Sublime

A senior executive, we are told, should have extraordinary abilities as an analyst and as a decision-maker. He should be good at working with people and at understanding organization and power relations, be good at mathematics, and have artistic insights and creative imagination.

This was illustrated brilliantly to me by Professor Bill Meehan, who spent thirty years with McKinsey advising CEOs and senior leaders on strategy and now teaches a class called “The Strategic Management of Nonprofits” at the Stanford School of Business.

divide the management-assessment process into three parts: compensation, character, and operations.

As my mentor Robert Greene put it, “It starts by wanting to create a classic.” Phil Libin, the cofounder of Evernote, has a quote I like to share with clients: “People [who are] thinking about things other than making the best product never make the best product.”

In each case, a brilliant man put his company in jeopardy because measuring himself and his legacy outweighed everything else.

contributes to the unmanageability of professionals: their daily roles as “experts.”

1. Ask the Big Question Now