Getting fired is GOOD for Leaders

It’s strange the things that trigger your ideas and attitudes about leaders. I'd just been on a train to Paris, catching up on a month’s worth of reading (I’m the kind of guy who tears out pages from business mags and newspapers and squirrels them  away to catch up when I have the time). It’s messy, totally non-digital, deeply uncool, but it works for me. Often some of my best ideas come from reading some ink-smudged newspaper clipping months out of date.

In the midst of rapidly skimming through 30 or 40 pieces I’d collected, I was suddenly struck by one thing. Most of what I was reading was about failure, specifically CEOs who’d crashed and burned - usually taking a large slice of that year’s profits in severance settlements with them. “My goodness,” I thought, “there’s an epidemic out here. It’ worse than top-of-the-league soccer managers. CEOs are getting it from all sides, are we learning nothing about squandering all this talent? ”

I was still musing on this accident-prone CEO syndrome when I arrived to meet a client. Well, not a client actually, but hopefully soon to be one. I’ve known him for years. He’s just arrived into the hot seat of a large transportation firm. Lucky to be there, I thought, got fired about six months ago. Messy corporate divorce, but he looks OK – confidently exuding the air of man in charge of his personal destiny.

We shook hands, and I sat down across from his aircraft carrier-sized stripped pine desk. As I opened my folder, all my carefully hoarded clippings I’d been reading on the train, spilled, embarrassingly, to the floor.

“What’s that?” asked my host.

I quickly explained my dinosaur-like way of staying in tune with the times. As it was a very informal meeting, and I’d met him before, I also wished him luck in his new role, boldly referring to his last job and how I hoped it would work out well. He smiled at me. “Well after these last months, I reckon it’s not going to be too bad, at least I know how to play the game now.” He added, “You see I’m qualified. Got the t-shirt, been there done that. “

My host, then went onto describe in fascinating detail how he lost his job, how the forces massed against him had combined to bring him down. Over the next 30 minutes he itemized in detail what had happened, what he learned from each twist and turn and how he had got out clean, certainly richer but a whole lot wiser as well. By the end of it he had come across as a very professional operator, one I’d be happy to vouch for as a man who’d keep his head in any crisis that came along.

Finally, he sat back in his chair and said, “ So you see Rudi, getting fired taught me all I needed to know, to stay on top- it’s been my finishing school my post graduate business degree.  I’ve an MBA from the best school money can buy, a stellar track record, but now I know how to play the game better than anyone else.” He went on, “I Can deal with boards, investors, analysts, the media, over-ambitious lieutenants. None of them concerns me now. Quite frankly, you can’t be a real leader unless you know how to recognize and deal with all those things happening to you every day. Now I know how to build loyalty in my team   (I was just too busy before); avoid the sniping of the financial analysts (never bothered to take them seriously – now I do); ignored the media (I make sure I’m seen, heard and my image is polished like the brass plaque outside our HQ).”

Was taken aback by his words, and his enthusiasm, “ So what about the caring leader,” I asked, “ is it all just a fiction; are we led to believe that a CEO who takes care of his people is THE real leadership model we  should aspire too? “

He stared at me for a good 20 seconds, saying nothing. Then he smiled and finally said, “That’s what the book says that’s what all the management courses preach, but that isn’t real-life. Quite frankly, the reason I’m worth this huge salary they’re paying me is for one thing. I’ve been fired – I survived and I learnt all the lessons better than anyone else.  I have been shot at but now I’m bullet-proof Now when I come to choose my successor I know  where I’ll be looking. “

He got up to leave, shook my hand warmly and opened the door for me. “Walk you down to reception,” he said, got to do my daily tour, keep the people pleased by knowing I look pleased too.”

So is it true, can you really get better as a leader by experiencing the seamy side of corporate existence? My betting is my new friend – and he’s a new client now - has got it right. So, go get fired, learn from it and be the leader you should have been all along!

This column on leadership and organizational development is written exclusively for the IEDP by Rudi Plettinx, Managing Director of Management Centre Europe, the Brussels-based development organization. Have a comment or a question? Connect with him via Linkedin. 

The best route to being a successful leader

A series of interviews with experienced players and experts in human resources and organizational development. Here we ask the questions to professional executive recruiter Anthony McAlister of Thorburn McAlister, a London-based consulting firm, with a worldwide client portfolio in the energy, financial and transportation  sectors.

MCE :You’ve frequently commented that leaders who fail rarely get their top job back. How do you get back on top after a fall?

Anthony McAlister (AMc) : All our research shows that employers value a leader’s sector experience  a great deal more than success.  The rule is, if you fail publicly you must clearly explain what went wrong and what you have learned as a result.  You must also balance the story with ALL the good things you achieved.  However, you must be realistic about your age and length of tenure as it will effect your ability to climb back on the success ladder. You should always have a plan B and – critically -  time limit your job search.

MCE : What’s the best route to being a successful leader, what should you study, what experience should you have?

