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What to Ask the Person in the Mirror

by Robert S. Kaplan

Included with this full-text

Harvard Business Review

article:

The Idea in Brief—the core idea

The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work

1

Article Summary

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What to Ask the Person in the Mirror

A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further

exploration of the article’s ideas and applications

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Further Reading

There comes a point in your

career when the best way to

figure out how you’re doing is

to step back and ask yourself a

few questions. Having all the

answers is less important than

knowing what to ask.

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What to Ask the Person in the Mirror

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The Idea in Brief The Idea in Practice

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If you’re like most managers, the higher you go up the corporate ladder, the harder it is to get candid feedback on your performance. And without crucial input from bosses and colleagues, you can make mistakes that irreparably damage your organization—and your reputation.

How to figure out how you’re

really

doing and avoid business disasters? Kaplan rec-ommends looking to

yourself

for answers. Regularly ask yourself questions like these: “Am I communicating a vision for my busi-ness to my employees?” “Am I spending my time in ways that enable me to achieve my priorities?” “Do I give people timely and di-rect feedback they can act on?” “How do I behave under pressure?”

It’s far more important to ask the

right

ques-tions than to have all the answers. By apply-ing this process, you tackle the leadership challenges that inevitably arise during the course of your career—and craft new plans for staying on your game.

Kaplan suggests periodically asking yourself questions related to seven leadership challenges:

To addressthis leadershipchallenge…

Ask… Because…

Vision andpriorities

How often do I com-municate a visionand key priorities toachieve that vision?

Employees want to know where the business is goingand what they need to focus on in order to help drive thebusiness. As the world changes, they want to know howthe vision and priorities might change.

Managingtime

Does the way Ispend my timematch my key priorities?

Tracking your use of time can reveal startling—even horrifying—disconnects between your top priorities andyour actions. Such disconnects send confusing messagesto employees about your true priorities.

Feedback Do I give peopletimely and directfeedback they canact on?

Employees want truthful, direct, and timely feedback.Retention and productivity improve when employeestrust you to raise issues promptly and honestly.

Successionplanning

Have I potential successors?

It’s important to nurture future leaders who can grow thebusiness. If you haven’t possible successors,you’re probably not delegating as much as you should,and you may even be a decision-making bottleneck.

Evaluationand align-ment

Am I attuned tobusiness changesthat may requireshifts in how we runthe company?

All businesses encounter challenges posed by changes;for example, in customers’ needs or the business’s stageof maturity. To determine how best to evolve your busi-ness, regularly scan for changes, seek fresh perspectivesfrom talented subordinates, and envision new organiza-tional designs.

Leadingunder pres-sure

How do I behaveunder pressure?

During crises, employees watch you with a microscope—and mimic your behavior. By identifying your unproduc-tive behaviors under pressure (such as blaming others orlosing your temper), you can better manage those behav-iors and avoid sending unintended messages to employ-ees about how they should behave.

Staying trueto yourself

Does my leadershipstyle re ct who Itruly am?

A business career is a marathon, not a sprint. If you’veadopted a leadership style that doesn’t suit your skills, values, and personality, you’ll wear down.

What to Ask the Person in the Mirror

by Robert S. Kaplan

harvard business review • january 2007 page 2

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There comes a point in your career when the best way to figure out how

you’re doing is to step back and ask yourself a few questions. Having all

the answers is less important than knowing what to ask.

If you’re like most successful leaders, youwere, in the early stages of your career, givenplenty of guidance and support. You wereclosely monitored, coached, and mentored.But as you moved up the ladder, the sources ofhonest and useful feedback became fewer, andafter a certain point, you were pretty much onyour own. Now, your boss—if you have one—is no longer giving much consideration toyour day-to-day actions. By the time any mis-takes come to light, it’s probably too late to fixthem—or your boss’s perceptions of you. Andby the time your management missteps nega-tively affect your business results, it’s usuallytoo late to make corrections that will get youback on course.

No matter how talented and successful youare, you will make mistakes. You will developbad habits. The world will change subtly, with-out your even noticing, and behaviors thatonce worked will be rendered ineffective. Overa 22-year career at Goldman Sachs, I had theopportunity to run various businesses and towork with or coach numerous business leaders.

I chaired the firm’s senior leadership trainingefforts and cochaired its partnership commit-tee, which focused on reviews, promotions, anddevelopment of managing directors. Throughthis experience and subsequent interviews witha large number of executives in a broad rangeof industries, I have observed that even out-standing leaders invariably struggle throughstretches of their careers where they get offtrack for some period of time.

