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The young and the clueless

Article in Harvard Business Review · January 2003

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The Young and the Clueless

by Kerry A. Bunker, Kathy E. Kram, and Sharon Ting

Reprint r0212f
 December 2002

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 He’s a rising star. He’s also arrogant and unseasoned.
Denying him that promotion might be the
best thing you could do for his career – and your company.

The Young
and the
Clueless
by Kerry A. Bunker, Kathy E. Kram,
and Sharon Ting

I
n many ways, 36-year-old Charles Armstrong is a
natural leader. He’s brilliant, creative, energetic, ag-
gressive – a strategic and financial genius. He’s risen
quickly through the ranks due to his keen business in-
stincts and proven ability to deliver bottom-line results,
at times jumping from one organization to another to
leapfrog through the hierarchy. But now his current job
is on the line. A division president at an international
consumer products company, he’s just uncovered a major
production setback on a heavily promoted new product.
Thousands of orders have been delayed, customers are
furious, and the company’s stock price has plummeted
since the news went public.
Worse, the crisis was utterly preventable. Had Arm-
strong understood the value of building relationships
with his peers and had his subordinates found him ap-
proachable, he might have been able to appreciate the

Copyright © 2002 by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. 5
T h e Yo u n g a n d t h e C l u e l e s s

cross-functional challenges of developing this particular ordinates are more likely to see them as arrogant and
product. He might have learned of the potential delay inconsiderate, or, at the very least, aloof. And therein lies
months earlier instead of at the eleventh hour. He could the problem. At some point in a young manager’s career,
have postponed a national advertising campaign and set usually at the vice president level, raw talent and deter-
expectations with investors. He might have even found mined ambition become less important than the ability
a way to solve the problems and launch the product on to influence and persuade. And unless senior executives
time. But despite his ability to appreciate this fact and make
dazzle his superiors with tal- emotional competence a top
ent and intellect, Armstrong is Most executives seek out smart, priority, these high-potential
widely viewed by his peers and managers will continue to fail,
subordinates as self-promoting, aggressive people, paying more often at significant cost to the
intolerant, and remote. Perhaps attention to their accomplishments company.
worse, he’s only half aware of Research has shown that the
how others perceive him, and to than to their emotional maturity. higher a manager rises in the
the extent he does know, he’s ranks, the more important soft
not terribly concerned. These leadership skills are to his suc-
relationships are not a priority for him. Like so many cess.1 Our colleagues at the Center for Creative Leader-
other talented young managers, Armstrong lacks the ship have found that about a third of senior executives
emotional competencies that would enable him to work derail or plateau at some point, most often due to an
more effectively as part of a team. And now his bosses emotional deficit such as the inability to build a team or
seem to have unwittingly undermined his career, having regulate their own emotions in times of stress. And in our
promoted him too quickly, before he could develop the combined 55 years of coaching and teaching, we’ve seen
relationship skills he needs. firsthand how a young manager risks his career when he
fails to develop emotional competencies. But the problem
isn’t youth per se. The problem is a lack of emotional ma-
Break the Pattern turity, which doesn’t come easily or automatically and
What happened with Charles Armstrong is an increas- isn’t something you learn from a book. It’s one thing to
ingly common phenomenon. In the past ten years, we’ve understand the importance of relationships at an intel-
met dozens of managers who have fallen victim to a harm- lectual level and to learn techniques like active listening;
ful mix of their own ambition and their bosses’ willing- it’s another matter entirely to develop a full range of
ness to overlook a lack of people skills. (As with all the ex- interpersonal competencies like patience, openness, and
amples in these pages, we’ve changed Armstrong’s name empathy. Emotional maturity involves a fundamental
and other identifying features to protect our clients’ iden- shift in self-awareness and behavior, and that change re-
tities.) Indeed, most executives seek out smart, aggressive quires practice, diligence, and time.
people, paying more attention to their accomplishments Armstrong’s boss admits that he may have promoted
than to their emotional maturity. What’s more, they know the young manager too soon: “I was just like Charles
that their strongest performers have options–if they don’t when I was his age, but I was a director, not a division
get the job they want at one company, they’re bound to get president. It’s easier to make mistakes and learn when
it somewhere else. Why risk losing them to a competitor you aren’t in such a big chair. I want him to succeed, and
by delaying a promotion? I think he could make a great CEO one day, but sometimes
The answer is that promoting them can be just as risky. he puts me at risk. He’s just too sure of himself to listen.”
Putting these unseasoned managers into positions of au- And so, in many cases, executives do their employees and
thority too quickly robs them of the opportunity to de- the company a service by delaying the promotion of a
velop the emotional competencies that come with time young manager and giving him the chance to develop his
and experience – competencies like the ability to negoti- interpersonal skills. Interrupting the manager’s ascent
ate with peers, regulate their emotions in times of crisis, long enough to round out his experience will usually yield
or win support for change. Bosses may be delighted with a much more effective and stable leader.
such managers’ intelligence and passion – and may even This article will look at five strategies for boosting emo-
see younger versions of themselves – but peers and sub- tional competencies and redirecting managers who are
paying a price for damaged or nonexistent relationships.
Kerry A. Bunker and Sharon Ting are managers of the The strategies aren’t terribly complicated, but imple-
Awareness Program for Executive Excellence at the Center menting them and getting people to change their en-
for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina. trenched behaviors can be very difficult. Many of these
Kathy E. Kram is a professor of organizational behavior at managers are accustomed to receiving accolades, and it
the Boston University School of Management. often isn’t easy for them to hear – or act on – difficult mes-

