ARTICLES
Ideas and observations on performing under pressure, leadership, and service.
More Friction, Less Flow
Why do very capable people sometimes perform well below their potential precisely when it matters most?
Running on Empty
Years ago, I flew to Bali to deliver a sales training programme — one I had delivered many times, always with excellent results.
Two days before the programme began, I slipped on a pool of water from a leaking air conditioner and hit my head on a tile floor. I was badly shaken, and concussed.
The Teaspoon Formula
Two months into my first job as a training manager, I was summoned by the General Manager. We were both new to the property, a large city hotel. In his first weeks on the job, he had reviewed the previous two years of guest feedback — comment cards, letters, the lot.
The Limits of Intelligence
When a coaching client was offered a much bigger role, I confidently predicted she would do very well. To me, her success was assured because she embodies traits I’ve seen in the very best leaders I’ve known.
You might assume this person is very smart. She is, but that’s not enough. Research has repeatedly shown that intelligence is a poor predictor of real-world success. IQ gets you into the race. It doesn’t make you a good driver. We’ve all seen highly intelligent people make spectacularly poor decisions.
My wife stopped shouting at me.
We were several weeks into a leadership development programme, and participants were sharing changes they had observed. One man said, "My wife stopped shouting at me."
We wanted to know more.
"Oh," and then he smiled, "And my daughter's speaking with me again!"
He told us that for many years, his wife had been shouting at him. It had never even occurred to him that he was to blame for the shouting.
Insecurity in Disguise
Over the course of a long career, I’ve had the privilege of working with some remarkable leaders. I’ve also worked with a few lousy ones, and learnt from them too. Not many, just a few. With only one exception, all the lousy leaders were men.
Am I saying men are more likely to be lousy leaders than women? Yeah, I am. But maybe not for the reason you might think. There are two reasons for that.
The Source of Service — Standards
Lunch at a highly-rated restaurant. The room was beautiful, the food superb, the service technically flawless.
But when we compared notes at the end of the meal, my host sighed: “We might as well have been served by robots.”
The team members weren’t really seeing us — they were working through a checklist.
The Source of Service — Culture
It took a while to figure out why they lost their Michelin star.
Same brilliant chef. Same exceptional food. Same beautiful setting. The craft remained, and yet the star was gone.
Their new maître d' was quite a character — charismatic, flamboyant, full of energy. Within months, the restaurant had become a stage for his personality.
The Source of Service — Climate
At one hotel I worked at, we would all arrive fifteen or twenty minutes ahead of morning prayers — the daily 8:30 am management meeting. Seating was first-come, first-served, and everyone wanted to sit as far away as possible from the GM.
When in a foul mood, he would zero in on someone and attack their competence, their commitment, or their character. If we spoke up in defence of a colleague, the fire was turned on us. So we sat in silence, avoiding eye contact, hoping there would be only one sacrificial victim that day.