It’s hard to see it when you’re in the midst ofit; changes in the environment, competitors, oreven personal circumstances can quietly guideyou off your game. I have learned that a keycharacteristic of highly successful leaders is notthat they figure out how to always stay oncourse, but that they develop techniques tohelp them recognize a deteriorating situationand get back on track as quickly as possible. Inmy experience, the best way to do that is tostep back regularly, say every three to six months(and certainly whenever things feel as thoughthey aren’t going well), and honestly ask your-self some questions about how you’re doing

What to Ask the Person in the Mirror

harvard business review • january 2007 page 3

and what you may need to do differently. Assimple as this process sounds, people are oftenshocked by their own answers to basic man-agement and leadership questions.

One manager in a large financial servicescompany who had been passed over for pro-motion told me he was quite surprised by hisyear-end performance review, which high-lighted several management issues that hadnot been previously brought to his attention.His boss read several comments from the re-view that faulted him for poor communica-tion, failure to effectively articulate a strategyfor the business, and a tendency to isolate him-self from his team. He believed that the reviewwas unfair. After 15 years at the company, hebegan to feel confused and misunderstood andwondered whether he still had a future there.He decided to seek feedback directly from fiveof his key contributors and longtime collabora-tors. In one-on-one meetings, he asked themfor blunt feedback and advice. He was shockedto hear that they were highly critical of severalof his recent actions, were confused about thedirection he wanted to take the business, andfelt he no longer valued their input. Their feed-back helped him see that he had been so im-mersed in the day-to-day business that he hadfailed to step back and think about what hewas doing. This was a serious wake-up call. Heimmediately took steps to change his behaviorand address these issues. His review the follow-ing year was dramatically better, he was finallypromoted, and his business’s performance im-proved. The manager was lucky to have re-ceived this feedback in time to get his careerback on track, although he regretted that hehad waited for a negative review to ask basicquestions about his leadership activities. Hepromised himself he would not make that mis-take again.

In this article, I outline seven types of ques-tions that leaders should ask themselves onsome periodic basis. I am not suggesting thatthere is a “right” answer to any of them or thatthey all will resonate with a given executive atany point in time. I am suggesting that success-ful executives can regularly improve their per-formance and preempt serious business prob-lems by stepping back and taking the time toask themselves certain key questions.

Vision and Priorities

It’s surprising how often business leaders fail

to ask themselves:

How frequently do I commu-nicate a vision and priorities for my business?Would my employees, if asked, be able to articu-late the vision and priorities?

Many leadershave, on paper, a wealth of leadership talents:interpersonal, strategic, and analytic skills; aknack for team building; and certainly the abil-ity to develop a vision. Unfortunately, in thepress of day-to-day activities, they often don’tadequately communicate the vision to the or-ganization, and in particular, they don’t con-vey it in a way that helps their people under-stand what they are supposed to be doing todrive the business. It is very difficult to leadpeople if they don’t have a firm grasp of wherethey’re heading and what’s expected of them.

This was the problem at a large

Fortune

200company that had decided to invest in its 1,000top managers by having them attend an inten-sive, two-day management-training program,100 at a time. Before each session, the partici-pants went through a 360-degree nonevalua-tive review in which critical elements of theirindividual performance were ranked by ten oftheir subordinates. The company’s senior man-agement looked at the results, focusing on thetop five and bottom five traits for each group.Despite this being an extremely well-managedfirm, the ability to articulate a vision ranked inthe bottom five for almost every group. Man-agers at that company did articulate a vision,but the feedback from their subordinates stronglyindicated that they were not communicating itfrequently or clearly enough to meet their peo-ple’s tremendous hunger for guidance.

Employees want to know where the businessis going and what they need to focus on. As theworld changes, they want to know how thebusiness vision and priorities might changealong with it. While managers are taught to ac-tively communicate, many either unintention-ally undercommunicate or fail to articulatespecific priorities that would give meaning totheir vision. However often you think youdiscuss vision and strategy, you may not bedoing it frequently enough or in sufficient de-tail to suit the needs of your people. Look atthe CEO of an emerging biotechnology com-pany, who was quite frustrated with what hesaw as a lack of alignment within his top man-agement team. He strongly believed that thecompany needed to do a substantial equity fi-nancing within the next 18 months, but his se-nior managers wanted to wait a few years until

Robert S. Kaplan

(rokaplan@hbs.edu), formerly vice chairman of the Goldman Sachs Group, is the Thomas S. Murphy Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard Business School in Boston.