6 harvard business review

 T h e Yo u n g a n d t h e C l u e l e s s

sages. You may have to satisfy yourself with small victories isolated from the rest of the company, having said he re-
and accept occasional slipups. But perhaps the greatest viewed all memos between departments, didn’t invite
challenge is having the discipline to resist the charm of people from other parts of the company to his depart-
the young and the clueless – to refrain from promoting ment’s meetings, and openly criticized other managers.
them before they are ready and to stay the course even Only when Grainger heard that his staff agreed with what
if they threaten to quit. his bosses had been telling him for years did he concede
that he needed to change. Since then, he has come to see
members of other departments as potential allies and has
Deepen 360-Degree Feedback tried to redefine his team to include people from across
With its questionnaires and standardized rating scales, the company.
360-degree feedback as it is traditionally implemented It’s worth noting that many of these smart young man-
may not be sufficiently specific or detailed to get the at- agers aren’t used to hearing criticism. Consequently, they
tention of inexperienced managers who excel at bottom- may discount negative feedback, either because the com-
line measures but struggle with more subtle relationship ments don’t mesh with what they’ve heard in previous
challenges. These managers will benefit from a deeper conversations or because their egos are so strong. Or they
and more thorough process that includes time for reflec- may conclude that they can “fix” the problem right away –
tion and follow-up conversations. That means, for exam- after all, they’ve been able to fix most problems they’ve
ple, interviewing a wider range of the manager’s peers encountered in the past. But developing emotional com-
and subordinates and giving her the opportunity to read petencies requires practice and ongoing personal interac-
verbatim responses to open-ended questions. Such de- tions. The good news is that if you succeed in convincing
tailed and extensive feedback can help a person see her- them that these issues are career threatening, they may
self more as others do, a must for the young manager apply the same zeal to their emotional development that
lacking the self-awareness to understand where she’s they bring to their other projects. And that’s why 360-
falling short. degree feedback is so valuable: When it comes from mul-
We witnessed this lack of self-awareness in Bill Miller, tiple sources and is ongoing, it’s difficult to ignore.
a 42-year-old vice president at a software company–an en-
vironment where technical ability is highly prized. Miller
had gone far on pure intellect, but he never fully appreci- Interrupt the Ascent
ated his own strengths. So year after year, in assignment When people are continually promoted within their areas
after assignment, he worked doubly hard at learning the of expertise, they don’t have to stray far from their com-
complexities of the business, neglecting his relationships fort zones, so they seldom need to ask for help, especially
with his colleagues as an unintended consequence. His if they’re good problem solvers. Accordingly, they may
coworkers considered his smarts and business acumen become overly independent and fail to cultivate rela-
among the finest in the company, but they found him tionships with people who could be useful to them in the
unapproachable and detached. As a result, top manage- future. What’s more, they may rely on the authority that
ment questioned his ability to lead the type of strategic comes with rank rather than learning how to influence
change that would require motivating staff at all levels. people. A command-and-control mentality may work in
Not until Miller went through an in-depth 360-degree certain situations, particularly in lower to middle man-
developmental review was he able to accept that he no agement, but it’s usually insufficient in more senior posi-
longer needed to prove his intelligence – that he could tions, when peer relationships are critical and success de-
relax in that respect and instead work on strengthening pends more on the ability to move hearts and minds than
his personal connections. After months of working hard on the ability to develop business solutions.
to cultivate stronger relationships with his employees, We sometimes counsel our clients to broaden young
Miller began to notice that he felt more included in chance managers’ skills by assigning them to cross-functional
social encounters like hallway conversations. roles outside their expected career paths. This is distinct
Art Grainger, a 35-year-old senior manager at a cement from traditional job rotation, which has employees spend-
and concrete company, was generally considered a cham- ing time in different functional areas to enhance and
pion by his direct reports. He was also known for becom- broaden their knowledge of the business. Rather, the
ing defensive whenever his peers or superiors questioned manager is assigned a role in which he doesn’t have much
or even discussed his unit’s performance. Through 360- direct authority. This will help him focus on developing
degree reviews, he discovered that while everyone saw other skills like negotiation and influencing peers.
him as committed, results-oriented, and technically bril- Consider the case of Sheila McIntyre, a regional sales
liant, they also saw him as overly protective, claiming director at a technology company. McIntyre had been
he resisted any action or decision that might affect his promoted quickly into the managerial ranks because she
department. Even his employees felt that he kept them consistently outsold her colleagues month after month. In

