RULE 85

Act and talk as if one of them

OK, before you actually become one of them, you should be practising to become one of them. If you are a junior manager you should be studying the way middle managers walk and talk and be ready to become one. If you are a middle manager you should be acting and talking as if you were already a senior manager. And on, right up to the top.

When I first became a managing director of a company, I almost forgot this Rule. I carried on managing as if I was a senior manager. But sales weren’t going as well as I would have liked. I was organizing corporate sales and couldn’t get to talk to the right people. I read somewhere that kings only talk to kings. I became a king (substitute ‘managing director’ for ‘king’ and you’ll see what I mean). Immediately doors which previously had been closed were opened and sales exceeded my expectations.

If you’re going to be a king in the future you had better start practising now. Watch how anyone senior to you does things. The way they answer the phone, talk to staff, what they wear, what paper they read, how they get to work, what they do at work and how they do it.

I recently met a managing director of a very large company and I was seriously impressed with how friendly and informal he was with his staff – who obviously adored him – and how genuinely relaxed he seemed. That is until we came to negotiate, when he was obviously totally up on his job and had facts and figures at his fingertips in a second. I watched him because he is my next step, if you like. He is my ‘one of them’.

And no, no matter how high you go, you never walk on people – ever.