What to Ask the Person in the Mirror

harvard business review • january 2007 page 4

two or three of the company’s key drugs werefurther along in the FDA approval process.They preferred to tell their story to investorswhen the company was closer to generatingrevenue. When I asked him about the visionfor the company, the CEO sheepishly realizedthat he had never actually written down a vi-sion statement. He had a well-articulated tacti-cal plan relating to each of the company’s spe-cific product efforts but no fully formed visionthat would give further context to these efforts.He decided to organize an off-site meeting forhis senior management team to discuss andspecifically articulate a vision for the company.

After a vigorous debate, the group quicklyagreed on a vision and strategic priorities. Theyrealized that in order to achieve their sharedgoals, the business would in fact require sub-

stantial financing sooner rather than later—orthey would need to scale back some of the ini-tiatives that were central to their vision for thecompany. Once they fully appreciated thistrade-off, they understood what the CEO wastrying to accomplish and left the meetingunited about their financing strategy. The CEOwas quite surprised at how easy it had been tobring the members of his leadership team to-gether. Because they agreed on where theywere going as a company, specific issues weremuch easier to resolve.

A common pitfall in articulating a vision is afailure to boil it down to a manageable list ofinitiatives. Culling the list involves thinkingthrough and then making difficult choices andtrade-off decisions. These choices communi-cate volumes to your people about how they

Testing Yourself

To assess your performance and stay on track, you should step back and ask yourself certain key questions.

Vision and Priorities

In the press of day-to-day activities, leaders often fail to adequately communicate their vision to the organization, and in particular, they don’t communicate it in a way that helps their subordinates determine where to focus their own efforts.

How often do I communicate a vision for my

business?

Have I identified and communicated three to

five key priorities to achieve that vision?

If asked, would my employees be able to artic-

ulate the vision and priorities?

Managing Time

Leaders need to know how they’re spending

their time. They also need to ensure that

their time allocation (and that of their subor-

dinates) matches their key priorities.

How am I spending my time? Does it match

my key priorities?

How are my subordinates spending their time?

Does that match the key priorities for the

business?

Feedback

Leaders often fail to coach employees in a di-rect and timely fashion and, instead, wait until the year-end review. This approach may

lead to unpleasant surprises and can under-mine effective professional development. Just as important, leaders need to cultivate subordinates who can give them advice and feedback during the year.

Do I give people timely and direct feedback

that they can act on?

Do I have five or six junior subordinates who will tell me things I may not want to hear but need to hear?

Succession Planning

When leaders fail to actively plan for succes-sion, they do not delegate sufficiently and may become decision-making bottlenecks. Key employees may leave if they are not ac-tively groomed and challenged.

Have I, at least in my own mind, picked one

or more potential successors?

Am I coaching them and giving them chal-

lenging assignments?

Am I delegating sufficiently? Have I become a

decision-making bottleneck?

Evaluation and Alignment

The world is constantly changing, and lead-ers need to be able to adapt their businesses accordingly.

Is the design of my company still aligned with

the key success factors for the business?

If I had to design my business with a clean

sheet of paper, how would I design it? How

would it differ from the current design?

Should I create a task force of subordinates to

answer these questions and make recommenda-

tions to me?

Leading Under Pressure

A leader’s actions in times of stress are watched closely by subordinates and have a profound impact on the culture of the firm and employees’ behavior. Successful leaders need to be aware of their own stress triggers and consciously modulate their behavior during these periods to make sure they are acting in ways that are consistent with their beliefs and core values.

What types of events create pressure for me?

How do I behave under pressure?

What signals am I sending my subordinates?

Are these signals helpful, or are they undermin-

ing the success of my business?

Staying True to Yourself

Successful executives develop leadership styles that fit the needs of their business but also fit their own beliefs and personality.

Is my leadership style comfortable? Does it re-

flect who I truly am?

Do I assert myself sufficiently, or have I be-

come tentative?

Am I too politically correct?

Does worry about my next promotion or

bonus cause me to pull punches or hesitate to ex-

press my views?

What to Ask the Person in the Mirror

harvard business review • january 2007 page 5

should be spending their time. I spoke with themanager of a national sales force who felt frus-trated that his direct reports were not focusingon the tasks necessary to achieve their respec-tive regional sales goals. As a result, sales weregrowing at a slower rate than budgeted at thebeginning of the year. When I asked him toenumerate the three to five key priorities heexpected his salespeople to focus on, hepaused and then explained that there were 15and it would be very difficult to narrow the listdown to five.