december 2002 7
T h e Yo u n g a n d t h e C l u e l e s s

her early thirties, she began angling for another promo- ing the destructive behavior or make empty threats but
tion–this time, to vice president–but her boss, Ron Meyer, proceed with a promotion anyway. The hard-charging
didn’t think she was ready. Meyer felt that McIntyre had young executive can only conclude that these competen-
a quick temper and little patience for people whom she cies are optional.
perceived as less visionary. So he put the promotion on A cautionary tale comes from Mitchell Geller who, at
hold, despite McIntyre’s stellar performance, and created 29, was on the verge of being named partner at a law
a yearlong special assignment for her–heading a team in- firm. He had alienated many of his peers and subordi-
vestigating cross-selling opportunities. To persuade her nates over the years through his arrogance, a shortcoming
to take the job, he not only explained that it would help duly noted on his yearly performance reviews, yet his
McIntyre broaden her skills but promised a significant fi- keen legal mind had won him promotion after promo-
nancial reward if she succeeded, also hinting that the tion. With Geller’s review approaching, his boss, Larry
hoped-for promotion would follow. It was a stretch for Snow, pointed to heavy attrition among the up-and-
McIntyre. She had to use her underdeveloped powers of coming lawyers who worked for Geller and warned him
persuasion to win support from managers in other divi- that further advancement would be contingent on a
sions. But in the end, her team presented a brilliant cross- change in personal style. Geller didn’t take the feedback
selling strategy, which the company implemented over to heart – he was confident that he’d get by, as he always
the following year. More important, she developed solid had, on sheer talent. And true to form, Snow didn’t stick
relationships with a number of influential people to his guns. The promotion came through even though
throughout the organization and learned a lot about the Geller’s behavior hadn’t changed. Two weeks later, Geller,
value of others’ insights and experiences. McIntyre was by then a partner responsible for managing client rela-
eventually promoted to vice president, and to Meyer’s sat- tionships, led meetings with two key accounts. Afterward,
isfaction, her new reports now see her not just as a super- the first client approached Snow and asked him to sit in
star salesperson but as a well-connected manager who on future meetings. Then the second client withdrew his
can negotiate on their behalf. business altogether, complaining that Geller had refused
Such cross-functional assignments – with no clear au- to listen to alternative points of view.
thority or obvious ties to a career path – can be a tough Contrast Geller’s experience with that of 39-year-old
sell. It’s not easy to convince young managers that these Barry Kessler, a senior vice president at an insurance com-
assignments are valuable, nor is it easy to help them ex- pany. For years, Kessler had been heir apparent to the
tract relevant knowledge. If the managers feel marginal- CEO due to his strong financial skills and vast knowledge
ized, they may not stick around. Remember Bill Miller, of the business – that is, until John Mason, his boss and
the vice president who had neglected his emotional skills the current CEO, began to question the wisdom of pro-
in his zeal to learn the business? While he was successful moting him.
in some of his early informal attempts to build relation- While Kessler managed his own group exceptionally
ships, he was confused and demoralized when his boss, well, he avoided collaboration with other units, which was
Jerry Schulman, gave him a special assignment to lead particularly important as the company began looking for
a task force reviewing internal processes. Miller had ex- new growth opportunities, including potential alliances
pected a promotion, and the new job didn’t feel “real.” with other organizations. The problem wasn’t that Kessler
Schulman made the mistake of not telling Miller that he was hostile, it was that he was passively disengaged – a
saw the job as an ideal networking opportunity, so Miller flaw that hadn’t seemed as important when he was re-
began to question his future at the company. A few sponsible only for his own group. In coaching Kessler, we
months into the new job, Miller gave his notice. He seized learned that he was extremely averse to conflict and that
an opportunity – a step up – at an arch-rival, taking a he avoided situations where he couldn’t be the decision
tremendous amount of talent and institutional knowl- maker. His aversions sharply limited his ability to work
edge with him. Had Schulman shared his reasoning with with peers.
Miller, he might have retained one of his most valuable Mason sent a strong signal, not only to Kessler but to
players – one who had already seen the importance of others in the organization, when he essentially demoted
developing his emotional competence and had begun to Kessler by taking away some of his responsibilities and
make progress. temporarily pulling him from the succession plan. To give
Kessler an opportunity to develop the skills he lacked,
Mason asked him to lead a cross-functional team dedi-
Act On Your Commitment cated to finding strategic opportunities for growth. Suc-
One of the reasons employees get stuck in the pattern cess would require Kessler to devote more time to devel-
we’ve described is that their bosses point out deficits in oping his interpersonal skills. He had no authority over
emotional competencies but don’t follow through. They the other team members, so he had to work through dis-
either neglect to articulate the consequences of continu- putes and help the team arrive at a consensus. Two years

