Pete Berol is the Executive Director of Direct Marketing at Eastern University. Husband, Dad, Marketing Guy who does all his own stunts.
Aikido student, speaker, cooking enthusiast, occasional consultant and life
long learner.
What Is Your
Leadership Style?
I am all about The Team.
I hire people who don’t want bosses. If you need me to be your boss, you
probably don’t want to work for me, because I will make you nuts. Someone that needs high level of direction
probably isn’t for me. I basically lead
a Creative Idea Factory Implementation Structure. I am a marketing guy at my core, even though
I am an operations guy who loves leadership.
Those are the three things that I truly love. I want to be able to say “…here is the idea,
it lines up with the company’s goals, with our mission, it supports the
mission, now how do we get there.” I
have some ideas, but I don’t ever want to be so in love with my ideas that I
don’t hear well. So for me to have to hire somebody who needs me to lay it out from A to Z, than
I’d rather either to do it myself, or better yet hire someone who is more than
willing to take the framework, and fill it in with their own passion and skill
set.
You Stated, As A
Leader, You Need To Hear Well. What Does
That Mean?
You have to be very very comfortable with expensive mistakes
– not company killing mistakes. Last
time I checked, I’m really really sure I am not perfect. I’ve made some mistakes. The vast majority of the mistakes are meaningful
mistakes. Well supported, well thought
out – STINKERS! Mistakes are all about
learning. Mistakes are kids learning how
to walk – they fall down a lot. And if
you have a young staff, as I do, they really don’t want me to be their boss,
they want me to be their coach. The only
time they want a boss is when they are in trouble. Not career trouble – not HR trouble. More like, I am in the weeds in this project and
I need some guidance. Our staff meetings
(at Eastern University
What Frustrates You
About The Way Some Leaders Go About Their Business?
This tension between Law and Mercy. There is the law and
there is grace. Sometimes the danger that I found is that nice gets
confused for good. There are times in business where standing up and
firmly, respectively and ruthlessly, and when I say ruthlessly, I mean in the
nicest way... saying NO is the greatest gift an organization can
get. It’s when you get the AHHHH – I don’t know. When you
get a leader that is comfortable with ambiguity is when an organization suffers. My
frustration with some leaders is indecision - just make a decision. We
are going to go this way. I maybe 80% sure of this route, and we will
course correct as we go, but don't stay in the harbor waiting for the perfect
time to move.
Leadership is not about what you do with leadership
theory. Leadership is basically blocking
and tackling. Every leader we know has
done basically the same things - passion, direction, creativity – those things
really drive organizations. Looking at the companies many of us admire and see
what drives them. I am sure you will see
consistency in how their leadership acts and what they promote inside the
organization.
How Did You Develop
Your Leadership Style?
Painfully!!! I still
yell too much. My mom was a passionate
Irish Catholic woman. Three or four
major influences in my life. Starting
w/my dad who was a military officer for half of his adult life, and the other
half was a banker. Here is a guy who
literally led people to battle. One of
his hallmarks was how much fun he had with his folks at work. This focus on team came from my dad’s
understanding that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and John Wayne
only work in the movies. In the real world,
this movie stuff doesn’t survive. My mom’s passion –the idea of the intersection
of creativity and passion. I mean how do
you separate yourself from your family.
I had a long time friend whose father was a business executive who was a
mentor to me. Watching him run the Hearst
Tool Division. I learned a lot. I did my graduate studies in counseling and
my clinical training in a psychiatric hospital.
The best business training I did was doing 400 hours of counseling in a
psychiatric hospital. It teaches you
that everyone is nuts - some of us are just more so than others. In fact, some of the craziest people were the
ones doing the training! If you realize
that everyone has their quirks – their
moments of craziness - you get a little more relaxed when leading them.
What Have You Learned
Along The Way In Regards To Leadership?
