Chapter 1
Thoughtful and Ruthless

The Trigger Points for Thoughtfully Ruthless

My first realization about thoughtfully ruthless leadership occurred when Microsoft took a $1 billion write-off in 2007 for the red-ring-of-death quality problems with Xbox. I was part of the Xbox leadership team, and we were in danger of becoming irrelevant unless we broke away from our strict focus on 16 to 22-year-old men in North America who liked shooting and racing games.

Don Mattrick became the new CEO of Xbox, and he epitomized a thoughtfully ruthless leader. In my first meeting with him, he said, "Val, what are your top ten priorities?" I rattled off five, but then he interrupted me and said, "Here are mine, and here are five more for you that you need to add to your list." Every morning Don thought of the three biggest issues that prevented him growing his business and focused on those that day. He monopolized meetings to drive his agenda, which frustrated everyone around him, but he focused on the goals of the business, ruthlessly and relentlessly. We learned how to make meetings more effective by building Don time into the agenda wherein he could share his thoughts and ideas, but the team could still cover the topics that needed to get decided as a group. He knew how to not get sucked into the tactical day-to-day execution and stay focused on long-term strategy.

When I shared some of my views on the leadership team and the changes that needed to happen for us to turn around the business, he said, "Let's spend a day on this next week." I went to his home in Vancouver, Canada, and we talked for a day about how the business would grow in the next three years and what the implications would be for the leadership and organization. We created a plan for what we would change when. That became the basis for the three-year plan for the Xbox business.

Don made his first million dollars at the age of 17 when Electronic Arts bought his games company. He turned around Xbox from a billion-dollar loss to a multibillion-dollar profit. Don is the embodiment of a thoughtfully ruthless leader.

My second trigger happened in South Lake Union, a neighborhood in downtown Seattle that had been transformed when Amazon moved its headquarters and 15,000 employees there. In my first week at Amazon as the human resources director for the fashion business, I spent time with a cross section of people to understand the business and the culture. I asked everyone the same two questions: (1) "What does it take to be successful here?" (2) "What advice do you have for someone new?" one of the buyers gave me the best advice: "Be ruthless with your time, and get used to continually letting people down." That phrase stuck with me as I learned more about the Amazon culture, which moves at lightning speed while orbiting around one central force: the customer.

When I worked at Land Rover in England, our planning meetings were in four-year increments; we reviewed monthly and quarterly sales, faxed from the various global dealerships. There was a huge contrast! Land Rover was compiling data from faxes, whereas with Amazon customer behavior was analyzed by the keystroke, within seconds and often instantly, so you had to move fast. Pixel-level decisions were made to appear on the Amazon home page (the gateway) and each subsequent page, which are then analyzed to determine the success or failure of a product or promotion. Priorities change, and you have to be able to make on-the-spot decisions for where you will focus your own time and how you will lead your team. I learned to become more ruthless.

The final trigger happened the day I brought my twin daughters home from the hospital. My eldest daughter was 23 months old, making me the mother of three daughters under the age of 2. Just like a juggler learns to juggle with more and more balls, I quickly learned to meet the demands of two newborns and a toddler, returning to work as an executive at Microsoft after six months of time off. The secret, I discovered, was being ruthless with my own time, energy, and resources. My husband and I had to ruthlessly make sacrifices. What could we do personally, or where could we outsource? Obviously, we would outsource noncore activities, such as folding and organizing laundry, and use that precious time to play with our daughters. We had to be ruthless.

I first wrote about being thoughtfully ruthless when I launched my own consulting practice. It was the first special report I wrote, and I have had resounding feedback from my clients about its impact. This idea packs a punch, but first let's explore what happens if you are only thoughtful or only ruthless.

Who Is Thoughtful? Who Is Ruthless?

If I were to ask you to think of a thoughtful leader, it would likely be easy for you. A thoughtful leader knows everyone's name and wants to be liked by everyone. And everyone does like such a leader, until it is decision time, when the thoughtful leader sees a fast-approaching wall and slams the brakes on hard and stalls. Tough decisions often paralyze thoughtful leaders.

One leader I worked with used to deliberate for weeks over decisions that could have been made in minutes! When I asked him what was causing the delay, he said, "Val, this decision won't be popular, so I am trying to figure out a way to make it more palatable for everyone." Even during team meetings, members of the team would say, "It's time to make a decision; let's make the call right now." But still delays occurred, and the competition raced ahead while his team got more frustrated with inaction, and his reputation suffered. Thoughtful leaders are often loved most by junior employees, tolerated by managers, and loathed by executives.

Thoughtfulness is drummed into us from an early age:

• Think about others before yourself.
• Don't hurt someone's feelings.
• Go to your room and think about what you have done.

These are all phrases most of us have heard growing up, so when it is time to be a little less thoughtful, no wonder it can feel so out of character.

There are three definitions of thoughtful leaders:

1. They consider the intended and unintended consequences of their actions.
2. They deliberately focus time and attention on the needs of others.
3. They are reflective of past results so they can repeat successes and learn from failure.

Now think of a ruthless leader. I'm sure you can think of one or two. You may already be scowling. A ruthless leader appears not to care about the implications of their actions and will regularly put their needs in front of others, either consciously or unconsciously. Ruthless leaders are not always liked, but they are often respected.

The serial executive investor Carl Icahn is a ruthless leader. From a distance, he is a disrupter, ruthlessly shaking up the companies he invests in and the boards he is a member of.

There are three definitions of a ruthless leader:

1. They make bold, sweeping decisions.
2. They pay no regard to how people may react to them.
3. They provide unfiltered and often unsolicited feedback at every opportunity.

Ruthless leaders are often loathed by more junior employees, feared by managers, and respected by executives.

Can You Name One?

The far more interesting question is whether you can name a thoughtfully ruthless leader. They are neither too thoughtful nor too ruthless but intentionally spend their time, energy, and resources to reach their goals. They are the ones who have catapulted themselves ahead of their peers and the competition. You may be pleased to hear this is not like a permanent tattoo. It is a state of mind, a learnable (and forgettable) trait, so there is hope. The impact of being too thoughtful or too ruthless will either put the brakes on your company's results, drive your employees crazy, or drive yourself insane.

I have worked alongside some of the top leaders in the world's most innovative companies, and I have seen the brilliant, the mediocre, and the downright cringe-inducing actions of leaders. Those actions have left either a shambolic wake or phenomenal results that redefined how we play and interact with technology.

Thoughtfully ruthless leaders do not leave their business results to chance. Every decision is deliberate and every moment is purposeful. They do not worry whether everyone will like them or agree with them. Making people happy isn't one of their goals; yet, they attract and retain happy people because of their relentless focus and predictable business success. Many leaders focus on the market conditions or the competition as reasons for lack of growth. Yet the single biggest variant is the leader and how they prioritize their time and energy personally, with their leadership team and with the rest of the organization. It's easy to get sucked into the current issues of today's customers, products, and financial results, but leaders who know how to dedicate time to looking ahead one to three years will outpace their competition.

The thoughtfully ruthless leader has confidence, happiness, and clarity on his or her life priorities that nothing and no one is permitted to interfere with. It was unheard of for an executive from Microsoft to work remotely; yet, Don Mattrick made that a condition of accepting the CEO of Xbox role. He would remain based in Vancouver, Canada, and travel to...