Leadership

Chapter 1

Something that permeates this book is that we should never underestimate the power of people, of personalities: People. First. Always. Many companies give lip service to this, just as Victoria had. Most often, pushing and draining people will work in the short run, but it will usually come back to bite you at some point in the future. People matter and helping people to be motivated and feel supported by you as a leader and by the organization and culture that you’ve established is way bigger than the organization itself.

“The Leader’s Shadow” is a concept that has been around for a while, but it’s a worthy one. We’ve all had a boss of some sort that when you looked at them from afar as they walked into the office (back when we were in the office every day) and you saw the look on their face, you immediately knew if it was going to be a good day or a bad day. If you saw a frown and a stressed and dour look, you were going to take it on the chin that day, while a light and airy walk with a smile meant everyone would be upbeat. We’ve all had a boss like that to varying degrees. Victoria was that to everyone around her. Don’t be that boss to your people. What is the “shadow” that you, as a leader, cast on your people?

As a manager and as a leader, you can’t take words back. When Victoria told Scarlett about umdansi omncane, she could never take that back. Choose your words wisely when you interact with colleagues. That goes doubly when out to dinner or drinks with work colleagues, no matter how close they are.

Related to this, keep in mind that a secret with an ally is a secret until the ally is no longer an ally. Allies can become your worst nightmare, just as Scarlett became to Victoria.

Random placements have an element of serendipity. Doing a good job building and developing an organization is very much like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. What individual skill sets are each of the individuals bringing to the table? More importantly, how do those skill sets complement each other? There is no randomness in this. Whether it is building an organization from scratch or inheriting an existing organization when you take a new position, think not just about individuals but how the pieces fit together.

A senior executive at a Fortune 100 company once said to us that there are three things she looks for in people as she develops and mentors them through the organization:

Are they “world class” at something; what are they known for? What is the thing that makes them stand out from others, that is, what is their unique skill set that makes them individually valuable?
Can they connect what they do every day to the enterprise? Can they “zoom in” as well as “zoom out,” that is, can they see the connective tissue that exists between their individual positions and the broader mission and strategy of the organization as a whole?
Do they take care of their people? Are they someone that exhibits empathy for those around them, and does that show in how they interact with their colleagues, both higher and lower in the organization chart?

We are in the early stages of building an organization from the ground up that is meant to scale. These three items are at the forefront of our minds as we choose individuals to build the organization. Building that organization is like putting the pieces of that puzzle together: Everyone has to complement each other, and especially as you build out an organization, redundancy is added cost without added value. How would you assess your team in light of all of this?

Chapter 2

Victoria

Coffee is a metaphor; too bad she doesn’t do this in business. We all are meticulous about something, at least to some degree. We have things we are meticulous about, things we are particular about, things that we are carefree about, areas where we lead and areas where we choose not to lead, etc. Hopefully we do this with purpose and intent. For Victoria, being meticulous with her coffee was time spent with Moose after his passing. This was clearly done with intent and purpose. In business, she was meticulous about some things, extracting every value and opportunity in scale for example. Unfortunately, for the business, she was not as meticulous in zooming out, that is, looking at the big picture for her business and envisioning where her kind of retail fit into a new environment.

We find it easy to stay with the status quo, what we know. What’s much more difficult is seeing beyond the day-to-day and what may lie ahead. If this isn’t your strength, bring someone in who has these capabilities to supplement yours. Like that puzzle mentioned earlier, you’re finding a puzzle piece that complements your piece. Failure to do this could keep you as myopic as Victoria was.

Know what motivates people. For Victoria, it was Moose and his legacy. This will come out much later in the book of course. For Scarlett, it was a lifetime of hurt and a desire for revenge against those that hurt her. For Lindsay, it was doing right by other people. For those around you, know what motivates them. Bill Parcells, the legendary football coach, once reflected with insight on motivation. He said that some football players, when they make a mistake, need a coach in their face, toe to toe, yelling and screaming at them so that they won’t make that mistake again. Other players, after they make a mistake, need a coach who sits next to them on the sidelines and puts their arm around the player, consoling them. The trick as a coach, he famously said, is knowing which player needs what. It’s no different for you as a manager. Here, Victoria treated everyone with the same disdain and disrespect.

Hubris/arrogance/not listening: Always listen and think no matter how sure you think you’re right and no matter how low you think the other person may be. (Hopefully you don’t think that often.) Always listen. As the saying goes, there’s a reason why we have two ears but only one mouth.