Even as he spoke, a light went on in hishead. He realized why there might be a discon-nect between him and his people: They didn’tknow precisely what he wanted because hehad not told them in a prioritized, and there-fore actionable, manner. He reflected on thisissue for the next two weeks, thinking at lengthabout his own experience as a regional man-ager and consulting with various colleagues.He then picked three priorities that he feltwere crucial to achieving sales growth. Themost important of these involved a major new-business targeting exercise followed by a sub-stantial new-prospect calling effort. The re-gional managers immediately understood andbegan focusing on these initiatives. The fact isthat having 15 priorities is the same as havingnone at all. Managers have a responsibility totranslate their vision into a manageable num-ber of priorities that their subordinates can un-derstand and act on.

Failing to communicate your vision and pri-orities has direct costs to you in terms of timeand business effectiveness. It’s hard to delegateif your people don’t have a good sense of thebig picture; hence you end up doing morework yourself. This issue can cascade throughthe organization if your direct reports are, inturn, unable to communicate a vision and ef-fectively leverage their own subordinates.

Managing Time

The second area to question is painfully sim-ple and closely relates to the first:

How am Ispending my time?

Once you know your priori-ties, you need to determine whether you’respending your time—your most preciousasset—in a way that will allow you to achievethem. For example, if your two major priori-ties are senior talent development and globalexpansion but you’re spending the majority ofyour time on domestic operational and admin-

istrative matters that could be delegated, thenyou need to recognize there is a disconnectand you’d better make some changes.

It’s such a simple question, yet many leaders,myself included, just can’t accurately answer attimes. When leaders finally do track their time,they’re often surprised by what they find. Mostof us go through periods where unexpectedevents and day-to-day chaos cause us to be re-active rather than acting on a proscribed plan.Crises, surprises, personnel issues, and inter-ruptions make the workweek seem like a blur.I have recommended to many leaders thatthey track how they spend each hour of eachday for one week, then categorize the hoursinto types of activities: business development,people management, and strategic planning,for example. For most executives, the results ofthis exercise are startling—even horrifying—with obvious disconnects between what theirtop priorities are and how they are spendingtheir time.

For example, the CEO of a midsize manufac-turing company was frustrated because he wasworking 70 hours a week and never seemed tocatch up. His family life suffered, and, at work,he was constantly unavailable for his peopleand major customers. I suggested he step backand review how he was managing his timehour-by-hour over the course of a week. We satdown to examine the results and noticed thathe was spending a substantial amount of timeapproving company expenditures, some for aslittle as $500—this in a business with $500 mil-lion in sales. Sitting in my office, he struggledto explain why he had not delegated some por-tion of this responsibility; it turned out that theactivity was a holdover from a time when thecompany was much smaller. By delegating au-thority to approve recurring operating expensesbelow $25,000, he realized he could save asmuch as 15 hours per week. He was amazedthat he had not recognized this issue and madethis simple change much earlier.

How you spend your time is an importantquestion not only for you but for your team. Peo-ple tend to take their cues from the leader whenit comes to time management—therefore, youwant to make sure there’s a match betweenyour actions, your business priorities, and yourteam’s activities. The CEO of a rapidly growing,300-person professional services firm felt that,to build the business, senior managers neededto develop stronger and more substantive rela-

The fact is, having 15

priorities is the same as

having none at all.

What to Ask the Person in the Mirror

harvard business review • january 2007 page 6

tionships with clients. This meant that seniorprofessionals would need to spend significantlymore time out of their offices in meetings withclients. When asked how his own time wasbeing spent, the CEO was unable to answer.After tracking it for a week, he was shocked tofind that he was devoting a tremendousamount of his time to administrative activitiesrelated to managing the firm. He realized thatthe amount of attention he was paying tothese matters did not reflect the business’s pri-orities and was sending a confusing message tohis people. He immediately began pushinghimself to delegate a number of these adminis-trative tasks and increase the amount of timehe spent on the road with customers, setting apowerful example for his people. He directedeach of his senior managers to do a similartime-allocation exercise to ensure they werededicating sufficient time to clients.

Of course, the way a leader spends his orher time must be tailored to the needs of thebusiness, which may vary depending on time ofyear, personnel changes, and external factors.The key here is, whatever you decide, time al-location needs to be a conscious decision thatfits your vision and priorities for the business.Given the pressure of running a business, it iseasy to lose focus, so it’s important to ask your-self this question periodically. Just as you wouldstep back and review a major investment deci-sion, you need to dispassionately review themanner in which you invest your time.

Feedback

When you think about the ways you approachfeedback, you should first ask:

Do I give peopletimely, direct, and constructive feedback?