I think anyone can read a balance sheet – at least you can
be taught to read a balance sheet. I
think business in general has made the mistake in saying “you know what we need
here is another accountant.” Don’t get
me wrong, I am not knocking accountants – I depend on good accountants. But I think we need to put more value in being
able to understand people. You’ve got to
understand people. Your “to do list” and
your financial balance sheet doesn’t mean a thing when the person sitting
across from you tells you that they have cancer. You cannot replicate a person’s brain or
their heart. At least I don’t think we
will be able to for quite some time.
Organizations run on people.
How Do You Keep Your Team Engaged?
I am always asking my staff… “What do you want to do next?” As a leader if you’re not helping your folks become what’s next, then you’re not doing your part as their leader. “What’s Next” becomes part of their annual review, you know what, “What’s Next” becomes part of their hiring! If I can find the way to give them the time, the head space to think about what’s next…to borrow the computer for the weekend… to help them grow in that direction…you want to talk about loyalty. You’ll get loyalty without a doubt. My team has four hours of week of what I call Blue Sky time – work on whatever you want – it doesn’t have to be work related. Most times, it is and you would be surprised what comes back to the group. The questions on our wall are always “what’s next next”…what’s the “thing” coming down the road that people are just starting to talk about…it doesn’t always have value, but the fastest way to hell is top be in love with your own process, your own methodology.
I am always asking my staff… “What do you want to do next?” As a leader if you’re not helping your folks become what’s next, then you’re not doing your part as their leader. “What’s Next” becomes part of their annual review, you know what, “What’s Next” becomes part of their hiring! If I can find the way to give them the time, the head space to think about what’s next…to borrow the computer for the weekend… to help them grow in that direction…you want to talk about loyalty. You’ll get loyalty without a doubt. My team has four hours of week of what I call Blue Sky time – work on whatever you want – it doesn’t have to be work related. Most times, it is and you would be surprised what comes back to the group. The questions on our wall are always “what’s next next”…what’s the “thing” coming down the road that people are just starting to talk about…it doesn’t always have value, but the fastest way to hell is top be in love with your own process, your own methodology.
What Other Questions Do You Ask Your Team?
I also ask the staff the question… “To what end?” How does what we are talking about support the business goals…the business mission…if we can’t tie those things together than we have to ask ourselves does it make sense. On my team, I’m the crazy idea guy. I come into the office and I start talking about my latest idea that I came up with while driving in and my staff looks at me and says… “Okay Pete, that’s great, but how does that support the vision?” Sometimes, it maybe an idea whose time has not come yet.
Another question that we ask ourselves is one I got from a mentor of mine, Howard Harold – a history professor with a futuristic view. He actually started my division. On his desk, he had a triangle metal sign that stated, “What Do You Suggest?” I have since then added “Don’t Bring Me The Problem!” Anybody can bring the problem. How you bring value is bringing the solution. We hear problems all day long – what companies need are solutions.
What Advice Would You Give Business Leaders Today?
First thing that comes to mind is leadership requires a bit of pathological optimism. Otherwise, you would look at economy, and you would say, why bother! Don’t fall into the “Magic Thinking” mode. Magic thinking – someday my prince will come, some day the economy will turn around, some day the business will come back. Organizations that have not returned to discipline of the market place make switches in panic. It’s that old Vince Lombardi story…Coach Lombardi would start every season with, “Gentleman this is a FOOTBALL” – every first practice, every year. No matter how many years you played for Lombardi, you heard that point at the beginning of the season. Submit yourself to the discipline of the marketplace.
Focus on where you want to go – the mission is timeless – the vision, the direction is time bound – have the ability to say that is not what we do. The gift of giving NO to the organization. It maybe great idea, but it is not what we do. It is not lined up with our vision, our goals. That ability to say no – that’s where ruthless comes in – is so important to an organization. I think when people and businesses panic, the money trail becomes very attractive.
Listen, everybody knows how to lose weight – eat right – eat less – exercise. Yet it’s a 3 billion dollar business. There is only one way to do it – and it starts with discipline.