Don’t underestimate the power of an outside view. Collectively, we have learned more from people outside of our core industries than we’d probably care to admit. The person that teaches us may be a customer or simply may not understand all the things about the industry that we think are so important but may obscure insight. Victoria was absolutely tone-deaf to anyone’s opinion but her own, and she surrounded herself with people that would only agree with her. Heritage’s demise was, at least in part, due to this.

Don’t dismiss an idea too quickly, as Victoria does continuously throughout the book. A number of years ago, very early in his career, one of us (Putsis) had a Yale MBA student seek advice on a new business idea for what he thought was a great new product. The student’s name was Seth Goldman. After getting some advice and generally having the idea dismissed as ill-conceived, Seth went to a colleague, Barry Nalebuff. Barry liked the idea so much that he decided to go into business with Seth and launch the venture. That venture, Honest Tea, turned out to be a huge success in the marketplace for decades and enabled them both to sell the company for hundreds of millions of dollars. Down to the very last day of the run of Honest Tea, the back of the bottle still was signed by Seth and Barry. That very expensive lesson of missing out on a huge opportunity left the indelible impression that you always listen carefully and never dismiss. If only Victoria had learned that lesson much earlier in the timeline of the book, Heritage’s fate may have been different.

If you don’t think this can happen to you, or if you think this doesn’t happen in reality, business history is littered with executive after executive who thought just like Victoria, who ignored all the signs and warnings. Just think about Blockbuster, Kodak, Borders, We Work, MoviePass, Blackberry (RIM), and countless other businesses that have gone under because executives thought that their company’s position in the market was impenetrable. Don’t fall into the same trap of thinking it can’t happen to you and that it can’t happen in practice. It can, and it does.

Scarlett

Karma: the importance of your street cred, the importance of your “water cooler reputation.” Part of the reason why Scarlett was so successful at building her company was that she built a reputation around her. People knew her as world class at what she did, and she built division around the new company that allowed her to not only use her talents but also build the big picture of the company that was poised for success. People knew her that way. From Jeff Schmidt to the ex-Googlers and the Heritage Brand executives that left with her and the VC money that followed her to the new company, she built a reputation for being one of the best in the business.

We have a respected colleague, world class at what he does, who has a saying: “I collect people.” What he means by that is, he maintains relationships and makes the effort to stay in touch, to know them personally, to ask about their kids and family and vacations, and to care about what they do beyond self-interest and beyond work. That has served him well over the years and has made them better and him richer—as a person, not necessarily in terms of wealth—than he ever could have been without them.

There is an old adage that asks, “What is your watercooler reputation?” Back in the day, when we went to the office and sometimes congregated around the water cooler, what did people say about you as they gathered around that water cooler? Would you be pleased? That’s your “watercooler reputation.”

Always pay it forward. Whether it is mentorship, advice, spending time to work out someone else’s problem, or even referring someone to a business opportunity and connecting people in organizations without expecting something in return, your actions will return all of your favors in spades. However, always do it with grace and without expecting something in return. If each of us spent the rest of our careers doing nothing but paying back, we could never repay all the debts to people that have given to us without expecting anything in return. No matter how long we tried, we’d still be in a deficit. Relationships matter!

An extremely important leadership skill that Scarlett possessed is to align everyone’s interest. In forming Shiftlink Dynamics, every entity that came together had a common purpose; all of their interests were aligned. Oliver Williamson won a Nobel Prize for organizational alignment a number of years ago, and Scarlett lived and breathed that in practice. From the ex-Google coders and developers that she brought over and the ex-Heritage executives to the retailers that became part of her network and right down to the customers at point of sale, everyone’s interests were aligned, and that was by design. Do you have that same alignment for your organization? If not, what parts are misaligned, and how do you plan on fixing it?

Chapter 3

One of the traits that we have observed in successful leaders is a genuine caring about people. There is an empathy that permeates most successful leaders in any organization. Many of the best leaders among top CEOs that we have met make you feel like you’re the only person in the room when they talk to you. They’re not looking around for the next person to talk to, and they’re not on their phone or disinterested. There is a genuine interest in you, and they make that apparent. Lindsay and Paul both genuinely cared about people, and it showed up in the loyalty of those around them. It is what gave Lindsay the insight into things to be concerned about with her business because she was concerned about everyone who would be impacted by the business taking a negative turn. Do you do that with your people and focus on the conversations you have with everyone at work, whether in your office or at a crowded company event?

