Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli was fired from his post in January 2007, but it wasn’t because the stock of his company had dropped that much. In fact, the stock for Home Depot had stayed about the same during his tenure. Many analysts credited Nardelli for making major substantive changes.
So what was the root of his downfall?
Of course there was his well-publicized huge salary and his $200 million Golden Parachute. But what many analysts cite as his downfall was the arrogant way he tried to talk to people. At the 2006 Home Depot annual meeting, Nardelli created legions of enemies by severely limiting who could ask questions and the length of each question. Worse, he specifically told his directors not to come to the meeting so that investors couldn’t ask them questions.
Nardelli went to these extreme measures because he didn’t want to be questioned, about his salary or anything else.
Was he successful? Yes. Nardelli did control his audience, but it came at a cost. Nardelli sowed so many seeds of resentment that day, they eventually came back to destroy him.
It’s a basic human need to be heard and respected. Investors are human too, and they aren’t happy when they are told to shut up – especially by someone they think should be working for them.
Nardelli won the battle of words on the day of his annual meeting, but he lost the long-term war to keep his job. Of course Nardelli has a cushy fall with his $200 million honey pot. But do you?
Make sure the next time someone wants to ask you a tough or even a nasty question that you let them. It might hurt in the short term, but in the long run, your enemies will respect you more and be less inclined to have you removed.
Originally published as Pitfalls of Being an Audience Control Freak by TJ Walker for SpeakingChannel.TV
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