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12 SNAKES IN SUITS
extremely bright, but also knew how to make money, and he made
a lot. He knew that his success—the success of the business—rested
with the quality of his staff, and he shared the glory as well as
the rewards with those around him.
Over the next few months, Helen hired her own group of
people to replace many of her more vocal opponents on her senior
staff. Relying on her own gut-feel approach to hiring talent, she
would offer large sign-on bonuses to entice young, bright executives
to leave their current jobs, and if she then decided—within
days or weeks—that they just weren’t good enough and couldn’t
hack it, they had to go. She fired most of the quick appointments
to her management team in rapid succession as she decided they
were inadequate, incompetent, or no longer needed. There was
no concern about the damage she did to the careers and family
lives of these people, or the legal problems she could potentially
cause for the corporation.
Helen seemed able to get away with whatever she wanted,
including the purchase of the latest extravagance, whether this be
a computer, a new car, corporate apartment, or any other accessory
that signaled the trappings of power. Helen initiated a series
of expensive management conferences, held in tropical locations,
with prominent keynote speakers, in which she trumpeted the division’s
accomplishments with her fully taking the spotlight. Her
presentation of success was at odds with a continuing lack of cohesion
within the division—but somehow those outside did not
notice this discrepancy.
She was unwilling and perhaps unable to acknowledge that
any of her decisions could have any negative consequences for the
business. Questioning her behavior provoked intense reactions,
as, for example, when she fired the executive coach hired by the
corporation to help her smooth over her rough edges. She was
never wrong but always right, being interested only in positive
news. People resented the way in which she paraded about like a
queen bee. She enjoyed displaying her status, power, and the ex-