Rule 15: Put a Very Fine Line between Yourself and Your Subordinates

Overview

SNAPSHOT

Do you deliberately keep professional distance from your superiors, subordinates, and/or peers?

Usually: 52 percent

Usually not: 48 percent

As the top law enforcement officer in the country, Janet Reno did not regularly socialize with her Department of Justice attorneys. She occasionally went out with her prosecutors when they celebrated a successful conviction or civil settlement. While she treated everyone at Justice with cordiality and pleasant professionalism, and she was very popular with her employees, she deliberately kept some distance between herself and her subordinates. You need "just enough of a wall to provide for the dignity of the office," according to Ms. Reno. However, there must be "enough caring" that employees can see "around, through, and under the wall, and through the windows," she added.

Admiral Joseph Prueher agrees. "When you are in command, you are not one of the boys anymore. You are in charge. You can be friendly, you can be helpful, and you can put your arm around them when times are tough. But you are not one of them. And that has got to come across."

One of Ms. Reno's top prosecutors, former U.S. Attorney Ed Dowd, took a different approach to leading his office. He treated his prosecutors, administrative staff, and investigative agents as if they were all part of his family. He had them over for dinner; he attended their social events and celebrations on a very regular basis. Businessmen Sam Fox and Mike Sears, both of whom we met earlier, told me that they develop close ties to coworkers and subordinates, although Sears does not go so far as to use the word "family."

Similarly, when I asked Jim Parker, CEO of Southwest Airlines, whether he keeps professional distance from his employees, he replied, "Absolutely not. That would be totally counter to the culture at Southwest." Parker, who does view his company as one big family, recounted stories of his icing down the beer at after-hours company "deck parties" on Fridays, and otherwise spending a lot of time socializing with his employees. In fact, of the forty top professionals I interviewed, Mr. Parker was the only one who took me into his office (around 6:15 P.M., after most people had left), opened a bottle of merlot, and poured me some very good wine into a plastic cup. We sipped it throughout the interview. I saw the value of professional congeniality firsthand. It certainly can and has worked at Southwest.