This is what I have learned after reading "Corner Office" book. In my opinion its a good book, many insights from successful people.
The theory of modern management has been developing in the last decade. Many books are discussing about leadership and what are the qualities needed to be a good leader. This book “The Corner Office” is derived from the author’s interviews with more than seventy CEOs and other top executives at large companies, small companies, nonprofit organizations, and educational and artistic institutions. The book is organized into three parts : “Succeeding”, “Managing”, and “Leading”. In part one of the book, “Succeeding”, the author points out that there are several qualities that successful CEOs shared, which are passionate curiosity, battle-hardened confidence, team smarts, a simple mindset, fearlessness, and preparation, patience, and obstacle courses. This essay will emphasize in three of these qualities which are team smarts, simple mindset, and fearlessness.
Team smarts is really important for businesses to move forward. In the recent business world where the competition is getting stronger and stronger, the pace of business is getting faster and faster. Collaborative work is increasingly needed to make the business keep up and overcome the competition. In such collaborative environment, team smarts is an essential skill. Quoting from the book, “Team smarts is about having good peripheral vision for sensing how people react to one another, not just how they act.”
In my experience, when I was assigned to the Bank’s branch to supervise a team of customer service and tellers, I understood why team smarts is important. My team consist of senior worker who have been working there for more than 5 years, while I was just graduating college. Even though I received training for about one year, it didn’t really change how people underestimated me, a new kid on the block. I realized that I need to win them over. I used personal approach by eating lunch together, having a personal conversation about family and life or even visit their family. I also used professional approach by regularly holding a meeting to get feedback from them on how to solve the problems in the branch or simply to congratulate if one of our team members achieve their targets. I wanted them to be a part of the team and be recognized by their team members. A good atmosphere of team work and collaboration can really made a difference. When I was first assigned there, the branch was the worst branch in the area in terms of service and profitability. But, in two years, we were the best branch in service excellence and the most profitable branch in the area.
The second quality I want to discuss is a simple mindset. Simplicity, to get the core points of things is not easy. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” said Leonardo da Vinci. And in words attributed to Mark Twain (and many others), “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” The era of Internet where you can find any information you want, puts a greater premium on the ability to synthesize, to connect dots in new ways, and to ask the simple, smart question that leads to an untapped opportunity.
Learning from Microsoft’s case, sometimes the problem is complexity. Software that was full of features but getting too complex to be used properly. Microsoft success was that Microsoft can simplify complex software to become user friendly and easily used, without removing important feature of the software. Microsoft software is widely used in the world because of its simplicity and its user-friendliness.
The last quality I want to highlight is fearlessness. I found a quote from the book that I think is interesting. “One of the things that I characterize as fearlessness is seeing an opportunity, even though things are not broken,” said Ursula Burns of Xerox. In my opinion this is the hardest thing to do, when things are good, it is really difficult to change for the better. This is where fearlessness is necessary to make continuous improvement even when things are good. The business world is ever changing, so company should always improve their ways if they want to keep surviving in the business.
Nokia’s case is the best example of this. A decade ago, Nokia was an unknown company. Nokia had been the best in the mobile phones business, defeating electronics giants such as Motorola and Ericsson, but almost disappearing in today’s era of smartphones. Ollila, was a fearless CEO. Nokia had established a brand in digital phone and GSM, left the rubber business. Nokia experienced huge success. Nokia kept innovating by selling different kinds of phones to different people. In the peak of Nokia’s success, three out of every ten mobile phones sold around the world, convincingly trumping other competitors. But, with the addition of competitors such as Samsung and Apple with their Smartphones, and the change in the market, Nokia are losing their market share. Many analyst said that Nokia believed in their ways of success by making simple, fashionable phones without too many features. But, the market had changed, people are craving for more and more feature. People are more interested in technology rather than fashion. Nokia had lost its fearlessness to change and lost its position in the digital phone business.
As a conclusion, there are at least three qualities that many great CEOs shared which is team smarts, a simple mindset, and fearlessness. With team smarts quality, they can manage people to be collaborative and productive. A simple mindset is important to see what is important and essential that opens the door to opportunities. Fearlessness, the courage to change for the better even when things are not broken, will ensure the stability of the business to win the competition.
