That's the Dumbest Thing I've Ever Heard
"That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”, said Bill Campbell in typical fashion, to an employee in a meeting. Back then, he was a tyrannical boss, and it took a near mutiny from his staff for him to see the error of his ways and change. According to this book, he was a classic “diminisher”.
He was not yet the legendary mentor to Silicon Valley CEOs like Steve Jobs and the Google founders, or the subject of the book “Trillion Dollar Coach” by my friend Jonathan Rosenberg.
In time Bill would become an excellent boss, manager, coach, and “multiplier”, able to get a lot more out of his teams, by cultivating the traits in this good read by Liz Wiseman
Key learnings for me:
· While there are dyed-in-the-wool Dr. Evil tyrant managers, a lot of “diminishers” are accidental. If you are driven and highly intelligent, it is easy to crowd out the contribution of others and end up with a team producing at 30% of their potential.
· People have discretionary energy and initiative, which they won’t give if you have “diminisher” tendencies. It may have worked Steve Jobs but perhaps it worked in spite of.
· When I read Trillion Dollar Coach, I assumed that Bill Campbell was born that way. By the law of large numbers, certain individuals in a population (maybe 1 in 10 million) will be fully formed from birth and have all the right leadership traits (e.g. George Washington).
If Bill, who didn’t start his business career till he was in his 40s, could become a model manager then maybe there is hope for the rest of us!