8 harvard business review

 T h e Yo u n g a n d t h e C l u e l e s s

ports. He promised to change specific be-

haviors and asked for the team’s feedback
and support in this process. Going public
Think Before Promoting with these goals was tough for Simons, a pri-
It’s not unusual for a star performer to be promoted into higher vate person raised on traditional command-
management before he’s ready. Yes, he may be exceptionally smart and-control leadership. Admitting that he
and talented, but he may also lack essential people skills. Rather than needed to change some behaviors felt dan-
denying him the promotion altogether, his boss might do well to gerously weak to him, especially given that
delay it–and use that time to help develop the candidate’s emotional the company was going through a difficult
competencies. Here’s how. time and employees were looking to him for
Deepen 360-Degree Feedback. Go beyond the usual set of assurance, but his actions made his new pri-
questionnaires that make up the traditional 360-degree-feedback orities clear to employees.
process. Interview a wide variety of the manager’s peers and subor- Simons’s candor won people’s trust and
dinates and let him read verbatim responses to open-ended perfor- respect, and over the course of many months,
mance questions. others in the company began to reflect more
Interrupt the Ascent. Help the inexperienced manager get be- openly on their own emotional skills and
yond a command-and-control mentality by pushing him to develop engage in similar processes of personal de-
his negotiation and persuasion skills. Instead of promoting him, give velopment. Not only did his relationships
him cross-functional assignments where he can’t rely on rank to in- with his direct reports improve, but Simons
fluence people. became a catalyst and model for others as
Act On Your Commitment. Don’t give the inexperienced man- well. He told us of an encounter with Gwen
ager the impression that emotional competencies are optional. Hold
Marshall, the company’s CFO and one of
him accountable for his interpersonal skills, in some cases taking a
Simons’s direct reports. Marshall was con-
tough stance by demoting him or denying him a promotion, but with
cerned about a new hire who wasn’t coming
the promise that changed behaviors will ultimately be rewarded.
up to speed as quickly as she had hoped –
Institutionalize Personal Development. Weave interpersonal
he was asking lots of questions and, she felt,
goals into the fabric of the organization and make emotional
competence a performance measure. Also work to institute formal
not taking enough initiative. She had just
development programs that teach leadership skills and facilitate self- snapped at him at the close of a meeting,
awareness, reflection, and opportunities to practice new emotional and he’d looked surprised and angry. In
competencies. speaking to Simons about the incident,
Cultivate Informal Networks. Encourage the manager to develop however, she acknowledged that her impa-
informal learning partnerships with peers and mentors in order to tience was perhaps unfair. He was, after all,
expose him to different leadership styles and perspectives. This will new to the job. What’s more, the nature of
provide him with honest and ongoing feedback and continual op- finance demanded precise thinking and a
portunities to learn. thorough knowledge of the business. Mar-
shall ended the conversation by saying she
would apologize to the new employee. Si-
mons was surprised at Marshall’s com-
later, Kessler reports that he is more comfortable with ments – he was used to seeing her simply blow off steam
conflict and feedback, and he’s worked his way back into and move on to the next task. But possibly due to Si-
the succession plan. mons’s example, she had become more attuned to the im-
By the way, it’s counterproductive to hold managers to portance of her own emotional competence. Such reflec-
a certain standard of behavior without showing that the tion has become a habit among Simons’s team – a change
same standard applies to everyone, right up to top man- that has enhanced personal relationships and increased
agement. In many cases, that means acknowledging your the team’s overall performance.
own development goals, which isn’t easy. One CEO we
worked with, Joe Simons, came to realize during 360-
Institutionalize Personal Development
degree feedback and peer coaching that his personal style
was interfering with his subordinates’ growth. Simons One of the most effective ways to build managers’ emo-
had declared innovation a corporate priority, yet his fear tional competencies is to weave interpersonal goals into
of failure led him to micromanage his employees, stifling the fabric of the organization, where everyone is expected
their creativity. To stop this pattern and express his new- to demonstrate a specific set of emotional skills and
found commitment to improving his relationship skills, where criteria for promotion include behaviors as well as
he revealed his personal goals – to seek advice more regu- technical ability. A built-in process will make it easier to
larly and to communicate more openly – to his direct re- uncover potential problems early and reduce the chances

