(meaning imagination and creativity), judgment and taste, and
character. It wasn’t just the people skills, as they had originally
told me. So even when he worked hard to improve in that area,
he simply could not get people on his side. They questioned his
judgment and his character. And they felt that they couldn’t
trust him.
Since this is the era of failing upward, Ed is now chairman
and CEO of a prominent Atlanta manufacturing firm. He was
credited by its search committee not only with his own nuts-
and-bolts successes, but with all of Baxter’s achievements,
too—including the creation of new products and maintaining a
reputation for service and quality that are admired in the in-
dustry. Unfortunately, when Ed tightens all the nuts-and-bolts
in Atlanta, but fails to generate new products or revenues, he
may find the context unforgiving—unless he learns from his
failure and he chooses to begin the arduous process of becom-
ing himself. I haven’t been able to find out, because he won’t
return my phone calls.
We all know “Eds”—in fact, they tend to be more the rule
than the exception. But as you will see, people can and do over-
turn the rules and overcome the context and succeed in ways
that the Eds can only imagine.
MASTERING THE CONTEXT
The leader I’ve picked to underscore the reasons why Ed didn’t
make the grade is Norman Lear.
He broke into TV during its so-called golden age as a com-
edy writer for such shows as “The Colgate Comedy Hour,”
“The George Gobel Show,” and “The Martha Raye Show,”
On Becoming a Leader