The Business of Selflessness - Unleashing Star Power in Others
The Hulu documentary "Truth & Lies: Monica and Bill" features a "gifted" politician whose charisma is still influential. That's Bill Clinton, of course.
Essentially the series is about how an innate ability to charm, along with a high dose of robust confidence and spinners as consultants, had so many negative impacts. Among those was trust in government leadership. But Clinton emerged to go on to pursue other ventures creating power and wealth.
So much for politics. And more and more of us are weary of engaging in conversations about the political this or the political that.
In this summer of escalating uncertainty, the issue is if the business world has become sufficiently wary of those who can cast rhetorical spells? Understatement: These are challenging times.
At the extreme end had been convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes. Her jaw-jawing about a revolution in healthcare shook loose funds from investors in her startup Theranos. Yes, they lost that money.
In the middle are the supposed experts such as JPMorgan Chase head Jamie Dimon. When he speaks, the media outlets pick it up. But isn’t that the kind of reach what we should filter carefully? Dimon really represents one point of view, no matter how forcefully presented. Other anointed experts have other takes on what is and what could be unfolding.
And at the low end is now Tesla leader Elon Musk. His credibility has tanked. But his pontification continues to be covered.
Of course, social media platforms, which are being increasingly vilified, intensify the reach of those with rhetorical gifts.
Everything is cyclical, of course. So, it is not unthinkable that we are veering back to the business leaders who, well, stay on-point in public relations. There is a business to run. And that's what their job description entails.
Not that business can function in isolation.
In this era of ESG (Environmental Social Governance) there are external realities impinging on all aspects of decision-making and operations. In spring 2020, law firm Paul Weiss created a specialized practice to guide executives through that complexity. But even with those pressures, it is possible to lead without sucking up all the oxygen.
Actually, activists pushing on governance issues are demanding more buttoned-down accountability and internal collaboration and less of the Adam Neuman, ousted founder of WeWork, high-octane individualist persona. More recently, it had been the board of directors which, Bloomberg reports, parted company with the combative chief executive officer Herbert Diess.
This deflating of ego extends to a search for work, both for jobs and contract assignments.
I explain to those stuck: “’They’ don’t want your force of personality. They want to know what you can do for them. And better, faster, and more affordable than others competing for those opportunities. The age-old request to ‘tell us about yourself’ has always really meant to put in story form the results you have achieved for other employers and clients.”
Sustainable influence will, I have a hunch, entail lowering the profile. We are plum tired of the Man or the Woman In Full. Part of the organizational effectiveness of Paul Weiss Chairperson Brad Karp is that he makes it his mission to position and package the firm’s lawyers, business partners, and the contacts in government as the stars.
The Tarot can be a low-cost (or no-cost if you do a DIY) tool for learning to transcend the self. For example, as Melissa Cynova explains in the "Kitchen Table Tarot," The Tower signals a forgetting all about who you were. That facilitates a rebuilding on a more promising platform for sustainable achievement.
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