Showing posts with label making tough calls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label making tough calls. Show all posts

Monday, September 5, 2011

Corner Office, Interview with Enrique Salem, president and C.E.O. of Symantec; Want to Lead? Ask Tennyson and Shakespeare; New York Times, 9/3/11

Adam Bryant, Corner Office, New York Times; Interview with Enrique Salem, president and C.E.O. of Symantec, the computer security company; Want to Lead? Ask Tennyson and Shakespeare:

"Q. And does that include difficult conversations with people about their performance?

A. Absolutely. It was harder for me to talk to somebody about, “Here’s where I need you to improve.” It didn’t make it easier to be worried about their reaction. Now I feel more comfortable with that, and I think it’s just a matter of experience.

If you’re going to be successful, you’ve got to be able to deliver the tough message. And I find that a lot of managers will not deliver those messages and then people are surprised. If you get asked to be a manager, you have to manage. And managing means sometimes you’ve got to deliver a tough message. But you’ve got to give the feedback in a way that has a constructive tone."