And sec-ond:

Do I have five or six junior people who will tellme things I don’t want to hear but need to hear?

If they’re like most ambitious employees,your subordinates want to be coached and de-veloped in a truthful and direct manner. Theywant to get feedback while there’s still an op-portunity to act on it; if you’ve waited until theyear-end review, it’s often too late. In my expe-rience, well-intentioned managers typically failto give blunt, direct, and timely feedback totheir subordinates.

One reason for this failure is that managersare often afraid that constructive feedback andcriticism will demoralize their employees. Inaddition, critiquing a professional in a frankand timely manner may be perceived as overly

confrontational. Lastly, many managers fearthat this type of feedback will cause employeesnot to like them. Consequently, leaders oftenwait until year-end performance reviews. Theyear-end review is evaluative (that is, the ver-dict on the year) and therefore is not condu-cive to constructive coaching. The subordinateis typically on the defensive and not as open tocriticism. This approach creates surprises,often unpleasant ones, which undermine trustand dramatically reduce the confidence of thesubordinate in the manager.

The reality is that managers who don’t giveimmediate and direct feedback often are“liked” until year-end—at which time theywind up being strongly disliked. If employeeshave fallen short of expectations, the failing isreflected in bonuses, raises, and promotions.The feeling of injustice can be enormous.What’s worse is the knowledge that if an em-ployee had received feedback earlier in theyear, it is likely that he or she would havemade meaningful efforts to improve and ad-dress the issues.

While people do like to hear positive feed-back, ultimately, they desperately want toknow the truth, and I have rarely seen some-one quit over hearing the truth or being chal-lenged to do better—unless it’s too late. On thecontrary, I would argue that people are morelikely to stay if they understand what issuesthey need to address and they trust you tobring those issues to their attention in astraightforward and prompt fashion. They gainconfidence that you will work with them to de-velop their skills and that they won’t be blind-sided at the end of the year. Employees whodon’t land a hoped-for promotion will be muchmore likely to forgive you if you’ve told themall along what they need to do better, even ifthey haven’t gotten there yet. They may wellredouble their efforts to prove to you that theycan overcome these issues.

During my career at Goldman Sachs, I con-sistently found that professional developmentwas far more effective when coaching and di-rect feedback were given to employees through-out the year—well in advance of the annualperformance review process. Internal surveysof managing directors showed that, in caseswhere feedback was confined to the year-endreview, satisfaction with career developmentwas dramatically lower than when it was of-fered throughout the year.

What to Ask the Person in the Mirror

harvard business review • january 2007 page 7

As hard as it is to give effective and timelyfeedback, many leaders find it much morechallenging to get feedback from their employ-ees. Once you reach a certain stage of your ca-reer, junior people are in a much better posi-tion than your boss to tell you how you’redoing. They see you in your day-to-day activi-ties, and they experience your decisions di-rectly. Your boss, at this stage, is much more re-moved and, as a result, typically needs to talkto your subordinates to assess your perfor-mance at the end of the year. In order to avoidyour own year-end surprises, you need to de-velop a network of junior professionals whoare willing to give you constructive feedback.The problem is that, while your direct reportsknow what you are doing wrong, most of themare not dying to tell you. With good reason—there’s very little upside and a tremendousamount of downside. The more senior and themore important you become, the less your sub-ordinates will tell you the “awful truth”—things that are difficult to hear but that youneed to know.

It takes a concerted effort to cultivate sub-ordinates who will advise and coach you. It alsotakes patience and some relentlessness. When Iask subordinates for constructive feedback, theywill typically and predictably tell me that I’mdoing “very well.” When I follow up and ask“What should I do differently?” they respond,“Nothing that I can think of.” If I challenge themby saying, “There must be something!” stillthey say, “Nothing comes to mind.” I then askthem to sit back and think—we have plenty oftime. By this time, beads of sweat begin to be-come visible on their foreheads. After an awk-ward silence, they will eventually come upwith something—and it’s often devastating tohear. It’s devastating because it’s a damningcriticism and because you know it’s true.

What you do with this feedback is critical. Ifyou act on it, you will improve your perfor-mance. Equally important, you will take a bigstep in building trust and laying the ground-work for a channel of honest feedback. Whensubordinates see that you respond positively tosuggestions, they will often feel more owner-ship in the business and in your success. They’lllearn to give you criticisms on their own initia-tive because they know you will actually ap-preciate it and do something with it. Develop-ing a network of “coaching” subordinates willhelp you take action to identify your own lead-

ership issues and meaningfully improve yourperformance.

