John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach, once said character is more important than reputation because reputation is who people think you are but character is who you really are. Last night at a packed event in Manhattan I heard LRN’s Dov Seidman make the case that in a connected world “how” we do what we do is every bit as important as what we do. In other words, with everyone able to blog, take pictures or shoot video of you on their phones then upload the content on the world wide web (that becomes easily accessible via Google), an organization’s character (or “how” an organization does what it does) has become much, much more important. Dov went even further and said that wise organizations will out-behave their competitors to gain a competitive advantage.
Following are some points I wrote down during the discussion Dov Seidman had with New York Times columnist Tom Friedman:
Historically we never imputed character to an organization but in a flat, connected world we can.
Today you can’t manage your reputation as you could in the past. You must earn it.
New leaders know you can’t have power over people. Today you can only have power through people.
Out-behave is not presently a word in the dictionary. Dov encouraged the audience to help change that.
The paradox of success. When you pursue success, happiness eludes you. When you pursue significance, you discover happiness.
I’ve been working on an article about Wall Street entitled “Goldman Is Great, But Is It Good?” The article explores what it would take to make a better, healthier, more effective Wall Street. Many of Dov’s ideas about getting the “hows” right are germaine to Wall Street’s future.
What do you think? Has the internet made corporate character more important? Should organizations strive to out-behave their competitors?
Michael Lee Stallard speaks, teaches and writes about leadership, employee engagement, productivity and innovation at leading organizations including Google, GE, NASA, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. Most recently, Michael and his colleague Jason Pankau filmed a 90-minute program for Linkage’s Thought Leaders Series that will be released in January of 2010. Michael wrote the guest editorial for Talent Management magazine’s January 2010 edition and last month his article on how the force of connection boosts productivity and innovation was featured as the lead article in the UK’s Developing HR Strategy Journal. Click on these links to learn more about Michael and Jason in the media and their speaking engagements.
