Comments on: Building a Leader’s Brain: The Underdog Plan

By: djcoyle

djcoyle — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:30:16 +0000

That’s a really interesting connection — and it makes sense. Taking it further, I wonder if this kind of leadership development happens more often in youthful organizations — where the boundaries tend to be more fluid — than in older ones?

By: George Anders

George Anders — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:27:47 +0000

That’s a very nice point about mailroom folks being able to peer into so many different areas. It’s actually a fine training ground for the right sort of ambitious, Sammy Glick personalities. There’s an interesting parallel with the rise of Lech Walesa and other Solidarity activists in Poland — whose seemingly unglamorous job gave him a chance to meet EVERYBODY. (Here’s a quote from a New Yorker writer’s NPR interview a while back.)

LAWRENCE WESCHLER: Why was it that the early Solidarity activists all came from either the plumbers or the electricians of these factories? They weren’t the people who had to stay at one machine all day long. They were the people who knew the whole factory.

By: djcoyle

djcoyle — Tue, 25 May 2010 11:23:22 +0000

I’m in! Now we need to find a Freakonomics-like researcher to look into this. All nominations now being accepted.

By: Michael Brown

Michael Brown — Tue, 25 May 2010 04:17:23 +0000

Actually, I believe what you are talking about are observations and not patterns. At any rate, you’re right and there has been no empiricial studies on the subject, and therefore no data by which our competing predictions could be put to the test. Care for a friendly wager?

By: djcoyle

djcoyle — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:45:54 +0000

You raise a great question. If there were a formal study of this, it would be great. But lacking that, we’ve got patterns — and I would argue that these patterns are worth examining.
Let’s take the William Morris Agency for example. Here are some of the people who came through their mailroom over the past 40 years, according to Wikipedia:
Michael Ovitz – co-founder of Creative Artists Agency and former president of Walt Disney Company
Michael Eisner – former CEO of Walt Disney Company and Paramount Pictures
David Geffen – “G” in Dreamworks SKG and founder of Geffen Records and Asylum Records
Jeffrey Katzenberg – “K” in Dreamworks SKG and CEO of DreamWorks Animation
George Shapiro – executive producer of Seinfeld
Anne Carey – producer of The Laramie Project and The Savages
Ben Silverman – co-chairman of NBC and executive producer of The Office
Peter Shaw – former head of MGM Studios
Ron Meyer – co-founder of Creative Artists Agency and president of Universal Studios
Abe Lastfogel – former owner of William Morris Agency and organizer of USO
Al Brodax – producer of Yellow Submarine and Popeye
Bryan Lourd – co-chairman of Creative Artists Agency
Bernie Brillstein – executive producer of Saturday Night Live and Ghostbusters
Wally Amos – founder of Famous Amos
Barry Diller – former CEO of Paramount Pictures, Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Networks, chairman of InterActiveCorp
Helen Gurley Brown – long time editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan[6]
Joe Wizan – director of Along Came a Spider and …And Justice for All
Robert Shapiro – former president of theatrical film production at Warner Bros.
Jack Rapke – producer of Cast Away and What Lies Beneath
Mike Rosenfeld – co-founder of Creative Artists Agency
Kevin Huvane – managing partner of Creative Artists Agency
Cary Woods – producer of Godzilla and Scream
Nick Stevens – co-owner of United Talent Agency
Irwin Winkler – producer of Rocky, Raging Bull, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and Goodfellas

Now maybe this kind of phenomenon is limited to a few companies who embrace this kind of culture. And maybe, as you suggest, there is an even longer list of people who were hired at higher positions who ended up outdoing these people. But until we’ve got an actual empirical study of these things, we’ll have to work with these patterns. And while it’s far from definitive, I find it intriguing.

By: Michael Brown

Michael Brown — Sun, 23 May 2010 23:30:13 +0000

Basically, you are arguing that mailroom workers are over represented in the ranks of ceo’s? And your evidence for this is that a google search turns 3145 hits? When you take into account the millions of successful CEOs throughout history, statistically, this adds up to no evidence at all. Look, busting conventional wisdom is fun, but the conventional wisdom that the vast majority of mailroom workers will never be CEOs remains rock solid. As for the individuals that did work their way up from the mailroom, I would suggest to you that they had leadership qualities that would have resulted in swift career advancement anyway. If you measured their career advancement against individuals with similar scores on IQ and personality tests, you will probably find the conventional wisdom is correct- that starting off in the mail room was a retardent and not an advantage in their career trajectory.

By: Paul Clarke

Paul Clarke — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:12:17 +0000

Great read Dan. It’s really all comes down to accepting that every day has to be a school-day; we simply must learn, learn and learn from everything we experience and as often as possible, even from the seemingly menial tasks . I think the really clever ones log these learnings and refer back to them and build on them time and time again.