Bootstrap Leadership Blog

One of the cool thing about working with clients is that they often turn you on to some interesting web tools, even if they’ve been right under your nose for years.  This week I was talking with three colleagues who pointed me to the TEDTalks video site – so I’d like to take you there, too.  

TED, of course, is the nonprofit organization devoted to ideas worth spreading from three creative worlds:  Technology, Entertainment, and Design.  Since its first gathering in 1984, the TED Conference has grown to a twice annual event - the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer.  Going beyond mere conferences, however, TED now  includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.  That’s a lot of TED!

The TEDTalks video collection is an eclectic set of some of the most creative, funny and interesting minds in the world… all delivering provocative messages to your desktop.  Authors, inventors, CEOs, politicians, you name it – you can find them here.  From Malcolm Gladwell to Al Gore to Steve Jobs, there’s bound to be an interesting video that will spark your team’s imagination and open up some compelling conversations.  

If you’re looking for a short video clip to add to your next presentation, all-hands or offsite, check out TEDTalks.  Be sure to carve out an hour to browse the site – you’ll need it!  

Let’s say you learn that your best employee is thinking of leaving the company for a rival firm. Or maybe you don't want her to retire at the end of the year.  Or maybe you've promised her a move or a new assignment, and now you've changed your mind – you believe it's best that she stay in her current role. Here’s the question – should you be leveraging her peers to help you influence her decisions?

A fascinating example of positive peer pressure played out this week when the Minnesota Vikings (my team) dispatched three players to Mississippi to beg Brett Favre to return for a 20th NFL season. That’s right, management asked three team leaders to skip practice and fly down on a private jet to twist the arm of the legendary 40-year old QB, with a very clear message – we need you, man. Do it for the team. We want you back. Favre apparently couldn’t say no to his friends and teammates, so he’s back under center and ready to lead the Vikes to a Super Bowl. (By the way, when that happens, and it will, I’ll be writing the mother of all leadership columns – I'm just saying, is all.  Just wanted to warn you).

So, is this a charming story of brotherhood and friendship, or a shrewd move by management? I suppose it’s a little of both, but it raises an interesting question in my mind about whether we as leaders can and should be leveraging peers more often as a strategy for getting people to develop, change behavior, make decisions, etc. It certainly seems counter to the direct approach that I favor - building a strong relationship with your direct reports, where you can say anything you need to on any topic. But I wonder… especially as it relates to trying to neutralize a potential career derailer, I can see the power of asking trusted peers to reinforce your messages, after you’ve had a frank discussion with the employee.

I’m going to think about this some more – the idea of leveraging peers to get what you want as a manager seems like a high wire act to me… you better be living in a glass house of integrity and trust if you’re going to deploy this strategy. But let’s say you are on that level – what interesting possibilities does this open up for you as a leader? Where do you use this tactic, and why? What does it do to your credibility as the leader, and what are the ramifications down the road?  What power does this assign to the team, and is that a bad thing?  Can you do it more than once with the same employee?  Do the peers then expect to be consulted and leveraged again and again?  Fascinating questions, really. 

If you’re going to fire a high-profile CEO, you couldn’t pick a better time than late on a Friday afternoon in mid-August.  Wait until the market is closed, most journalists are at the beach, etc… a good plan, in theory.  But the fallout will still find its way to HP’s front door, probably starting with Monday’s opening bell on the NY Stock Exchange. 

By now I’m sure you’ve heard that Hewlett Packard asked CEO Mark Hurd to resign in the wake of fraudelant expense reports he filed, related to a somewhat fuzzy relationship he had with a marketing contractor.  Sunday brought news that Hurd has reached a settlement with the contractor that will likely prevent any civil suits or harassment claims.  No doubt, more details will surface soon, and this type of story will keep the business presses running for at least a week or so – until the next high level business scandal comes along.

What continues to baffle me is how these things get this far down the path.  By most accounts, Hurd had done a great job of shaping HP for the future – he seemed to be in the top echelon of consistent “in for the long haul” CEOs who could be counted on by shareholders to oversee a great and enduring company.  So why this small (but significant) speed bump?  And why throw it down in front of your own smooth-running car?  Why incur and submit fraudulent expense reports?   Was this a crime of passion, or merely poor judgment?   And if it truly was the latter (seems hard to believe) – where were the guardrails (chief of staff, administrative support, auditors) that could have called him on it early?  Imagine someone pushing back or questioning the expenses the first time he submitted them – that might have been the time to say: “you’re right, let’s not have the company pay for that” – maybe that stops the whole sorted affair right there. 

Look, I get that we all make mistakes… everyone’s human.  Sometimes it really is ignorance of policies or rules, but often times it’s just plain poor judgment (blinded by another passion) hubris (no one will find out), or ego (I’m entitled).   I don’t know which of these caused Mark Hurd to submit those expense reports, but I do know that it will cost him dearly (at least in reputation – I suppose the $28 million exit package will allow him to maintain most of his current lifestyle – but that’s an entirely different column).  

Maybe the lesson for the rest of us is this – if you’re not sure about something related to work, ask your audit or compliance department to weigh in.  Get a second opinion, man.  Or, you know, maybe don’t do it in the first place, if it seems like it might be out of bounds.  All of this leaves me wondering if Hurd is channeling George Castanza right now, who when caught in one of his countless schemes would say:  “was that wrong?  Because if someone had told me that kind of thing was frowned upon…”