Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent

232 Pages·2016·1.59 MB·English

by  Sydney Finkelstein

Praise for Sydney Finkelstein and Superbosses
“Superbosses foster innovation and market domination through the strategic management of talent. Sydney
Finkelstein shows you how to elevate your own leadership, superboss style, to create a lasting, impactful
legacy.”
—Marshall Goldsmith, author of Triggers
“If you’ve ever wondered how some mentors manage to spawn so many star protégés, this is a book well
worth reading. Through case studies of legendary leaders across a range of industries, Superbosses
highlights new strategies for attracting and developing talent.”
—Adam Grant, Wharton professor; author of Give and Take and Originals
“In Superbosses, Finkelstein identifies the qualities that set great leaders apart. This fascinating look at the
importance of encouraging innovation and the ability to motivate is useful for leadership not only in
kitchens and restaurants but in all industries.”
—Eric Ripert, chef and co-owner, Le Bernardin
“A groundbreaking and absorbing look into not only how to create the world’s best talent but how and why
you might be better off letting them go.”
—Bill McNabb, chairman and CEO, The Vanguard Group
“Maybe you’re a decent boss. But are you a superboss? That’s the question you’ll be asking yourself after
reading Sydney Finkelstein’s fascinating book. By revealing the secrets of superbosses from finance to
fashion and from cooking to comic books, Finkelstein offers a smart, actionable playbook for anyone trying
to become a better leader.”
—Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell Is Human and Drive
“Finkelstein combines rich storytelling with practical advice in this surprising exploration of great talents—
and their superbosses.”
—James M. Kilts, former chairman and CEO, The Gillette Company
“We have long recognized Sydney Finkelstein as one of the world’s leading management thinkers. With
Superbosses, he demonstrates why. It is a riveting, inspiring, and practical tour de force.”
—Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove, founders, Thinkers50
“Superbosses—and they are to be found in every industry and every market—are able to facilitate
extraordinary innovation by attracting exceptional people and unleashing their full potential through their
companies. This book shows you how to do it and then some.”
—Eric Spiegel, president and CEO, Siemens Corporation
“Talented management is the key driver of business. Nurturing that talent makes businesses sustainable
winners. In Superbosses, Finkelstein reveals how the best of the best succeed at it and offers guidance any
manager can follow to be a great leader.”
—Michael Ward, managing director and COO, Bain Capital
“This book could make some bosses angry—and that’s a good thing. Finkelstein’s examination of what
actually makes a legendary leader goes against the grain of much standard management ‘best practice’ and
offers a whole new way to think about talent.”
—Kevin Roberts, executive chairman, Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide
“This is a great book that not only identifies the skills of the best leaders across a number of industries but
gives readers clear, practical guidance on how they can develop and practice the skills of a superboss.”
—Ken C. Hicks, retired chairman and CEO, Foot Locker, Inc.
“Sydney Finkelstein sheds light on an unexplored topic in management with careful research and insightful
storytelling.”
—Akira Uehara, president, Taisho Pharmaceutical Holdings Co., Ltd.
“Finkelstein performs a valuable public service in analyzing how corporate leaders can educate and nurture
others to be successful. This is required reading for all those executives interested not only in their own
performance but in developing and promoting superstar talent in their businesses.”
—Kenneth Feinberg, director, September 11th Victim Compensation Fund
“A fascinating study of extraordinary leaders we all know of but few have access to. Sydney Finkelstein’s
surprising findings offer insight into how great talent is developed and nurtured.”
—Ed Haldeman, former CEO, Freddie Mac and Putnam Investments
“Sometimes great wisdom comes in simple truths: how a leader uniquely creates, manages, and activates his
‘personal’ network matters. For leaders, entrepreneurs, and all those people who want to get there,
Superbosses is an inspiring and engaging must-read.”
—Blair B. LaCorte, executive vice president, Business Rockstars Network
“Finally an answer to the millennial leadership puzzle at work. Simply break all the rules about what you
thought you knew regarding identifying their potential and unleashing their talent to impact the broader
team! Finkelstein has created a compelling road map for great leadership.”
