News Flash—Markets Don’t Dictate Premium Pricing [VIDEO]
Every time I meet a new bank CEO, I hear the same thing I’ve heard from thousands of other bank CEOs before. They say, “Roxanne, it’s different here.” Here, we have to...
On April 17, 1961, a ragtag bunch of Cuban exiles backed by the U.S. tried to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. The invasion was a mess of poor planning and miserable execution. Most of the 1500 people were killed or captured, and the U.S. government was forced to pay 53 million dollars for the release of the prisoners. Cuban ties with the Soviets were strengthened, and the stage was set for the Cuban Missile Crisis six months later.
In short, things could hardly have gone worse.
Soon after the invasion, President Kennedy asked, “How could I have been so stupid to let them go ahead?” But he hadn’t been alone in the decision—the vote to go ahead had been unanimous among his senior advisers
Officially, that is. It turns out several of them had serious doubts in their own minds, but everybody told the President what they thought he wanted to hear. A really bad idea went unchallenged, and the result was a catastrophe.
During the Missile Crisis later that year, Kennedy made a point of encouraging the collision of ideas among his advisers. They argued and disagreed and hashed out options. The result was a peaceful conclusion of a complex crisis.
The message is clear: if a disaster is what you’re after, surround yourself with “yes” men. They’ll be good company in the lifeboat.
But the business world is different, you say. You can’t run a business unless you are united behind a single vision. That’s absolutely right in one way—and absolutely wrong in another.
Research by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld at Yale shows that boards of directors that punish dissent and stress unity often wind up in bad business patterns, while corporations with highly contentious boards are the most successful. These are the boards where a wide range of viewpoints will be heard, and tough questions asked. All ideas must withstand a withering crossfire of challenge, so the bad ones have a chance of being shot down.
Corporations with boards in which conformity was prized and dissent punished include Tyco, WorldCom, and Enron.
So much for “United We Stand,” right?
Well… not exactly. There’s a limit. Once a decision is made, it’s time to drop the differences and band together in pursuit of that shared vision. A great leader is one who insists on the honest, open collision of ideas during the decision process, then makes it clear that everyone must walk out of the meeting united behind the final decision. Too often, we stress the unity part and forget that a messy, contentious process makes it MORE likely that we’ll be unifying behind a good idea instead of a stinker.
Skip that crossfire, and you might end up standing in smiling unity behind your decision—and wondering, too late, what that tick, tick, ticking sound is.
Every time I meet a new bank CEO, I hear the same thing I’ve heard from thousands of other bank CEOs before. They say, “Roxanne, it’s different here.” Here, we have to...
Have you ever rolled out of bed on a Monday morning, fired up and ready to take on the week, only to be met with a flood of excuses? You’re pumped, you’re ready to go,...
So, I’ve had a mentor for about 30 years now. He’s one of the wealthiest people in the country, and when he came here, he had just fifty bucks in his pocket. He once...
So, are we as an industry overly regulated? Absolutely. But here’s the thing: when I sit down with my CEOs on Fridays—many of whom are in the top five percent of...
Are interest rates going up or down? Short-term or long-term? What? You don’t know for sure? Well, that’s actually a good sign. It means you’re thinking because...
Ready to transform your team? Click here to watch our free masterclass to discover proven strategies for tackling low performers, improving communication, and building...
Ready to unlock the secrets of high-performance cultures? Click here to access exclusive tools and insights, including Next Action Templates and the National Study of...
Merry Christmas to you, your team, and your family. At a time like this, we should stop and reflect on what this holiday is all about. It's all about family, and we...
Ready to build a high-performance culture? Click here to watch our exclusive masterclass and discover proven strategies for driving excellence in your organization....
Have you ever noticed it's a whole lot easier to get top performance from somebody who has more capabilities to be a top performer? So here's the challenge that I've...