Serendipity revisited: Lindsay met Victoria at the Purple Pub. Placing yourself in situations and in an environment where serendipity can happen is important. Sounds a bit like an oxymoron to discuss what we might coin “planned serendipity,” but simply placing yourself in the environment where chance meetings and conversation can occur is important. This goes beyond simply “networking.” Placing yourself in an environment where a connection can happen combined with a genuine interest in people is where lasting bonds can be created. Do this with genuine curiosity and interest in others, not with self-interest in mind.

Chapter 4

Just think about it: With a changing retail landscape, all the signs are thrown in Victoria’s face, yet she still doesn’t see it. There are countless examples, both current and past, where the executives did not see similar signs. You have to actively seek them out, or even if they are “thrown in your face,” you most likely won’t see them as well. Good leaders seek these signs out; even better leaders surround themselves with people that can see and read the signs, often from different perspectives and angles and with different expertise. Part of the organizational skill puzzle pieces that we discussed earlier is filling in your strengths and weaknesses with those that are better than you in the areas where you are weakest. Too many are too insecure to bring in people and surround themselves with others that are particularly good at what they’re not good at; even more don’t know what they’re good at and not so good at. Use assessment and feedback tools to get a candid assessment of those strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps the best of these assessment tools is LMAP 360 (https://www.lmapinc.com ), featured in Ron Warren’s book, Personality at Work, a fascinating and insightful read.

The associates and autonomy: Little things matter. The associate has the authority to open the doors a couple of minutes early and provide cappuccinos. Flowers are sent. Coffee and flowers aren’t what’s important; rather, it’s the fact that the associate has the authority to act and enhance the customer’s journey, in this case with a little cost. A few related stories come to mind:

There is a great story told by Simon Sinek, who always has great insight, about his interaction with a barista at the Four Seasons hotel in Las Vegas (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc4FEIYvkQc). The short version of the longer video, which is well worth watching, is that he had a great interaction with Noah, a barista at the morning coffee bar at the hotel. Later, during his trip, he saw Noah working at another hotel at their morning coffee bar, but his behavior was entirely different at the second hotel. At the first hotel, he was laughing, joking, very productive, making the customers laugh, and getting drinks quickly. At the second, he was standing quietly in the back, not saying anything, being much less productive and almost routinized, without a smile on his face. So, Sinek pulled him aside and asked, “Yesterday you were so productive and happy, a pleasure to watch. Today you’re in the background moving slowly and carefully. What happened?” Noah told him that his manager at the first hotel, the Four Seasons, encouraged him to take charge and be himself, to have fun at work; the manager of the second hotel criticized him for every little thing, counted how much material was used, and micromanaged every step. Find good people and trust them.

We have a colleague who tells the story of where she used to work, reporting directly to a multibillionaire. He literally had people in the office reporting how much paper and how many pens and supplies were used, requiring a monthly inventory for all of the offices. When this story was told to another colleague of ours, his immediate response was apropos: “You know what that says about the billionaire? He was very lucky.” Well said. Don’t micromanage; always assume positive intent.

Perhaps the best story is that of an experience one of us had with one of the best CEOs we’ve ever seen, Keith Williams. Having just flown into Paris on the redeye from New York to spend a week working on a consulting assignment with Keith’s company in Bordeaux, Keith, Putsis, and two other senior executives at UL (where he was CEO at the time) were on the Eurostar from Paris to Bordeaux. Without saying a word, Keith, who was sitting on the outside of the four-person seat arrangement on Eurostar, stood up and walked to an adjacent car. We all thought that he likely had to use the bathroom on the train. A couple of minutes later, he arrived with two cups of coffee, cream, and sugar for me (Putsis). He knew that I had taken the redeye and that I needed my coffee. Here I was working for him—I was the consultant after all—and he got up to get me coffee. When was the last time you saw a CEO getting someone else coffee (or the equivalent)? I don’t think there’s a company I’ve ever worked harder for in my life, in this case for well over a decade. This led some people to joke that I work pretty cheaply—you can motivate me with a simple cup of coffee! But of course, this is not the point of the story. The humility of a CEO to get someone working for him a cup of coffee, and the empathy to know the person has just taken the redeye, is what makes good leaders. How often have you done something like that?