Succession Planning

Another question that managers know is im-portant yet struggle to answer affirmatively is:

Have I, at least in my own mind, picked one ormore potential successors?

This issue is criticalbecause if you aren’t identifying potential suc-cessors, you are probably not delegating as ex-tensively as you should and you may well be adecision-making bottleneck. Being a bottle-neck invariably means that you are not spend-ing enough time on vital leadership prioritiesand are failing to develop your key subordi-nates. Ironically, when leaders believe they areso talented that they can perform tasks far bet-ter than any of their subordinates and there-fore insist on doing the tasks themselves, theywill typically cause their businesses to under-perform, and, ultimately, their careers will suf-fer as well.

The succession question also has signifi-cant implications that cascade through an or-ganization: If leaders do not develop succes-sors, then the organization may lack a sufficientnumber of leaders to successfully grow the busi-ness. Worse, if junior employees are not devel-oped, they may leave the firm for better oppor-tunities elsewhere. For these reasons, manywell-managed companies will hesitate to pro-mote executives who have failed to developsuccessors.

It is sufficient to identify possible successorswithout actually telling them you’ve done so—as long as this identification causes you to man-age them differently. In particular, you willwant to delegate more of your major responsi-bilities to these professionals. This will speedtheir maturation and prepare them to step upto the next level. By giving demanding assign-ments to these subordinates, you strongly sig-nal an interest in their development and careerprogression—which will encourage them to turndown offers from competitors. Leaders who dothis are much better able to keep their teamstogether and avoid losing up-and-coming starsto competitors.

A loss of talent is highly damaging to a com-pany. It is particularly painful if you could haveretained key employees by simply challengingthem more intensively. I spoke with a divisionhead of a large company who was concernedabout what he perceived to be a talent deficit

While your direct reports

know what you are doing

wrong, most of them are

not dying to tell you. It

takes a concerted effort

to cultivate subordinates

who will advise and

coach you.

What to Ask the Person in the Mirror

harvard business review • january 2007 page 8

in his organization. He felt that he could notuse his time to the fullest because he viewedhis direct reports as incapable of assumingsome of his major responsibilities. He believedthis talent deficit was keeping him fromlaunching several new product and market ini-tiatives. In the midst of all this, he lost two es-sential subordinates over six months—eachhad left to take on increased responsibilities atmajor competitors. He had tried to persuadethem to stay, emphasizing that he was activelyconsidering them for significant new leader-ship assignments. Because they had not seenevidence of this previously, they were skepticaland left anyway. I asked him whether, prior tothe defections, he had identified them (or any-one else) as potential successors, put increasedresponsibilities in their hands, or actively ratch-eted up his coaching of these professionals. Heanswered that, in the chaos of daily events andin the effort to keep up with the business, hehad not done so. He also admitted that he hadunderestimated the potential of these two em-ployees and realized he was probably underes-timating the abilities of several others in thecompany. He immediately sat down and madea list of potential stars and next to each namewrote out a career and responsibility game plan.He immediately got to work on this formativesuccession plan, although he suspected that hehad probably waited too long already.

When you’re challenging and testing people,you delegate to them more often, which freesyou to focus on the most critical strategic mat-ters facing the business. This will make youmore successful and a more attractive candi-date for your own future promotion.

Evaluation and Alignment

The world is constantly changing. Your cus-tomers’ needs change; your business evolves(going, for instance, from high growth to ma-ture); new products and distribution methodsemerge as threats. When these changes hap-pen, if you don’t change along with them, youcan get seriously out of alignment. The typesof people you hire, the way you organizethem, the economic incentives you offerthem, and even the nature of the tasks you del-egate no longer create the culture and out-comes that are critical to the success of yourbusiness. It’s your job to make sure that the de-sign of your organization is aligned with thekey success factors for the business. Ask your-

self:

Am I attuned to changes in the business envi-ronment that would require a change in the waywe organize and run our business?

Such clear-sightedness is, of course, hard toachieve. As a leader, you may be too close tothe business to see subtle changes that are con-tinually occurring. Because you probably playeda central role in building and designing thebusiness, it may be emotionally very difficultto make meaningful changes. You may have tofire certain employees—people you recruitedand hired. You may also have to acknowledgethat you made some mistakes and be open tochanging your own operating style in a waythat is uncomfortable for some period of time.

