Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

The New York Times business section publishes wonderful "Question and Answer" articles with successful/famous CEOs.   Nearly every one gives me something to think about.

They published another gem that highlights Jed Yueh of Delphix.  Please read the article, but here's the part I really liked.  Jed talked about "lessons learned."

Q. What were some early leadership lessons as you built that first company?

A. My biggest lesson was that you could be technically right and management wrong, and I learned that early on. I can articulate and debate a viewpoint from many angles, and I found that I could be technically right and force somebody into a viewpoint. But then they would slowly spiral into a place where they’re not really working hard because they feel demoralized. So I lost wars by winning battles.

So the first of my three management principles is that you’ve got to learn how to manage yourself. You have to understand how to win wars, not individual battles. If you don’t manage yourself very well, it’s hard for you to maximize the performance of a team. And managers can either increase or decrease motivation for their teams. They can either increase or decrease clarity for their teams. They can either build cultures that are highly collaborative and capable of solving problems quickly, or they can create cultures where you have a lot of paralysis and it’s very difficult to make decisions.

As I read those words, I cringed.  How many times have I given feedback because I was convinced that my idea would improve a proposal, or an aspect of a proposal, even if by just a little bit.  In other words....

And what did I likely accomplish?  Maybe I improved some aspect of the other person's project (and that's a big maybe), but I likely slashed his or her enthusiasm by 50 percent. 

I won the battle, and lost the war. 

I need to channel Mr. Yeuh and remember that you can be right, but management wrong.