The best CEOs are paranoid. Both Andy Grove and Jack Welch were well known to have said and lived this. Note, however, that this is not at all in contrast with what we’ve discussed above. Rather, they are paranoid with respect to strategy, with respect to competitive threats, and with respect to being disrupted. You can’t let that paranoia extend to people; that can be corrosive and damaging. However, paranoia with respect to competition is necessary and important. By contrast, Victoria dismissed every sign, every word, every “canary in the coal mine” with hubris.

Recognizing secondary effects, who will be affected by your actions (or, in this case, inaction)? Lindsay felt a responsibility beyond her store. Good CEOs today have these concerns and act on them; often, it is good business. Think of Howard Schulz’s approach over the years at Starbucks, Ben and Jerry’s unfailing commitment over the years, REI and Patagonia and their commitment to the environment, etc. This has been good business. Even companies like PepsiCo, now the second largest private landowner in the United States behind the Gates Foundation, is focused on the “triple bottom line” (People, Planet, Profits), in PepsiCo’s case, using their “Positive Agriculture” initiative to improve farming’s sustainability practices and reduce their impact on the environment.

Chapter 5

Victoria was classically tone-deaf. There is a long line of CEOs that have been similarly tone-deaf. Sometimes, they genuinely don’t hear, but more often, they either feel that their business model is impervious to disruption (more on this later) or they are so committed to their current strategy that they feel as though there is no turning back; they’re addicted like a cocaine addict to their strategy.

An older and now overused and clichéd, but certainly relevant, example is that a Blockbuster. One of us had lunch many years ago with Wayne Huizenga, who essentially built and created Blockbuster from the ground up after doing the same with Waste Management. This was in the early days of Netflix and streaming, and it was clear that he absolutely got where the market was moving to, namely, instant or near-instant access to films and movies. However, they were so committed and invested in the brick-and-mortar strategy that his solution at the time was to build in-store, sixty-second video duplicating machines so that you never had to wait for a movie that might be out of stock. He was so invested in the physical store and those assets, so seeing the need for instant access, he was compelled to use the in-store experience to provide that instant access and was blind to being able to do that anywhere outside of the store. Don’t let your current business model and current set of investments blind you to where the market is going, for the market will go where it will, with or without you.

At least let Lindsay feel heard. As noted above, the best CEOs make you feel like you’re the only person in the room when they are talking to you. Respect them. Listen to them. Victoria failed to do any of this.

Chapter 7

The importance of preparation and presentation: Dress to what you want to be, not to what you are. Impressions matter. Lindsay surprised Bill by her appearance and how well-prepared she was. That made all the difference in the world; Bill listened. Dress for what you want people to think about you, and always prepare meticulously.

On the flip side, Trish needed executive coaching. She was very smart and great at strategy, but she presented and interacted poorly with everyone. This presents itself as a great opportunity for feedback. As noted earlier, tools such as LMAP or hiring an executive coach were something Trish sorely needed.

In a similar vein, there is a whole academic literature of influence born out of thousands of rigorous, peer-reviewed, published research papers. Zoe Chance’s book, Influence Is Your Superpower, does a great job summarizing this research in a way you can use every day.

Never dismiss criticism and concern: Ask questions; anything can be a threat. As a leader, you can’t and shouldn’t take anything for granted. To this end, Bill’s actions highlight the importance of listening. He didn’t just direct Trish to go investigate; he gave her a heads-up as to where to start. Bill did exactly what a leader should do in the face of concerning evidence.

What Victoria didn’t do:

She didn’t set up a board and executive team that was likely to disagree with her. Further, she didn’t encourage any of them to ever disagree with her; she knew best and ran the show because she had been in the industry so long that she knew exactly what to do. A leader needs to encourage dissent and hire everyone around them that is empowered to disagree.

As noted earlier, a leader needs to put together the “puzzle of different skill sets and different personalities” as they form their executive team, or any team for that matter. This is pivotal. Different skills and points of view make everyone else stronger. Victoria was seemingly allergic to this.

Similarly, surround yourself with people better than you. It takes a lot of self-confidence to do this. Everyone often worries about being replaced, but in the end, you and the organization will be better for it, like Bill. These are few and far between, and you will grow in ways you’ve never imagined.