Because of the difficulty in facing these issues,it’s sometimes wise to call on high-potentialsubordinates to take a fresh look at the busi-ness. This approach can be quite effective be-cause junior employees are often not as emo-tionally invested as you are and can see moreobjectively what needs to be done. This ap-proach is also a good way to challenge your fu-ture leaders and give them a valuable develop-ment experience. You’ll give them a chance toexercise their strategic skills; you’ll get aglimpse of their potential (which relates to theearlier discussion of succession planning), andyou might just get some terrific new ideas forhow to run the business.

This approach worked for the CEO of a hightechnology business in northern California,whose company had been one of the early in-novators in its product space but, in recent years,had begun to falter and lose market share. Inits early days, the company’s primary successfactors had been product innovation and satis-fying customer needs. It had aggressively hiredinnovative engineers and marketing person-nel. As new competitors emerged, customersbegan to focus more on cost and service (in theform of more sophisticated applications devel-opment). Stepping back, the CEO sensed thathe needed to redesign the company with a dif-ferent mix of people, a new organization, and arevised incentive structure. Rather than try tocome up with a new model himself, he asked amore junior group of executives to formulate anew company design as if they had a “cleansheet of paper.” Their study took a number ofweeks, but upon completion, it led to severalrecommendations that the CEO immediatelybegan to implement. For example, they sug-gested colocating the engineering and sales de-

If you aren’t identifying

potential successors, you

are probably not

delegating as extensively

as you should.

What to Ask the Person in the Mirror

harvard business review • january 2007 page 9

partments and creating integrated accountcoverage teams. They also recommendedthat the company push more of its engineersto interact with customers and focus on thisskill in recruiting. The CEO regretted that hehad not asked the question—and conductedthis assignment—12 months earlier.

Even the most successful business is suscepti-ble to new challenges posed by a changingworld. Effective executives regularly look attheir businesses with a clean sheet of paper—seeking advice and other perspectives frompeople who are less emotionally invested inthe business—in order to determine whetherkey aspects of the way they run their organiza-tions are still appropriate.

Leading Under Pressure

Pressure is a part of business. Changes in busi-ness conditions create urgent problems. Newentrants in the market demand a competitiveresponse. Valued employees quit, often at themost inopportune times. Leaders and theirteams, no matter how smart they are, makemistakes.

The interesting thing about stressful eventsis that they affect each person differently—what causes you anxiety may not bother some-one else, and vice versa. For some, extremeanxiety may be triggered by the prospect of apromotion; for others, by making a seriousmistake; still others, by losing a piece of busi-ness to a competitor. Regardless of the sourceof stress, every leader experiences it, so a goodquestion to ask yourself is:

How do I behaveunder pressure, and what signals am I sendingmy employees?

As a leader, you’re watched closely. During acrisis, your people watch you with a micro-scope, noting every move you make. In suchtimes, your subordinates learn a great dealabout you and what you really believe, as op-posed to what you say. Do you accept responsi-bility for mistakes, or do you look for someoneto blame? Do you support your employees, ordo you turn on them? Are you cool and calm,or do you lose your temper? Do you stand upfor what you believe, or do you take the expe-dient route and advocate what you think yourseniors want to hear? You need to be self-aware enough to recognize the situations thatcreate severe anxiety for you and manage yourbehavior to avoid sending unproductive mes-sages to your people.

I’ve met a number of leaders who behave ina very composed and thoughtful manner thegreat majority of the time. Unfortunately,when they’re under severe stress, they react inways that set a very negative tone. They inad-vertently train their employees to mimic thatbehavior and behave in a similar fashion. Ifyour instinct is to shield yourself from blame,to take credit rather than sharing it with yoursubordinates, or to avoid admitting when youhave made a mistake, you will give your em-ployees license to do the same.

The CEO of a large asset-management firmwas frustrated that he was unable to build aculture of accountability and teamwork in hisgrowing business. At his request, I spoke to anumber of his team members. I asked in par-ticular about the actions of the CEO when in-vestments they recommended declined invalue. They recounted his frequent tempertantrums and accusatory diatribes, which ledto an overwhelming atmosphere of blameand finger-pointing. The investment decisionshad, in fact, been made jointly through a care-fully constructed process involving portfoliomanagers, industry analysts, and the CEO. Asa result of these episodes, employees learnedthat when investments went wrong it wouldbe good to try to find someone else to blame.Hearing these stories, the CEO realized his ac-tions under pressure were far more persuasiveto employees than his speeches about team-work and culture. He understood that hewould have to learn to moderate his behaviorunder stress and, subsequently, took steps toavoid reacting so angrily to negative invest-ment results. He also became more awarethat subordinates typically felt quite regret-ful and demoralized when their invest-ments declined and were more likely to needa pat on the back and coaching than a kick inthe pants.