—Jim Weber, chairman and CEO, Brooks Running
“Superbosses is not a career book, yet it will entirely transform the way you think about your career and
that of everyone around you. With riveting stories and deep insight into how standout successes in a number
of fields treat talent, Finkelstein offers a whole new framework to turbocharge your career.”
—Tom McInerney, president and CEO, Genworth Financial
“How better to learn about talent than to study the bosses who developed the most talent in their industries?
In the process, Sydney Finkelstein discovered the remarkable similarities across a wide variety of industries
in the actions these bosses take to produce talent. The result is a playbook that any and all business leaders
can follow to identify, inspire, and develop talent in a way that brings the best out of people. It’s an
inspirational reminder that great business leaders don’t just produce results, they create an environment
focused on a compelling vision where great people believe they can achieve the impossible—and they do!”
—Sherri C. Oberg, cofounder and former CEO, Acusphere, Inc.
“Finkelstein offers tremendous insight into an unexplored area of management with his extensive study of
superbosses. A truly important read.”
—Philip Hanlon, president, Dartmouth College
“Superbosses offers all managers—no matter where they are in an organization—a blueprint for success.
It’s always about people, and Finkelstein’s original examples, stories, and insights will stick with you long
after you put this pathbreaking book down.”
—Jeremy Reitman, CEO, Reitmans
“Most of us have worked for good bosses at some point in our career. Most of us have also admired from
afar great bosses in industry. And most of us aspire to be great bosses. Superbosses adroitly articulates
through examples from multiple industries and endeavors the attributes that make for great bosses who
create winning teams. It will change the way you think about talent—how you hire, foster innovation, and
even view attrition. An enlightening, and often surprising, look at the real well of success for any industry.”
—Charles L. Harrington, chairman and CEO, Parsons Corp.
“We always remember that one boss who made a difference in our lives by helping us accomplish more
than we ever thought possible. Superbosses explains how each of us can become that boss.”
—Greg Maffei, president and CEO, Liberty Media Corporation
“Superbosses is a concrete study of the mind-sets, behaviors, and habits defining outstanding leadership
practices. Great leaders inspire the extraordinary from people and create unforgettable environments. A
must-read for leaders who want to accelerate growth, engagement, and purpose in others.”
—Bruno Vinciguerra, former COO, Sotheby’s
“Distilling more than a decade’s research and probing across dozens of sectors, America’s preeminent
leadership scholar, Sydney Finkelstein, proves that the ability to uncover and nurture talent matters far more
than the mastery of metrics. Superbosses are transformational for more than their companies, teams or
nonprofits; they instill in their protégés techniques that often revolutionize whole industries. Whether you
run a company or dream of doing so, Superbosses will change the way you think about the talent around
you—and your own.”
—C. Richard Allen, CEO, SnagFilms, Inc.

PORTFOLIO / PENGUIN
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Copyright © 2016 by Sydney Finkelstein Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity,
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ISBN 978-0-69819283-6
International edition ISBN 978-0-399-56407-9
Version_1
To the first superboss I ever knew, Anna Dunajec Finkelstein
Contents
Praise
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
1 Iconoclasts, Glorious Bastards, and Nurturers
2 Getting People Who “Get It”
3 Motivating Exceptional People to Do the Impossible
4 Uncompromisingly Open
5 Masters and Apprentices
6 The Hands-On Delegator
7 The Cohort Effect
8 Networks of Success
9 Superbosses and You
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
INTRODUCTION
S
ome years ago, a family of New Yorkers came in for dinner at Alice
Waters’s legendary Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California.
