The Case of the Missing Cutlery

Exercise 3

The Followers

Creating your following requires a careful enlistment process that begins by inspiring your catalysts and converting your resistors.

My First Meeting

Having been awarded my first serious management job at McCann Erickson, with the remembered admonition that I would be “dinner conversation” at my employees’ homes ringing in my ears, I met my new “reports.” There were six of them, and two were old enough to be my parents. My mind raced. I assembled all of the collective learning that I could. I pored through the accepted wisdom set forth in management texts. What would Peter Drucker say? What about Theodore Levitt? Maybe I should throw out quotes from a general or two about “taking that hill,” or perhaps “closing ranks” ...