Managing Leadership^®

I recently observed a very peculiar negotiation. One of the parties, a woman, had been asked to organize an event for an expert in her field. The other, a man and a local figure of sorts in that field, wanted to step in, have the woman announce publicly that he was fully or partially responsible for work that he had not done, and then dominate the event itself.

Out of deference to the man’s local position, the expert had asked the woman if she could see her way to finding a role for him. It is worth noting that in the large scheme of things this was a prudent and diplomatic request for that expert, the leading international figure in the field, to make.

As a result of that as well as her respect for the expert, the woman agreed to try. Her first invitation to the man to initiate a conversation on the topic produced a dismissive email filled with vainglorious demands, as well as arrogant and specific instructions issued to the woman.

These were all the more perplexing because there was no professional relationship at all, much less a hierarchical one, between them. Moreover, he hadn’t been accorded any standing with respect to the particular event in question, and the person who had been authorized to determine if he would receive any was the woman he was trying to order around.

The woman responded with restraint. She stayed focused on her goals, and declined to react to the provocative and unprofessional tone of his message, or to challenge his unsupportable presumption of authority. Rather, she simply sent an email back thanking him for his thoughts, and repeating her request that he call her to establish a meeting to discuss them.

The resulting phone call was evidently a storm of aggressive assertion that everything had already been decided as per his previous email, to which he mystifyingly insisted that everyone had agreed (she, obviously, had not). He ridiculed her for imagining that there was a need for a meeting, or that there were open issues, or that if there were they couldn’t be settled over the phone. Besides, he said, he really was too busy to give any time to a meeting about this.

She again responded calmly, informing him that if he felt this event was insufficiently important for him to devote a half hour of his time to a detailed discussion regarding it, she would take that view under advisement. He then agreed quickly, albeit still reluctantly, to the meeting.

It promised to be an interesting one, and it was. We’ll go over it tomorrow.

In the meanwhile, while you prepare for your next negotiation, try to be sure of your goals and your ground, and those of your negotiating partner’s, as well. You want to consciously and conscientiously prepare for - hopefully - mutual success, rather than stumble, blinded by pride, into individual embarrassment.

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Today’s tip: Please see this timely piece from The Economist, discussing a turnaround at Disney. While you read it, look for this excerpt:

Mr Iger’s management style is said by many to have unlocked Disney’s creativity. “There was already creativity inside Disney, but Bob removed the barriers to it,” says Peter Chernin, chief operating officer of News Corporation, a rival media group. “Michael Eisner was all about his own creativity,” says Stanley Gold, a former Disney board director who led a campaign to oust Mr Eisner in 2004, referring to the way in which the former boss meddled in the detail of Disney’s parks and movies. In contrast, he says, “Bob pushes creative decisions to the people below him.”

That, ladies and gentleman, is one of the key differences between an organizationally effective manager of leadership, and an organizationally destructive individual leader.

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