AMc :Three words – operations, operations, operations.  It’s best  if you come from a general management route, running parts of the business with international experience and a track record of turnaround/profitability.  CFO’s often step up but usually because it’s a safe/cheap/fast option and cost cutting is required.  Unfortunately, as track records show,  they are more likely to reduce shareholder value.

MCE : And the much discussed MBA ( from a good business school ), do you really need it, or should you spend your time and energy on something else??

AMc : An MBA is a useful learning experience, but will never be valued more highly than experience and success.

MCE : And the tendency for corporate leaders to suffer from the need to leave a legacy... what’s your advice on that – does it ever serve a useful purpose.?

AMc : Apart from the a handful of  tech wizzkids I don’t really recognise this. CEOs of public companies are fixated on share price: nothing else matters to the board, the analysts, or the shareholders and, in fact,  themselves. Controversially, emerging research is showing how little real affect CEOs have on their businesses. So, leaving on a high is  perhaps, sadly, just a matter of both luck and judgement.  The legacy that’s unfortunately left is  a declining share price, profit warnings and restructuring.

MCE : Finally, you are noted for your encouragement of women in the C- suite. What’s the biggest obstacle to getting (and staying) on top?

AMc : Traditionally women have been attracted to project-based professions that allow for raising families like accountancy and law.  This is why we see so many female NEDs (non-executive directors) coming from these backgrounds. However, this trend is changing and marketing and business development are now common NED profiles.  But what do we mean by C- suite ?, look at most large public businesses and you will see female HR and Communication specialists prominent in the mix.  But to get to CEO it always comes back to operational experience.  Staying there is easy, (consistently good performance) – most effective  women  leaders don’t seem to  have a problem with this.

Faculty in the spotlight: Marc Feyen

Marc Feyen

At least 150 faculty work with MCE. Everyone has their own way of working, but they share a common passion : transferring knowledge. So, we decided to put each time a faculty in the spotlight to get to know more about them and about their expertise. 




Marc Feyen is delivering the Mini-MBA chemicals for MCE since 2013. He is delivering the part that is covering: Global Trends, Leadership, Strategy, Sales & Marketing and Supply Chain. The Financial section is delivered by a specific financial specialist. He offers a very pragmatic and result-oriented approach to coaching and developing leaders and managers to keep the business moving forward.

MCE: How this Mini MBA could help the future participants in their career, research?

Marc Feyen: 

1. First of all the participants will see all major parts of a company and business and importantly how they are “inter-connected”. This is crucial for potential and future leaders to understand this. They need this global view in order to successfully lead a business or company, especially when they are going through major changes, which can be a result of change in strategic direction or restructuring. The business environment is today so complex and quickly changing that a full understanding of ALL aspects of a business is inevitable for success.  

2. The Chemical industry is also a difficult industry. More strict regulations (f.i. Reach), sometimes still the bad image that the chemical industry has created in the past, the future challenges in new environmentally friendly technologies and products (read Bio-economy), requires strong and skilled leaders with a clear vision for the future. The Mini MBA for the Chemical industry will help them to understand and develop this further.

 MCE: As a trainer for this Mini MBA Chemicals at MCE, Could you tell us what is the “Future of the bioeconomy”?

            MF: During the next decades, the world will be faced with an increased shortage of natural resources, while the world population is further growing. So an increased competition for it will be the result of it.

            Therefore, a transition towards a more optimal use of renewable biological resources is an absolute must. Europe and the rest of the world will be forced to move to technologies and products that needs less input, requires less energy to produce, create less environmental impact and reduce further the CO2 emissions.

For Europe this will be a serious challenge as it will be a crucial element in order to keep her competitiveness towards other large economies. However, in my opinion, it creates also an unique opportunity for Europe to become a more resource efficient society that can rely better and more on renewable resources while still achieving economical growth.

The bio-economy is wide comprehensive: primary production and industrial into the food industry, waste treatment, pulp & paper, a large part of the chemical industry and of course the energy industry.
 

MCE: According to you what is the impact of the new technologies on the chemical industry?

            MF: It is estimated that the bio-economy represents a market value of more than 2 trillion Euro annually already today in Europe. It provides employment to more than 21 million people. These estimates makes it clear that the chemical industry can strongly benefit from it. The bio-economy will drive the companies to be more innovative, creative and very "open-minded thinking” in order to develop new sustainable technologies and products for the future. This will change the way of leading and structuring companies. It will require more R&D people, creative minds and innovators in the chemical industry. In other words: bio-economy is very much “Knowledge-based. The leaders of the future needs to be very much “Entrepreneurial” oriented in order to create (invent) new collaboration and business models. The bio-economy will be also very interesting, in my opinion, for the so-called “medium sized” companies. There are many companies in this segment, like f.i. agriculture industry. They excel mostly in their specific knowledge, but the commercialization is often difficult and expensive. Cooperation with larger companies is then needed to develop further and commercialize these new sustainable technologies. I strongly believe that not only in the food industry, but also in the chemical industry a very big future is ahead of them in the search for new, ecological sustainable product and technologies.