The theory of modern management has been developing in the last decade. Many books are discussing about leadership and what are the qualities needed to be a good leader. This book “The Corner Office” is derived from the author’s interviews with more than seventy CEOs and other top executives at large companies, small companies, nonprofit organizations, and educational and artistic institutions. The book is organized into three parts : “Succeeding”, “Managing”, and “Leading”. In part one of the book, “Succeeding”, the author points out that there are several qualities that successful CEOs shared, which are passionate curiosity, battle-hardened confidence, team smarts, a simple mindset, fearlessness, and preparation, patience, and obstacle courses. This essay will emphasize in three of these qualities which are team smarts, simple mindset, and fearlessness.
Team smarts is really important for businesses to move forward. In the recent business world where the competition is getting stronger and stronger, the pace of business is getting faster and faster. Collaborative work is increasingly needed to make the business keep up and overcome the competition. In such collaborative environment, team smarts is an essential skill. Quoting from the book, “Team smarts is about having good peripheral vision for sensing how people react to one another, not just how they act.”
In my experience, when I was assigned to the Bank’s branch to supervise a team of customer service and tellers, I understood why team smarts is important. My team consist of senior worker who have been working there for more than 5 years, while I was just graduating college. Even though I received training for about one year, it didn’t really change how people underestimated me, a new kid on the block. I realized that I need to win them over. I used personal approach by eating lunch together, having a personal conversation about family and life or even visit their family. I also used professional approach by regularly holding a meeting to get feedback from them on how to solve the problems in the branch or simply to congratulate if one of our team members achieve their targets. I wanted them to be a part of the team and be recognized by their team members. A good atmosphere of team work and collaboration can really made a difference. When I was first assigned there, the branch was the worst branch in the area in terms of service and profitability. But, in two years, we were the best branch in service excellence and the most profitable branch in the area.
The second quality I want to discuss is a simple mindset. Simplicity, to get the core points of things is not easy. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” said Leonardo da Vinci. And in words attributed to Mark Twain (and many others), “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” The era of Internet where you can find any information you want, puts a greater premium on the ability to synthesize, to connect dots in new ways, and to ask the simple, smart question that leads to an untapped opportunity.
Learning from Microsoft’s case, sometimes the problem is complexity. Software that was full of features but getting too complex to be used properly. Microsoft success was that Microsoft can simplify complex software to become user friendly and easily used, without removing important feature of the software. Microsoft software is widely used in the world because of its simplicity and its user-friendliness.
The last quality I want to highlight is fearlessness. I found a quote from the book that I think is interesting. “One of the things that I characterize as fearlessness is seeing an opportunity, even though things are not broken,” said Ursula Burns of Xerox. In my opinion this is the hardest thing to do, when things are good, it is really difficult to change for the better. This is where fearlessness is necessary to make continuous improvement even when things are good. The business world is ever changing, so company should always improve their ways if they want to keep surviving in the business.
Nokia’s case is the best example of this. A decade ago, Nokia was an unknown company. Nokia had been the best in the mobile phones business, defeating electronics giants such as Motorola and Ericsson, but almost disappearing in today’s era of smartphones. Ollila, was a fearless CEO. Nokia had established a brand in digital phone and GSM, left the rubber business. Nokia experienced huge success. Nokia kept innovating by selling different kinds of phones to different people. In the peak of Nokia’s success, three out of every ten mobile phones sold around the world, convincingly trumping other competitors. But, with the addition of competitors such as Samsung and Apple with their Smartphones, and the change in the market, Nokia are losing their market share. Many analyst said that Nokia believed in their ways of success by making simple, fashionable phones without too many features. But, the market had changed, people are craving for more and more feature. People are more interested in technology rather than fashion. Nokia had lost its fearlessness to change and lost its position in the digital phone business.
As a conclusion, there are at least three qualities that many great CEOs shared which is team smarts, a simple mindset, and fearlessness. With team smarts quality, they can manage people to be collaborative and productive. A simple mindset is important to see what is important and essential that opens the door to opportunities. Fearlessness, the courage to change for the better even when things are not broken, will ensure the stability of the business to win the competition.