december 2002 9
T h e Yo u n g a n d t h e C l u e l e s s

that people identified as needing personal development first provided extensive education on coaching to the
will feel singled out or unfairly held back. Employees will HR department, which in turn supervised a program
know exactly what’s expected of them and what it takes whereby top managers coached their younger and more
to advance in their careers. inexperienced colleagues. The goal was to have both the
Here’s a case in which institutionalizing personal de- experienced and inexperienced benefit: The junior man-
velopment was extremely effective: Mark Jones is an ex- agers provided feedback on the senior people’s coaching
ecutive who was tapped for the CEO job at a major man- skills, and the senior people helped foster emotional com-
ufacturing company on the condition that he engage a petencies in their less-experienced colleagues.
coach because of his reputation for being too blunt and The results were encouraging. Wes Burke, an otherwise
aggressive. A yearlong coaching relationship helped Jones high-performing manager, had recently been struggling
understand the pitfalls associated with his style, and he to meet his business targets. After spending time with
decided that others could benefit from arriving at such an Burke and conferring with his subordinates and peers, his
understanding far earlier in their careers. To that end, he coach (internal to the organization) came to believe that,
launched several major initiatives to shape the company in his zest to achieve his goals, Burke was unable to slow
culture in such a way that personal and professional down and listen to other people’s ideas. Burke wasn’t a
learning were not only encouraged but expected. boor: He had taken courses in communication and knew
First, he articulated a new set of corporate values and how to fake listening behaviors such as nodding his head
practices that were based on meeting business objectives and giving verbal acknowledgments, but he was often
and developing top-notch leadership skills. One of the distracted and not really paying attention. He never ac-
values was “Dare to be transparent,” which meant that all cepted this feedback until one day, while he was walking
employees, especially those in senior leadership roles, purposefully through the large operations plant he man-
were expected to be open about their weaknesses, ask for aged, a floor supervisor stopped him to discuss his ideas
help, and offer honest, constructive feedback to their for solving an ongoing production problem. Burke flipped
peers. Knowing that it would be necessary to create in- on his active-listening mode. After uttering a few ac-
centives and rewards for these new behaviors, Jones took knowledgments and saying,“Thanks, let’s talk more about
an active role in the review and personal-development that,” he moved on, leaving the supervisor feeling frus-
goals of the company’s top 100 executives, and he man- trated and at a loss for how to capture his boss’s interest.
dated that all employees’ performance plans incorporate As it happened, Burke’s coach was watching. He pulled
specific actions related to developing their own emotional the young manager aside and said, “You didn’t hear a
competencies. Jones also made emotional skills a key word Karl just said. You weren’t really listening.” Burke
qualification in the search for a successor – a requirement admitted as much to himself and his coach. He then apol-
that many organizations pay lip service to. Many of them ogized to Karl, much to the supervisor’s surprise. Keeping
often overvalue raw intellect and depth of knowledge, this incident in mind helped Burke remember the im-
largely because of the war for talent, which has resulted portance of his working relationships. His coach had also
in a singular focus on hiring and retaining the best and helped him realize that he shouldn’t have assumed his
brightest regardless of their emotional competence. Fi- sheer will and drive would somehow motivate his em-
nally, Jones created a new position, corporate learning ployees. Burke had been wearing people down, physically
officer; he and the CLO partnered with a nearby univer- and psychologically. A year later, Burke’s operation was
sity to create a learning institute where corporate execu- hitting its targets, an accomplishment he partially attrib-
tives could teach in and attend leadership programs. Jones utes to the one-on-one coaching he received.
himself is a frequent lecturer and participant in the vari-
ous courses.
Through all these actions, Jones has made it clear that Cultivate Informal Networks
employees need to make continual learning and emo- While institutionalized programs to build emotional com-
tional development a priority. He’s also emphasized that petencies are critical, some managers will benefit more
everyone from the CEO on down is expected to set goals from an informal network of relationships that fall out-
for improving personal skills. Since implementing the pro- side the company hierarchy. Mentoring, for example, can
gram, he is finding it easier to attract and retain talented help both junior and senior managers further their emo-
young executives – indeed, his organization has evolved tional development through a new type of relationship.
from a recruiter’s nightmare to a magnet for young talent. And when the mentoring experience is a positive one, it
It is becoming known as a place where emerging leaders often acts as a springboard to a rich variety of relation-
can find real opportunities to learn and grow. ships with others throughout the organization. In par-
We worked with another company where the senior ticular, it gives junior managers a chance to experience
management team committed to developing the emo- different leadership styles and exposes them to diverse
tional competencies of the company’s leaders. The team viewpoints.

