What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School

What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School Mark H. McCormack

Reading People • Don’t take notions for an answer • Use your insight • Listen & Observe aggressively • Useful impressions

Reading People • Take advantage of the venue • Observe fringe times

Golf Course Insight • The Gimme Putt • “What did you shoot?” • “What’s your handicap?” • Winter Rules • The Rules of Golf

Watching People & Reading People • Listen aggressively • Observe aggressively • Talk less • Take a second look at first impressions

Watching People & Reading People • Take time to use what you’ve learned • Be discreet • Be detached

Creating Impressions • Play off preconceptions • Letters as emissaries • You’re known by the office company you keep • Dress as though you mean business

Creating Impressions • Split some seconds • Don’t be a time thief • Your own turf • Mean what you say

Making a Notable Gesture • Do something for the kids • Let people off the hook • Drive a soft bargain • Flatter legitimately

Making a Notable Gesture • Make friends • Make mentors: Make confidants • Be discreet

Most Important Personal Asset • Common sense • Being yourself • Emotion management • You don’t have to be perfect

Taking the Edge • Know the particulars • Know the players • Size of the situation • Thinking on your feet

How to Get Lucky • Turn crises into opportunities • Learn to wait • Discipline yourself

Getting Ahead • Know the Rules • Survival of the fittest • Your peers are your natural allies • There is always a system

Getting Ahead • Making impressions in the long term • The Love-Me-for-Myself Syndrome • Get some new tricks

Three Hard-to-Say Phrases • “I don’t know.” • “I need help.” • “I was wrong.”

Criteria We’re Judged By • Commitment • Attention to detail • Immediate follow-up

The Problems of Selling • Selling doesn’t seem important enough • Selling is an intrusion • Fear

The Secret Life of a Deal • Listen to your common sense • Listen to your buyer • Follow the script

Silence • Make the other guy talk • Get information by not asking for it • Bite your tongue • The pregnant pause • Once you’ve sold, shut up

Marketability • Know your product • Believe in your product • Sell with enthusiasm

Positioning • Is it a Ford of a Mercedes? • Weighing the facts • Doing it with mirrors • Imaging

Correspondence Tools • Open copies to the Boss • Blind copies to the Boss • “Dictated but not read”

Negotiating • Deal in psychological currencies • Avoid showdowns • Negotiate backwards • Trade places

Negotiating • Deflect with a question • Question positions but don’t ignore them • Sweeten with his self-interest • Keep your time frame to yourself

Using Emotion • Perceive any business dispute as the beginning of a negotiation • Step back and relax • See emotional outbursts as opportunities • Act in anger, but never react in anger • Get them charged up about side issues

Building a Business • Commit (early on) to quality • Be smart enough to know when you are lucky • Grow slowly • Diversify your expertise & talent

Building a Business • Charge for your expertise • Hire the best to teach you what you don’t know • Take a second look at timing • Short-term can be terminal

Staying in Business • Think small • Don’t let structures run the operation • Think flexibility • Reserve the right to be arbitrary • Hire people smarter than yourself

Staying in Business • Don’t let policies stifle the operation • Manage unconventionally • Manage with confidence • Delegate what you can, not what you want to

Dealing with Employees • Pay them what they are worth • Make them feel that they are important; yet motivate positively & negatively • Make them think for themselves • Separate office life from social life

Getting Things Done • Time Management • An organization system • Stick to your schedule • Allocate personalities

How to Handle Phone Calls • Pause to anticipate • Get to the point • Shorten the long maybe • Avoid phone tag

How to Handle Phone Calls • Making people take your call • Silence means consent • Who gets on first?

Internal Meetings • Who are these people & what are they doing in my meeting? • Fold in meetings • Run a successful meeting • Meet in hallways

External Meetings • Where it’s best to go slow • Restaurant meetings

Knowing Your Own Work Habits • Learn to say “no” even when it hurts • Decision making • Office communication • To write or not write • Streamline your office space

What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School