Peter Shankman’s picture on the cover does him no favours. The square jawed, pastel blue shirted, slicked back haired image looks a little 80’s. He works in the slightly shadowy world of PR. Given a pair of red braces he might be the next Gordon Gecko.
Conversely, his book is everything that the “Show me the money” attitude of the latter part of the 20th century was not. Peter Shankman and his collaborator Karen Kelly want executives and leaders to be nice.
The book follows a path which has become pretty routine, especially in US management books. We are presented with a problem, the disconnect which provided the motivation to put pen to paper. This is followed by a series of rules – in this case the 9 traits of being a nice guy – and each one of these is illustrated by a series of stories and case studies of people who must be worth listening to because they’ve made shed loads of money. So far, so ho-hum.
Despite being in the excruciatingly familiar territory occupied by everyone from Tom Peters to the late Stephen Covey via Ken Robinson, there are things about this book which stand out for the inquisitive leader. First, there is a refreshing use of language. The problem is defined positively as ‘the nine warning signs of a hopeless jerk’. In the conclusion we are told “a smile goes a long way toward proving you’re not full of shit!” The collection of traits go further than simply saying “don’t do the nine things that the hopeless jerk would do” and some of the ideas collected in the case studies are things anyone can do. I especially like the examples of several companies which organise book clubs and talk about business and related books over lunch time sessions.
Shankman and Kelly don’t shy away from the tricky stuff either. The chapter on trait 5 – Loyalty – talks about how loyalty doesn’t mean fixedness and nor does it mean tolerating under-performance. The echo of the ideas of high performance teams situates their approach not in the fluffy end of the organisational spectrum but veering towards a more decisive, but transparent approach to business and personnel problems.
Other chapters are less incisive – trait 4 echoes Covey again when it deals with Good Stewardship. This digest of corporate social responsibility is full of examples which seem obvious. This is not to say that being ethical and sustainable and a good corporate citizen isn’t important. It is that these examples won’t add much to anyone who has taken even the slightest interest in these subjects in the past.
Each chapter ends with a short, bullet pointed summary and the final conclusion – musing on everyone from waiters to Tony Bennett – is conversational and informal. As I read it, I recalled meeting someone with whom I was to share a platform at a conference once and being appalled at how he treated our server as we met over coffee in an anonymous business hotel. Shankman shares my opinion that I don’t want to do business with people who are rude to those who seem to be of lower status. (Personally, I think it’s a sensible idea to be nice to anyone who is bringing you things you’re going to put in your mouth!)
The conclusion is full of memorable ‘start doing this today’ tips which make the practices which you might not be able to implement unless you’re the CEO of a multi-million dollar business seem a little less impractical.
My one concern about the book? I’m not sure that some of the people Shankman refers to as hopeless jerks would ever be prepared to read it. In fact, the ones I’ve met have never given me any indication that they can read anything other than a balance sheet! I hope one or two do, though, and I hope that as they do they question some of the things which they seem to think are OK.
Robin Hoyle is a trainer, training materials consultant and the author of Complete Training: from recruitment to retirement published by Kogan Page. It is available from all good bookstores and a few which are distinctly average
