In one of the classic business stories, a bright, young manager stands in front of the CEO’s desk, knowing what’s about to happen. He made a bad decision and the company lost a lot of money because of it. The manager is sure this is his exit interview.
He puts those thoughts aside to listen to what the CEO is saying to him. To his amazement, the CEO is describing a new project. It’s big and it’s important to the company’s future and it sounds like the CEO wants him to lead it. The manager is confused.
Finally, he blurts out, “You’re not going to fire me?”
“Fire you?” laughs the CEO, “We just spent a few million dollars educating you.”
I’m sure the story is an urban legend. The young manager never has a name. The CEO is usually Andrew Carnegie or Thomas Watson (Sr. or Jr. is usually not specified). And the amount of money varies all over the map.
Regardless of whether the story is factually correct, it embodies an important truth. There’s no way for people to learn to make good decisions without making a bunch of bad ones, too.
In other words, if you want to develop good decision makers, you’d better expect some bad decisions. There’s no way around it. Consider this from Lt. Colonel Paul Yingling.
“It is unreasonable to expect that an officer who spends 25 years conforming to institutional expectations will emerge as an innovator in his late forties.”
That’s as true for business leaders as it is for military leaders. If you want a young manager to become a decisive, innovative leader at age fifty, you’d better give them opportunities to develop independence early.
What we’re talking about is learning from experience. Oscar Wilde, in his own cynical way, probably put it best when he said, “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.”
Love that quote from Lt. Col Yingling. Too few people will recognize who he is, but the guy had real courage speaking out about the problems with the system he worked in. This was not a “disgruntled employee” but an extremely accomplished professional. A real leader in my mind.