According to longtime cook Seen Lippert, the family—Mom, Dad, a little boy,
and a little girl—claimed not to have been aware of the restaurant’s practice,
then unheard of in the United States, of changing its menu daily to feature the
freshest locally sourced and organic ingredients. The family agreed to stay for
the meal, giving the restaurant a list of items they didn’t like and didn’t want to
be served. One of the items on their list was peas. As it happened, the restaurant
had gotten its hands on “these beautiful, sweet, fresh peas” and the staff had
spent the afternoon shucking them by hand. Waters, who loved superior
ingredients and always evangelized on their behalf, insisted that a dish of peas be
presented for the family to try. The staff reminded Waters of the family’s
wishes, but she was unmoved. “I don’t care. I just want them to try it. I just want
them to try one.”
The peas were brought out, and the family loved them. “I’m telling you,”
Lippert related in an interview, “that little boy, he smiled and looked, like,
‘WOW. I’ve never tasted a pea before. I’ve never tasted anything like this
before.’” Soon, the family had eaten the whole bowl. “They were so excited and
so happy at the end of that dinner.”1
It was a small victory for Waters, one of countless that she’s had. Many
Americans now expect to see organic produce at supermarkets and enjoy
ordering dishes prepared with fresh ingredients at local “farm-to-table”
restaurants. But when Waters opened Chez Panisse in 1971, the nation’s culinary
scene was very different. Americans didn’t know much about fresh peas; their
diets consisted largely of a limited array of mass-produced, frozen, and
processed foods—hard, unripe tomatoes shipped clear across the country,
“mystery meat” raised on industrial farms, shelf-ready baked goods whose
ingredient list seemed straight out of a chemistry lab. In France, Waters had
discovered the joys of simple cooking and fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats
readily available at local farm markets. At Chez Panisse, she pioneered a new
American cuisine that incorporated these elements and benefitted from close
personal relationships with local producers. As celebrated chef Thomas Keller
told me in an interview, it wasn’t just a restaurant but a “phenomenon” and
“something that cannot possibly be duplicated anywhere else.”2 Gourmet
magazine named Chez Panisse the best restaurant in America in 2001, one of an
endless number of such honors for Waters and her restaurant.
Through this success and other high-profile projects, such as her Edible
Schoolyard and her efforts to improve food quality at Yale University, Waters
has emerged as a leading advocate for the organic, local, and “slow food”
movements in the United States. Industry insiders will tell you that Waters is
also known for something else: spawning the country’s best culinary talent. Over
the years, her restaurant has served as an informal school, incubator, and
launching pad for a generation of aspiring chefs. Dozens of employees passed
through Chez Panisse before opening establishments of their own, gaining fame
as some of the country’s most creative culinary figures. These former employees
include such stars as Judy Rodgers, the late chef at San Francisco’s Zuni Café
and winner of two James Beard Awards (known as the “Oscar” of food) for best
chef; Jeremiah Tower, another James Beard Award winner, who came out of
retirement to take over New York’s famed Tavern on the Green restaurant in
2014; Joyce Goldstein, yet another James Beard Award winner; award-winning
cookbook author and cooking teacher Joanne Weir; and award-winning pastry
chef David Lebovitz, to name a few. “I mean, how many of my chef colleagues
came through her kitchens or worked for her, I can’t count them,” renowned
chef Eberhard Muller told me. “I don’t even know all of the people who came
out of her circle of chefs or people who worked with her or interacted with her.”3
When I first learned about Alice Waters, I was fascinated that a single
person could foster such a disproportionate share of top talent. Some years back
I had written a book (Why Smart Executives Fail) exploring how
overconfidence, complacency, inaction, and lack of curiosity prevented
otherwise intelligent leaders from adapting to changing business conditions.
Companies were wilting under the weight of unimaginative, close-minded
strategies and cultures; they lacked the talent required to shake things up and
evolve. How interesting, I thought, that a lone creative genius who apparently
possessed no special training in management had somehow nurtured precisely
the kind of curious, energetic, open-minded people companies need to adapt to
change and compete at a world-class level. How curious as well that in our
world of Big Data, close, personal relationships played such an outsize role in
channeling top talent into an industry.
I investigated further and found that sous-chefs often move on after a period
of time to start their own restaurants. But I wondered if other industries worked