Chapter 8

The absolutely number one lesson from this chapter is that the tactics that Victoria was formulating were intended to form positions and battle lines with each other instead of in unison against the looming competitive threat. Talk about being exactly the opposite of what she should have done. How can you change this for your own leadership team so that they are solely focused on the competition rather than on how to out-position and out-maneuver each other?

Note that Bill’s comments were filled with hubris and a lack of humility. Fortunately for him, this was uncharacteristic. As a leader, have the grace to recognize that everyone is human and people aren’t always perfect. We all have things we wish we hadn’t done or would want to take back. Hopefully in your case, like Bill, these are few and far between.

Chapter 9

Note the Jim Mattis quote at the very beginning of the chapter, which is so true, especially in business. To this end, Victoria took the position of being defensive, threatened, and insecure. She had a “circle the wagon” mentality, viewing this as an insurrection rather than her colleagues having a genuine interest in saving the company. Had she surrounded herself with a more critical board and senior leadership team, taking this position would’ve been impossible for her.

Note that Trish was actually mild and tempered in her presentation, especially after she said she thought ignoring the report was “managerial negligence.” She was growing into her position and growing as a leader, a pleasure to watch as she developed skills she’d never had before; much of that happened under Bill’s leadership by example.

Victoria came to the meeting ready and prepared to shut down “the revolt” rather than arriving ready to listen, guide, and debate. Not what a senior executive, let alone a CEO, should do. How do you interact when similar concern and criticism is levied inside of your organization?

Think about which people in the Heritage organization had influence and why. Much of the authority in this organization was what we would call “positional authority”—authority granted solely by a position or title, not by merit or ability. For some, in this case George, it was all about what we would call “legacy authority,” that is, authority derived from a legacy position inside the company (for George, it was his connection to Moose). In principle, we would argue that authority should be merit-based, creating a culture of meritocracy. Organizations need titles for external validation, providing authority for executives to interact with clients, constituents, and external entities. The danger of those titles internally is that this authority can be stifling. In one Fortune 100 company that one of us was working with a few years ago, an innovation session was buzzing with ideas and collaboration, a pleasure to watch and behold—until a senior vice president walked in the room. Instantly and simultaneously, all of the buzz ground to a halt, and the conversation shifted to “Is it in the long-range business plan, and what do the financial metrics look like?” Don’t let that happen to your organization.

Chapter 10

Victoria did something miraculous here: She second-guessed herself. This is what led to her reexamining everything and reading the report. A simple act of second-guessing oneself can lead to dramatic and bold results. Of course, we want to appear confident to others—and indeed be confident—but unfailingly, never compromising and never questioning yourself leads to boneheaded decisions in many cases. One of the interesting things about Victoria is that she actually evolved and became self-reflective in the end, but it ended up being just too late. In your organization and under your leadership, do this sooner rather than later.

Chapter 11

Now the team is aligning for the right reasons. Is it too late? Probably. The unfortunate and ironic part of leadership evolution over time is that it can take some time to turn an ocean liner. In this case, it took something dramatic for Victoria to change and for the leadership team to evolve. The tragedy is that in the end, the team was able to align to the right goals, objectives, and metrics, but it just happened too slowly and was simply too late. Don’t let the old saying, “A day late and a dollar short,” happen to you.

To this end: Look. Spot. Take action. Now. The Brits have a saying: “See it, say it, sort it.” Apply this to your organization actively. Business is an active contact sport. Business never will be passive in nature.

The importance of loyalty and rewarding it: Lindsay was loyal for many years, both to Victoria and to the brand. It just took Victoria way too long to spot it. To the previous bullet, you have to be actively looking for it. To the contrary, Victoria was actually actively avoiding it. Critically examine how you handle similarly loyal people within your organization and professional career.

One thing Victoria did was to choose an offsite location (Caffeina Roasting Company). She did this purposefully and wisely. A leader is visible, or at least should be. At this point, Victoria was very aware of what actions could be observed and their consequences. She was, finally, developing as a leader.

Chapter 12

Once again, the importance of humility and earnestness plays out front and center. A great story about the importance of humility in leadership is that of Andrew Berlin. Andrew Berlin became a billionaire by building Berlin Packaging into a multi-billion-dollar business and exiting by selling the company for $1.4 billion. He used much of these funds to buy the AAA affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. When he first bought the company, he drove into the stadium for a home game anonymously, as just another fan, observing the customer journey from the parking to the concessions, bathrooms, seats, and what was happening on the field. One of the things he noticed was how dirty the bathrooms were. So, he created a plan for frequent cleaning of the bathrooms to give a better customer experience. The interesting part of this is that the plan included videos on how to clean those toilets and bathrooms thoroughly and efficiently. Why this was interesting was that the videos were of him scrubbing those very toilets. This was a billionaire, a very successful businessman over the years, and he created videos of himself scrubbing toilets. What a great message to send to your people that no one is above customer service and that we all need to be humble. The value of humility from a leader is often immeasurable and critical to many companies’ success.

