5 Top Laws of Succeeding in Management
By James Manouse
1. You want Clemenza’s, not Tessio’s.
In “The Godfather” Don Vito Corleone tells his son Michael, now head of the family business, that “Whoever comes to you with the deal (read ‘in friendship‘), he’s the traitor.” The chief prospects, one of the family’s two Captains, or Capo Regimes - either Tessio or Clemenza. In the end, it is Tessio who comes to Michael, in friendship, at his father’s funeral, and tells him that there can be a meeting set-up with their chief rival, Barzini, on Tessio’s own territory, to straighten-out their differences. Since it is on Tessio’s turf, he will provide security, guaranteeing Michael’s safety. Unfortunately, Tessio is planning to kill Michael at this meeting, just as his father had predicted, and take over his place at the top of the family. He came in friendship, but he was the traitor.
If you have an employee that you supervise come to you informing on another member of the department, in an attempt to gain favor, or for any other reason (the reason is irrelevant) they are the traitor. No one likes a Rat. In the end, it is this individual who will betray you, just as surely as they are more than willing to betray their fellow workers. Watch this person closely; they are the one that you will have to worry about. They are the traitor. When they approach you, thank them for the information, then do not act upon it. Investigate for yourself, if necessary, but do not trust them. Also, do not let them know that you do not approve of what they are doing; this could lead to other problems. According to Sun Tzu, “All warfare is based on deception”. In this case, keeping this individual thinking one thing, while the truth is something else, entirely.
Along these lines, another great line from “The Godfather” is when Don Vito tells his other son, Sonny, “Never tell anyone outside the family what you’re thinking, again.” Keep your adversary off-balance at all costs by not sharing with them what you are really thinking. Keep your true thoughts to yourself and in so doing, you will keep your subordinate in the dark, which is exactly what you want, in this particular type of circumstance. Why? As another line from the Godfather tells us: ‘Keep your friends close, but your enemy’s closer.” You want this person to feel relaxed and comfortable. Let them go on their way, and then watch them carefully. Do not transfer them to another department lest they decide to turn on you to their next boss, who well may be less enlightened than you are. Keep them close by - closer than your friends, and keep an eye on them. Then, when the time is right, and you will face little opposition, get rid of them. It is important that they not stay at the company.
Never forget, they will come to you in friendship, but all the while, they are plotting. Just like Tessio in “The Godfather.”
2. Business is not warfare and it is not a team sport, so easy with the analogies.
Look, I love a good war flick as much as anybody. And I love movies about sports. I also like documentaries about war and I like actually watching and playing sports - especially the team sports I played back in my youth - however, with few exceptions, business isn’t war or sports.
Why? War has something called life or death. Business, no matter what, does not. Business is about money, and, not to trivialize, but War is about life and death. War has something called the “Death Field”. The “Death Field” is a place where, if the soldiers do not fight, they will die. Perhaps their back are to a river, perhaps they have no ships or helicopters for an escape, at any rate, there is no way out. No escape. Fight here, on this battle field, now, or you will die there in that day. In a mater of hours you will be drawing your last breath, unless, they are victorious and win the battle. In which case, they go on living and go on breathing. It’s win or die. IN this situation something extraordinary is know to happen to troops; they fight better, move faster, and are stronger than they have ever been. This is because they are fighting for their lives, and (and this is the important part), they know it. By knowing that unless they win, they die, they do things they would have thought impossible only moments before. No matter what you do in the business world, you can not simulate that, so avoid the war clichés and in so doing, I’d avoid trivializing warfare and those that have gone through it. In fact, in Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” Sun Tzu’s main guiding principal is to avoid warfare. In fact, he write, and I am paraphrasing here, the greatest feat achieved by any general is getting your enemy to do what you want, without fighting. Throughout Sun Tzu’s entire book he takes great pains to avoid fighting - to out think, rather than out fight his opponent. So, as you can see, avoiding war and war-like analogies, is the most prudent path.
As for sports, here is the problem. You can see what everyone is up to on a playing field. In fact, in most instances, every moved is filmed or recorded. You can’t do that in business. In fact, every move made on the playing field can either been planned for or practiced. In business, unless you manage a call center or a trade desk (and in this case you have an enormous advantage), you do not get to see the movements of your people. You have to believe that when you are not around, that things are still going according to plan. On the playing field, most of the time, after every play, plays stops, such as in football or baseball, or possession turns over to the other team, such as in basketball. There is time for reflection, to analyze what just happened, weigh the options, and choose what to do next. You can’t do that in business. Not without a meeting every five minutes, at any rate. So, don’t overdo the sports team analogies, either. Management of a team on a playing field is completely different from running a business team. Oh, and they keep a running score, and there aren’t referees and umpires all over the place, keeping things fair.
The problem is that most young men learn about teamwork from participating in team sports. There are aspects to team building that do apply, and we will discuss those later, just suppress the urge to over-do the comparisons.
3. Don’t interfere with your managers, and give them one year to get it right. If you feel you must interfere, you have a bigger problem on your hands - you're picking the wrong people.
