Even good CEOs can pick the wrong direction
— -- The secret to leadership may not boil down to that vision thing. It may not be some exceptional ability to inspire others, nor the courage to zig when all signs point to zag.
Fresh research by top leadership gurus suggest that if great leaders have something in common, it could be this: a knack for escaping lapses of bad judgment. Or, at least the luck to do so. It may not even require an all-star's batting average in judgment. From Abraham Lincoln, our greatest leaders often have inconsistent judgment but, over long careers, find a way to be on the right side a few times when judgment is critical.
In an interview, Novak chalks up the failure to bad judgment and says he landed back on his feet with a valuable lesson. He says he had rightly determined early in his career that big ideas always produce naysayers who will chirp, "It can't be done." He trained himself to ignore them. His judgment lapse was that sometimes the naysayers have a point. In this case, Pepsi bottlers had agreed with the idea of a clear cola but warned Novak that Crystal Pepsi tasted nothing like Pepsi.
Novak, author of The Education of an Accidental CEO: Lessons Learned from the Trailer Park to the Corner Office, now listens and weighs criticism for merit. Other leaders never made adjustments, or never had the chance, and the battlefields of war and business are strewn with fallen generals who had but one major lapse in judgment.
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