A similar story was told about the early origins of Google. Its two founders, Sergei Brin, and Larry Page, took time off one afternoon to spend some time trying to walk across a thick rope that had been tied between two poles a few feet off the ground. As they repeatedly fell and generally looked silly, a crowd gathered. To this day, people talk about the empowerment culture at what is now Alphabet. If the billionaire founders could take some time off and be exposed enough to look silly to others, it empowered everyone else to take chances, take risks, and have fun at what they do every single day. It’s embedded in the culture and critical to the company’s success. Do you do this inside of your company, or do you never let anyone see your vulnerability?

One of Victoria’s better traits, one she exhibited throughout the book, was her ability to plan a meeting meticulously. She spent some time “gaming out” meetings and thinking about every scenario of how the meeting might go. Playing out those scenarios is important for a successful meeting.

Victoria was growing in so many ways at this point. It was just unfortunate that it was too little too late. One example was the way she fired George: in this case, the absolute criticality and importance of a public display of rebuke. The old saying is criticizing in private but praising in public. There are times when doing this in public is absolutely necessary to set a tone, and this was, without question, one of them. In this instance, Victoria did this absolutely spot on perfectly.

More generally, Victoria took charge—finally. This was what she should have been doing all along. Again, it’s just too bad that it was too late. Don’t let these lessons be too late in your case. Do you do the same as Victoria at this point in the book?

Trish gave a rational, well-reasoned, factual summary of what they were up against and gained traction and elevated her power by doing so. Like Victoria, it is impressive how much Trish grew.

Analogously, the dynamics of the leadership team evolved—Bill, Trish, and Victoria (and Lindsay shortly) were actually leading. In our writing of this book, it was our hope that by seeing the contrast in many of the leaders in the beginning of the book versus later, you could spot various elements of your own leadership style that would provide input for improvement. Here, Victoria became a leader, making the tough calls and standing behind them.

Chapter 13

Victoria finally grew into an honest and transparent leadership style. Too bad it was too late. There is no Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, “warm and fuzzy” happy ending here. In Victoria’s case, she was encumbered by Moose’s legacy. We all have things from our past that create that drag, that encumbrance on our ability to lead. Questioning and knowing what they are is paramount to successful leadership. What are yours?

Chapter 16

Governance failure: Why wasn’t the board this tough before? The company clearly had serious and significant governance issues. This can often happen in privately held companies since there are no external shareholders to demand clearer, cleaner, more independent boards. Setting up an autonomous and critical board is pivotal to any organization. If you run a privately held company, it’s important to have an advisory board with teeth that is independent and free to speak their minds. While easier said than done, this is imperative to managerial success for any organization.

Chapter 17

There was no PR or crisis plan in place. You should always have this in place. Not having this in place was inexcusable, especially given their recent history. Do you have a crisis management plan in place? Are you exposed anywhere? One test of this can be what people refer to as the New York Times test. If something that you are doing as an organization appeared on the front page of the New York Times, would you and your company be okay with it? It’s a good test of ethical leadership and where you might develop potential crisis plans. Regardless, every organization should have crisis management plans in place for every foreseeable crisis. The classic example of what not to do was when Wells Fargo’s CEO had failed to act after a story came out in the Los Angeles Times about turning and opening new customer accounts without their authorization. The company failed to act and develop a crisis management plan, eventually being featured front and center in the Washington Post and other major publications.

Chapter 18

This chapter is mainly used to tell the closer of the story, but it’s also important to note that the roles of Victoria and Scarlett were now reversed: Scarlett’s gloating gave Victoria the key to disrupting her, and this time Victoria was listening. The tables had turned. Victoria was no longer allostatic. Victoria had changed, and Scarlett didn’t realize this. Victoria now understood Scarlett and was humble, while Scarlett had now become arrogant. You should always be aware of the fact that your competition and others change over time. Not viewing others as static is easier said than done.

Leadership