Hire talented people and let them d their thing, without interference. You see this written everywhere, yet few follow it. Why? Because CEO’s are notorious for having egos that tell them that they know best. It’s how one becomes a CEO to begin with. It’s also why, invariably, the best CEO’s and Presidents are people who are drafted into service, rather than pursue it with all their might. Why? Because those people, whom fate has chosen, do not think they know everything and are therefore more apt to listen to seasoned professionals - specialists in their field - than to argue with all them all the time because they believe that they know best and in so doing, create dissention and ruin everything.
So, pick your people wisely and let them do their thing. This next point is key - give an outsider a year before you expect them to work out all of the kinks and have things running the way you envision when you hire them. It will take time to mis-learn the culture, and then learn it correctly, then get things running the right way and finally, get their subordinates on-board, believing in the message and believing in their new leader and that this new leader is going to be around for a while. One year, minimum.
Don’t get caught tampering before at least 12 months is up. At least 12 months. And support them throughout, no matter what. I’m guessing that anyone you picked in the first place could not be a total disaster or you wouldn’t have picked them in the first place. So give them a year, and do not meddle. Again, Sun Tzu says it is the poor leader that interferes with his generals and with their abilities to engage and fight the enemy. Let your people do what it is they can do in order to contribute and accept the fact that most of it will be different than what you would have done. If you do not accept this, then it is your fault and the failure is yours. Just be sure to make your instructions on what you want, clear from the outset. If you do not, again, it is your fault. This is yet another of Sun Tzu’s teachings.
4. Don’t “Rear-View Mirror” things, but don’t forget the past, either.
This is a pretty simple principle, really, just based on common sense (as most good ideas invariably are). In order to move a company or a division or a department forward, you cannot be married to the past. The world changes in a hurry and the good executive knows, or at least knows enough to try, to anticipate what the marketplace will want, and to deliver that, sometimes even before the marketplace knows that they want it. Of course, you must also remember the past and call on past experiences to help guide decisions. A great example is the Capital Group that runs the American Finds. They consistently stick to tried and proven methods developed successfully since the 1930’s, but they still create new funds, come out with new fund classes, embrace the web and enhance technology. They are a great example of not living life in the rear-view mirror, while simultaneously not forgetting the past.
So, do not be married to the past and do not shut out new ideas; evolution is the nature of the earth. Nature evolves, and changes the world we live in. It’s at the center of natural law. Things change and that’s the way it is. On the other hand, human nature doesn’t change. The wants and needs of human beings have remained the same, at the core, for thousands of years. Still, people evolve and change in order to survive. People love the word “new”, which I addressed in an earlier piece on marketing. So, while their basic needs and desires never change, people are still explorers and want to see something new, which they take as exciting, and is one of the things that make life worth living.
These are the reasons why the good executive doesn’t live in the rear-view mirror, but doesn’t forget the experiences of the past, either. Keep those in balance, giving due respect to each, and you will be in good shape.
5. Don’t be a Know-It-All, take it easy on all of the “Coachable Moments” - and get yourself a Wing Man.
No one likes a know-it-all and no one wants to be lectured. The time to coach people is right out of the gate, not 10 years in. As was mentioned in #3, you have to pick good people and let them do their thing, in the hopes that they will blossom.
Everything and everyone needs time to develop, but that doesn’t mean that they have to be over-coached, over-lectured, or overly second guessed to get there. What I find is that those who do excessive coaching are really doing it for themselves; they just want to hear themselves speak and they are insecure about their place in the company and so, therefore, they need to just keep letting everyone else know how much they know. That’s not successful, it’s insufferable.
The best executives I have ever met are laid-back, quiet individuals who are comfortable with where they are, who they are, and so do not feel the constant need to prove anything to anybody. They surround themselves with the best, and they let those people do their thing. And they absolutely do not worry about hiring people smarter than they are or people who have a different skill set. And they don’t think they know it all.
Take a lesson from eastern Zen Masters - they are the eye of the storm, they remain calm while all else goes bananas around them, and most of all, they are the very best listeners. So, don’t worry about it.; you have nothing to prove to anyone - you already have the job. And finally, don’t be insufferable - not everything is a coach-able moment and a chance for you to show the world why you’re so great. Trust your people - sure, it’s a risk, but so is business.
Finally, and this is very important, you need a Wing Man. Few exec's make it on their own. Having a right-hand man that you can trust is all-important to your survival. Few ever make it without one, the exception being if you, yourself, was a wingman previous to our assuming the senior post. If your mentor promoted you, even better. You're in a pretty secure spot, but get yourself your own wingman anyway - no need to take chances and down the road you will eventually need one.
Seriously, you need someone you can trust by your side. Someone who will back you up in public and only raise a concern or disagree with you in private. And that second part is important - what you do not want is a 'yes man'. You can see number 1 above, but that person, if they are a 'yes man' is prety much useless and they will turn on you and tell the truth about what they think to others - just not to you. You do want someone who will tell you what they think and who will speak freely - just not in front of your subordinates.
This is one of those times when you need to go with your gut about this trusted person. All the interviewing and resume reading in the world won't get it done. Trust your feelings on who to pick. Your eyes and ears can betray you, so listen to your inner-most self when making this, this most important of all decisions you will be making.