It’s extremely difficult to expect employeesto alert you to looming problems when theyfear your reaction—and even more so whenthey think it’s better to distance themselvesfrom potential problems. This can create an at-mosphere where surprises are, in fact, morelikely as the company’s natural early-warningsystem has been inadvertently disarmed. If youhave created this kind of culture, it is quite un-likely that you will learn about problems fromsubordinates spontaneously—unless they wantto commit career suicide.

What to Ask the Person in the Mirror

harvard business review • january 2007 page 10

Part of the process of maturing as a leader islearning to step back and think about whatcreates pressure for you, being self-aware inthese situations, and disciplining your behav-ior to ensure that you act in a manner consis-tent with your core values.

Staying True to Yourself

Most business leaders ask themselves whethertheir leadership style fits the needs of theirbusiness. Fewer managers ask whether theirstyle also fits their own beliefs and personality.The question here is:

Does my leadership stylereflect who I truly am?

A business career is a marathon, not asprint, and if you aren’t true to yourself, even-tually you’re going to wear down. As you aredeveloping in your career, it is advisable toobserve various leadership styles, and pickand choose elements that feel comfortableto you. Bear in mind, though, that observingand adopting aspects of other styles does notmean you should try to be someone else.During my career, I was fortunate to havehad several superb bosses and colleagueswith distinctive and unique leadership skills.While I tried to adopt some of their tech-niques, I also learned that I needed to de-velop an overall style that fit my uniqueskills and personality. Your style needs to fityou; even an unorthodox style can be enor-mously effective if it reflects your skills, val-ues, and personality.

As you become more senior, you’ll need toask yourself an additional set of questions re-lating to style:

Do I assert myself sufficiently, orhave I become tentative? Am I too politically cor-rect? Does worry about my next promotion or myyear-end bonus cause me to pull punches or hesi-tate to clearly express my views?

In many com-panies, ambitious executives may try to avoidconfronting sensitive issues or making waves.Worse than that, they may spend an inordi-nate amount of energy trying to ascertainwhat their boss thinks and then act like theythink the same thing. If they’re very skilled atthis, they may even get a chance to maketheir comments before the boss has a chance

to express his opinion—and feel the warmglow of approval from the boss.

The problem is that confrontation and dis-agreement are crucial to effective decisionmaking. Some of the worst decisions I’ve beeninvolved in were made after a group of intelli-gent people had unanimously agreed to thecourse of action—though, later, several par-ticipants admitted that they had misgivingsbut were hesitant to diverge from the appar-ent group consensus. Conversely, it’s hard forme to recall a poor decision I was involved inthat was made after a thorough debate inwhich opposing views were vigorously ex-pressed (even if I disagreed with the ultimatedecision). Companies need their leaders to ex-press strongly held views rather than mimicwhat they believe to be the party line. As aleader, therefore, you must ask yourself whetheryou are expressing your views or holding backand being too politic. At the same time, lead-ers must encourage their own subordinatesto express their unvarnished opinions, makewaves as appropriate, and stop tiptoeingaround significant issues.

• • •

Successful leaders periodically struggle duringstretches of their careers. To get back on track,they must devise techniques for stepping back,getting perspective, and developing a newgame plan. In this process, having the answersis often far less important than taking time toask yourself the right questions and gain keyinsights. The questions posed in this article areintended to spark your thinking. Only a subsetof these may resonate with you, and you mayfind it more useful to come up with your ownlist. In either event, a self-questioning processconducted on a periodic basis will help youwork through leadership challenges and issuesthat you invariably must tackle over thecourse of your career.

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Further Reading

A R T I C L E

Managing Oneself

by Peter F. Drucker

Harvard Business Review

January 2005Product no. R0501K

Drucker proposes more questions that can help you gauge your effectiveness as a leader and achieve true excellence on the job: 1)

“What are my strengths?”

What business results are you skilled at generating? What abilities could you enhance to get the results you want? What unproductive habits are pre-venting you from creating the outcomes you desire? 2)

“How do I work?”

Do you process information most effectively by reading it, or by hearing others discuss it? Do you accom-plish the most by working with other people, or by working alone? Do you perform best while making decisions, or while advising oth-ers on key matters? 3)

“What are my values?”

What do you see as your most important re-sponsibilities for living a worthy, ethical life? Do your organization’s ethics resonate with your own values? 4)

“Where do I belong?”

Considering your strengths, preferred work style, and values, in what kind of work envi-ronment would you fit in best? 5)

“What can I contribute?”

How might you best enhance your organization’s performance?