It's not a popularity contest

Do you ever find yourself pulling teeth, cajoling, even bribing others to get a project completed?

You are not alone. I recently unearthed a June 2005 HBR article titled: Competent Jerks, Lovable Fools, and the Formation of Social Networks, in it authors Tiziana Casciaro and Miguel Sousa Lobo studied the work-related interactions of employees.

Their research broke individuals into a four-part matrix: the competent jerk, the lovable fool (nice but dim), the lovable star (nice AND smart), and the incompetent jerk. Notice how those labeled ‘jerk’ need no further description.

Obviously, most people would prefer to work with the lovable star. But not everyone can offer both attributes – high likability and extremely capable. Maybe not surprisingly their research showed that if you can’t land the star, you’ll settle for the competent jerk. One executive said, “I can defuse my antipathy toward the jerk if he’s competent, but I can’t train someone who’s incompetent.”

Likability is, of course, subjective. As Casciaro and Lobo note, one person’s idea of charming is another person’s reptile. Likability also relies heavily on familiarity - seeing similar values, beliefs and attributes in a colleague. Simply being around a colleague for a length of time can breed that familiarity and then likability. But, is it entirely healthy? To rely only on people who reflect your preferences? Would a devil’s advocate – the competent jerk – afford a different dimension to the team?

Throughout the article, I found myself wondering if the context of their research would be different in today’s economic climate. Does personality matter right now? Is doing more with less, cost cutting, and holding our collective breaths taking precedence over personality differences? Or does it matter now more than ever?

I also found it interesting that the authors framed much of the conversation around knowledge sharing – the competent jerk may hold some incredibly valuable information, but at what price? While the lovable fool is likely to offer up his menu of nuanced information, contacts, and opinions more freely.

The meatiest content comes when Casciaro and Lobo offer suggestions on how best to leverage the array of personality types. How do you capitalize on that lovable star performer, so that they don’t burn out too quickly? Can a leopard (the competent jerk) change its spots? And most importantly, can you build a culture where everyone learns to play nice with one another?

Email me with examples of how you navigate personalities in your organization.

Link to a free copy of the article from the world wide web: http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/facbios/file/Competent_Jerk.pdf

Yvonne Hundshamer
President, Blue Grotto Inc.
yvonne@bluegrottoinc.com

Communicating like a CEO

An MIT Sloan Management Review article by Paul Argenti, Robert Howell, and Karen Beck caught my eye. Though the article was published in the spring of 2005, their topic is still timely: The Strategic Communication Imperative.

The article begins by lamenting the age old challenge of ‘from strategy to implementation.’ How do you get from point A to point B? Or more importantly, how do you get your company – your direct reports, the guys and gals in accounting, the folks in production, even the janitor – to all be going in the right direction on that point B path? And, then, how do you communicate that map to your other constituencies: shareholders, Wall Street, federal regulators, and your customers?

The strongest argument of the authors is that the CEO is seen as the chief communicator. The article gives excellent real-time examples of how important communications are to, well, communicating. Thoughtful planning in how you communicate will get you a whole lot further than a press release and a prayer.

Often, communications strategies are born out of a crisis. But as these CEOs illustrate, crisis communications are not the same as having a communications strategy. A communications strategy is really a new opportunity to articulate your messages.

Here’s my top five take away based on the CEO’s reflections:
* Communications professionals need to have a seat at the strategy-making table. Don’t relegate communications to a marketing function. Consider it a senior level priority.

* Communicating with key constituencies is obviously important, but how you interpret constituency responses as they relate to organizational strategy is the real bonus. Communications should be a two-way street.

* As companies grow in complexity, consistent communications become paramount – consider the variety and layers of your audience.

* Because audiences may over lap – your suppliers may be your customers for example, it’s important to have “harmony” in your messages. Make sure you are not sending mixed signals, and assume that your audiences are savvy enough to access all your messages.

* And, maybe most importantly, messages need to be truthful, based on something real. That’s a given. Again, assume your audiences are pretty darn savvy, and with Google – they have access to just about everything you say.

And here are my top five of the CEO’s quotes:
“A key part of strategy is communicating it.” Michael Dell, Dell Inc.

“You can’t execute strategy if you can’t communicate it.” T. Michael Glenn, FedEx

“The only way to communicate is to communicate with passion, face-to-face, all the time with the same messages.” Lewis Campbell, Textron

“You can never over communicate.” Henry Silverman, Cendant

“You only have to go through one or two communications debacles as a senior executive to understand the importance of communications.” Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo

Well said.

Email me with examples of how you have elevated your communications to a strategic proportion.

For a copy of the article: http://files.cxo.com/ep/uploads/WorkshopArticle.pdf

Yvonne Hundshamer
President, Blue Grotto Inc.
www.bluegrottoinc.com