Losing Friends and Infuriating Leaders
Mike Levy talks to Jonar Nader

Jonar Nader probably thinks rather than spend time reading this article; you should be experimenting with pineapples and jelly. As one of the most iconoclastic of all writers on business, he is an ardent believer in thinking for yourself and not relying too much on the nostrums of gurus and sages. “I don’t read books any more, I don’t look at the newspapers, watch TV or listen to radio,” says Nader from his office in Sydney. That gives him plenty of time for original thinking encapsulated in books such as the recently updated, ‘How to Lose Friends and Infuriate Your Boss.’ The challenging title of that work is tells you a lot about Nader’s philosophy of leadership: staring truth in the face, learning from actual data (he is a former senior executive with IBM), operating in a honest and civil way, and understanding your enemy.
“I once gave a lecture to a bunch of software people on, ‘How to be a data thief’. There was outrage among some but I believe that unless you understand the mindset of your potential enemy or competitor, you cannot survive. If I were employing airport security staff, I wouldn’t bother with a prissy interview but ask them to smuggle a bomb into a departure hall at Heathrow. Unless you can do that, how the hell can you learn to stop an expert terrorist? People run to the accepted wisdom that Good will always prevail over evil. That is plain stupidity and flies in the face of all evidence. A scoundrel will think of things that you could never dream of. If you are a leader of an organisation, your people should rely on you to be aware of the darker side of business. I believe that negativity can be liberating.”
He admits that on many occasions his audience (he is much in demand as a keynote speaker) does not like what he has to tell them. Many prefer, he says, to believe the stuff produced in most of the world’s business self-help books, which he says are too lovey-dovey and full of platitudes. “A big guru author on leadership will approach the CEO of some large organisation and be taken out to lunch, meet the board or company President and perhaps play a round or two of golf. He will never sit in the canteen or go out on the road with the truckers.”
Eschewing the cosy chat circuit, Nader gets his information from life. “All my knowledge and expertise comes not from books but getting down the shop floor – talking and listening – seeing how the business operates from the customer’s viewpoint.” In a truly customer-oriented business, he avers, the lowliest customer-facing employee should be able to knock on the boss’s door and say ‘there is something very wrong here and we need to fix it.’ Instead, according to Nader, companies prefer to spend millions on fancy websites, logos and buzzword mission statements that include ‘customer service’ or ‘innovation’ (very popular in 2009 he says).
Learning from reality, understanding your enemy and thinking for yourself are crucial to Nader’s world view. “It is easy to spot a board that has learnt everything it knows from a book or an MBA course.” Does that mean he is against formal learning? “Not at all – but I always set a challenge: would you sign up for an MBA course on the proviso that you never tell anyone you have one? Most people waste time and money on these courses only to get a bit of paper that they can show off to their colleagues. An MBA is more often than not only a label and I don’t believe in labels. If you want to learn something really useful, learn to live the life of a good manager.”
Nader uses the term ‘good’ in a very precise way. He is an ardent believer in ‘corporate civility’ – doing the right thing for your people, suppliers and customers. “We are also fixated on expansion, not growth: they are not the same thing. Most corporate leaders are not there to grow anything but show the board, how they have expanded: more offices in Singapore for example. In my view, no board should employ a CEO that isn’t prepared to stay the course for at least 5, better 7, years. That is rare and what you get instead is a round of organisational musical chairs – hit and run leadership.” This is says is precisely the kind of leadership that has led the world into the current mess – “an event I predicted then years ago”, says Nader without any hint of schadenfreude.
Nader’s critical eye is also fixed on other targets: the current vogue for networking – “It’s mostly about abuse – who do you know that I can use? People should stop going to networking meetings but instead focus on becoming an expert in something. Where are the experts in our culture? Networking merely abdicates success to someone else.”
He is also entertainingly dismissive of team building – “You cannot create an effective team by wishing it or lumping people together on an outdoor adventure or getting them all to raise money for charity. A good team is one that from the start is made up of the best people. Teambuilding is like asking a chef to make a chocolate cake from a sack of potatoes. It’s the team’s ingredients that count.”
What is the ingredient in Nader’s own success as an author, trainer and consultant? “I just so happy to be alive and here. I have a constant wonder about everything I see. I just love to ask questions.” Nader learnt a crucial lesson as a young boy in the kitchen of his parent’s home. “I love making jelly and one day experimented by putting in some pineapple juice. I waited but it wouldn’t set. I later learnt from my teacher that the acid in the fruit prevents the jelly from setting.” That incident taught the young Nader a crucial lesson: learn from experience, ask questions to discover the truth, think for yourself and never add pineapple to a jelly.


For more on Jonar Nader’s thoughts:
http://www.logictivity.com




This article first appeared in www.trainingzone.co.uk