L e a d e r s h i p a n d S e l f-D e c e p t i o n
©2000T h e A r b i n g e r I n s t i t u t e 1B u d
店长的岗位职责It was two months ago to the day that I first entered the cluded campus-style headquarters of Zagrum Company to interview for a nior management position. I’d been watching the company for more than a decade from my perch at one of its competitors and had tired of finishing cond. After eight interviews and a three-week period of silence and lf-doubt, I was hired to lead one of Zagrum’s product lines.
I was about to be introduced to a nior management ritual peculiar to Zagrum—a day-long, one-on-one meeting with the executive vice president, Bud Jefferson. Bud was right-hand man to Zagrum’s president, Kate Stenarude. And due to a shift within the executive team, he was about to become my new boss.
I had tried to find out what this meeting was all about, but my colleagues’ explanations confud me. They mentioned a discovery that solves “people problems,” how no one really focus on results, and that something about the “Bud Meeting,”as it was called, and strategies that evidently follow from it, is key to Zagrum’s incredible success. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I was anxious to m
eet, and impress, my new boss.
I knew Bud by reputation only. He had been prent at a product rollout conference I attended, but had taken no active part. He was a youngish-looking 50-year-old combination of odd-fitting characteristics: a wealthy man who drove around in an economy car without hubcaps; a near high-school dropout who graduated with law and business degrees, summa cum laude, from Harvard; a connoisur of the arts who was hooked
on the Beatles. Despite his apparent contradictions, and perhaps partly becau of them, Bud was revered as something of an icon in the company—like Zagrum, mysterious yet open, driven yet humane, polished yet real. He was universally admired, if wondered about, in the company.金木研语录
It took 10 minutes on foot to cover the distance from my office in Building 8 to the lobby of the Central Building. The pathway—one of 23 connecting Zagrum’s 10 buildings—meandered beneath oak and maple canopies along the banks of Kate’s Creek, a postcard-perfect manmade stream that was the brainchild of Kate Stenarude and named after her by the employees.
As I scaled the Central Building’s hanging steel stairway up to the third floor, I reviewed my performance during my month at Zagrum: I was always among the earliest to arrive and latest to lea
ve. I felt that I was focud and didn’t let outside matters interfere with my objectives. Although my wife often complained of it, I was making a point to outwork and outshine every coworker who might compete for promotions in the coming years. I had nothing to be ashamed of. I was ready to meet Bud Jefferson.
Arriving in the main lobby of the third floor, I was greeted by Bud’s cretary, Maria. “You must be Tom Callum,” she said with enthusiasm.
“Yes, thank you. I have an appointment with Bud for 9:00,” I said.
“Yes. Bud asked me to have you wait for him in the Eastview Room. He should be with you in about five minutes.” Maria escorted me down the hall and left me to mylf in a large conference room, where from the long bank of windows I admired the views of the campus between the leaves of the green
Connecticut wood. A minute or so later there was a brisk knock on the door and in walked Bud.
“Hello, Tom. Thanks for coming,” he said with a big smile as he offered me his hand. “Plea, sit down. Can I get something for you to drink? Coffee, juice?”鼻腔共鸣怎么练
“No, thank you,” I replied, “I’ve had plenty already this morning.”
土壤通报
I ttled in the black leather chair nearest me, my back to the window, and waited for Bud as he poured himlf some water out of the pitcher in the rving area in the corner. He walked back with his water, bringing the pitcher and an extra glass with him. He t them on the table between us. “Sometimes things can get pretty hot in here. We have a lot to do this morning. Plea, feel free whenever you’d like.”
“Thanks,” I stammered. I was grateful for the gesture but more unsure than ever what this was all about.
“Tom,” said Bud abruptly, “I’ve asked you to come today for one reason—an important reason.”服装店起名
“Okay,” I said evenly, trying to mask the anxiety I was feeling.
“You have a problem—a problem you’re going to have to solve if you’re going to make it at Zagrum.”
I felt as if I’d been kicked in the stomach. I groped for some appropriate word or sound, but my mind was racing and words failed me. I was immediately conscious of the pounding of my heart and the nsation of blood draining from my face.
梦见吃米饭
As successful as I had been in my career, one of my hidden weakness was that I was too easily knocked off balance. I had learned to compensate by training the muscles in my face and eyes to relax so that no sudden twitch would betray my alarm. And now, it was as if my face instinctively knew that it had to
detach itlf from my heart or I would be found out to be the same cowering third-grader who broke into an anxious sweat, hoping for a “well done” sticker, every time Mrs. Lee pasd back the homework.
Finally I managed to say, “A problem? What do you mean?”
“Do you really want to know?” asked Bud.
“I’m not sure. I guess I need to from the sound of it.”
“Yes,” Bud agreed, “you do.”
L e a d e r s h i p a n d S e l f-D e c e p t i o n
©2000T h e A r b i n g e r I n s t i t u t e 2A P r o b l e m
“You have a problem,” Bud continued. “The people at work know it; your spou knows it; your mother-in-law knows it. I bet even your neighbors know it.” He was smiling warmly. “The problem is that you don’t know it.”
I found mylf speechless. How could I know I had a problem if I didn’t even know what the problem was?
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean. Are you saying that I…that I….” I had no idea what he was talking about.
贵族气质
“Well,” he said in a way that made me think he was enjoying this, “think about the examples for starters.
“Remember the time you had a chance to fill the car with gas before your wife took it, but then you decided she could fill it just as easily as you, so you took the car home empty?”
How did he know about that? I wondered.
“Or the time you promid the kids a trip to the ballpark but backed out at the last minute, on some feeble excu, becau something more appealing had come up?”秘密文件
How did he know about that?
“Or the time, under similar circumstances, you took the kids to the ballgame anyway but made them feel guilty for it?”
Uh-oh.
“Or the time, when reading to your toddler, you cheated him by turning more than one page at a time becau you were impatient and ‘he wouldn’t notice anyway’?”
Yeah, but he didn’t notice.
“Or the time you parked in a Handicapped Only parking zone and then faked a limp so people wouldn’t think you were a total
