.
Opinionated, fully signed up member of the awkward squad.
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Outstanding leader.
“My way or no way” person who does not like working for others.
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Diligent.
Boring plodder who stays in the box.
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Action oriented.
Shoots first, thinks second; dangerous liability.
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Strong track record of success.
Good at telling fairy stories; likes to steal the credit.
All of this confirms what most job seekers fear: you can’t win. Whatever you say or do will be taken down as evidence and will be used against you. But at least if you know how your cynical interviewer will twist everything against you, you will be better prepared for the ritual humiliation of the interview process
Mark Othello’s words well: “Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.” Reputation is everything. And this is where you discover that you have three lives with three different reputations:
• Your self-image and the reputation you think you deserve
• Your reputation as colleagues perceive it (claim to fame and style)
• Your reputation as captured by technology
More or less invariably, our own view of our reputation is better than our other two sorts of reputation. But it is our reputation as seen by colleagues and captured by technology which counts: our self-image is important, but only to ourselves.
Most leadership gurus tell you half the truth, at best, about what it takes to be a leader. They will tell you about the need for vision, handling people, dealing with crises and all the other good stuff that makes up the corporate speaking circuit. Here are 10 vital qualities you are less likely to hear them talk about:
The 10 vital qualities
1. Sleeping on planes and dealing with jet lag.
In any large organization, a leader will spend a large amount of time on planes: I did 250,000 miles a year. The routine was simple: one glass of champagne and one melatonin pill 40 minutes before take-off, and I would be able to sleep all the way. Business class is not for fancy meals and watching movies: it is for work or sleep.
2. Working in vehicles.
If you cannot work in taxis and cars, you will waste more time than you can afford. Staring out of the window mindlessly is not good.
3. Dieting.
Leaders are surrounded by biscuits, cookies, and other corporate death food; and then there are the inevitable lunches, dinners, and hotel breakfasts. Either learn to love the fruit, or start jogging. Or die early as an obese alcoholic. But to this day, some firms demand that you “put your liver on the line”: if you do not drink and entertain, you fail. Pick your diet to fit your firm.
4. Ruthless time management.
Lines were invented to let leaders catch up with emails and phone calls; ditch or delegate everything you can; fix appointments around your schedule, not around other people’s.
5. Work the politics.
Find the right assignments, right support, and right mentors. Set expectations well. Negotiate budgets hard. Wake up to the reality of corporate life.
6. Be ambitious
, for your organization and yourself. Stretch yourself and your team to achieve more than ever; keep on learning and growing. Don’t accept excuses, don’t be a victim: take responsibility.
7. Learn to speak well:
to small groups, to individuals, and to large groups. As one tribal elder told me: “Words are like gods: words create whole new worlds in someone’s head. So use words well.” For many people, having a tooth extracted is less daunting than speaking in public. But it is a skill anyone can develop, with practice, over the years. And leaders must have this skill.
8. Be able to deal with the tantrums:
be they moody receptionists, clients, or staff, while being positive and constructive all the time.
9. Learn to be unreasonable in setting goals
and not accepting excuses: know how to stretch people to overachieve.
10. Have endless self-confidence and resilience
, especially when disaster looms and everyone else is running around like a headless chicken: take responsibility, take control, take action, and move to the solution.
These qualities add up to a person who is pretty driven. Leaders are often not comfortable people to be with. Not surprisingly, many people prefer to keep their humanity and their life than make the sacrifices to get to the top.
When I first started out, my boss told me: “One of the benefits of this job is that you will never suffer the rush hour. You will arrive before it and leave after it.” And if you keep that lifestyle going for 10–20 years, you can reach the top. It was not a good choice, but at least it was a clear choice.
Choose well, and whatever your journey, enjoy it.
accountability
see
responsibility
accruals
budgets and
53
add-ons and pricing
27
adversity, coping with
148
–
9
see also
crises
allies
130
see also
networks
and
sponsors
Amazon
7
ambition
175
aptitude tests
69
arguments
see
disagreements
asking
122
assertiveness
146
assumptions
numbers and
38
–
9
,
40
,
46
–
7
,
50
see also
expectations
to training
70
–
2
see also
personality types
audience, advertising and
21
,
22
automation
59
bait and switch pricing
27
barcodes
x
BCG
2
BCG grid
2
beliefs
see
assumptions
and
attitudes
benefits
customer decision making and
32
–
3
beta
see
CAPM
BFO
5
blame
see
responsibility
bosses
and motivation
104
and networks
129
team members’ expectations of
97
–
9
BPR
see
reengineering
brevity
7
briefing advertising agencies
21
–
2
budgets
incrementalism
6
Buffett, Warren
76
businesses
agendas, strategy and
5
decision making in
131
failure
2
focus
10
growth and decline
73
size, and politics
177
strategy
see
strategy
CAPM (Capital Asset Pricing Model)
45
–
7
,
48
,
49
cash flow
45
causality
39
celebration
see
praise
charisma
99
offering
134
,
137
see also
decision making
Churchill, Winston
119
CIPD study on training
70
Clausewitz, Carl von
125
cleaning products
10
,
22
,
23
,
25
,
33
coaching
71
–
2
,
106
–
9
,
132
see also
training
collaboration
117
see also
networks
rules for dealing with
117
see also
bosses
and
teams
and organization culture
77
SPIN approach
112
–
13
see also
advertising
,
disagreements
,
listening
,
presentations
and
praise
companies
see
businesses
competence, basic
154
competition/competitors
colleagues as
116
marketing and
20
networking and
130
competitive advantage
8
–
9
,
15
,
29
complaints
14
complication/simplicity
see
simplicity
compounding
39
conciseness
7
confidence
98
conflict
125
see also
disagreements
confusion
34