10 harvard business review

 T h e Yo u n g a n d t h e C l u e l e s s

Sonia Greene, a 32-year-old manager at a consulting personal development. Both have found these meetings
firm, was hoping to be promoted to principal, but she invaluable, noting that their work relationships have con-
hadn’t raised the issue with her boss because she assumed tinued to improve and that having a trustworthy confi-
he didn’t think she was ready, and she didn’t want to cre- dant has helped each avoid relapsing into old habits dur-
ate tension. She was a talented consultant with strong ing times of stress.
client relationships, but her internal relationships were •••
weak due to a combination of shyness, an independent Delaying a promotion can be difficult given the steadfast
nature, and a distaste for conflict, which inhibited her ambitions of the young executive and the hectic pace of
from asking for feedback. When her company launched organizational life, which makes personal learning seem
a mentoring program, Greene signed up, and through a like an extravagance. It requires a delicate balance of
series of lengthy conversations with Jessica Burnham, honesty and support, of patience and goading. It means
a partner at the firm, she developed new insights about her going against the norm of promoting people almost ex-
strengths and weaknesses. The support of an established clusively on smarts, talent, and business results. It also
player such as Burnham helped Greene become more means contending with the disappointment of an es-
confident and honest in her development discussions teemed subordinate.
with her boss, who hadn’t been aware that Greene was But taking the time to build people’s emotional com-
willing to receive and act on feedback. Today, Greene is petencies isn’t an extravagance; it’s critical to developing
armed with a precise understanding of what she needs to effective leaders. Give in to the temptation to promote
work on and is well on her way to being promoted. What’s your finest before they’re ready, and you’re left with exec-
more, her relationship with Burnham has prompted her utives who may thrive on change and demonstrate ex-
to seek out other connections, including a peer group of cellent coping and survival skills but who lack the self-
up-and-coming managers who meet monthly to share awareness, empathy, and social abilities required to foster
experiences and offer advice to one another. and nurture those strengths in others. MBA programs and
Peer networking is beneficial to even the most top-level management books can’t teach young executives every-
executives. And the relationships needn’t be confined thing they need to know about people skills. Indeed,
within organizational boundaries. Joe Simons, a CEO we there’s no substitute for experience, reflection, feedback,
mentioned earlier, wanted to continue his own personal and, above all, practice.
development, so he cultivated a relationship with another
1. In his HBR articles “What Makes a Leader?” (November–December 1998)
executive he’d met through our program. The two men and “Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance” (with
have stayed in touch through regular e-mails and phone Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, December 2001), Daniel Goleman makes
the case that emotional competence is the crucial driver of a leader’s success.
calls, keeping their discussions confidential so they can
feel free to share even the most private concerns. They Reprint r0212f
also get together periodically to discuss their goals for To place an order, call 1-800-988-0886.

december 2002 11

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