The more I read, the more I like Steve Ballmer from Microsoft. I've seen the videos, read the articles, and to me, he just seems like a no BS, practical, accessible CEO. I like the street vibe I get from him, and to me, he's the right type of successor to Bill Gates. More of an operator, more of the day to day guy.
I also like his vibe of running meetings. More on the style of Balmer from the New York Times:
Q. What’s it like to be in a meeting run by Steve Ballmer?
A. I’ve changed that, really in the last couple years. The mode of Microsoft meetings used to be: You come with something we haven’t seen in a slide deck or presentation. You deliver the presentation. You probably take what I will call “the long and winding road.” You take the listener through your path of discovery and exploration, and you arrive at a conclusion.
That’s kind of the way I used to like to do it, and the way Bill [Gates] used to kind of like to do it. And it seemed like the best way to do it, because if you went to the conclusion first, you’d get: “What about this? Have you thought about this?” So people naturally tried to tell you all the things that supported the decision, and then tell you the decision.
I decided that’s not what I want to do anymore. I don’t think it’s productive. I don’t think it’s efficient. I get impatient. So most meetings nowadays, you send me the materials and I read them in advance. And I can come in and say: “I’ve got the following four questions. Please don’t present the deck.” That lets us go, whether they’ve organized it that way or not, to the recommendation. And if I have questions about the long and winding road and the data and the supporting evidence, I can ask them. But it gives us greater focus.
When I'm running a meeting, it's hard for me to do more than 30 minutes these days. I like the vibe of Balmer when it comes to pre-work for meetings and not having people run all the way through it.
Long live Redmond. Then I did a YouTube search and came up with this video of an all-hands meeting at the softie, and Ballmer is channeling a little Matt Foley below.
Doesn't matter. Like a lenient judge, I'll allow it. Still digging him...
I am in total agreement with Mr. Ballmer on reviewing the info before the meeting and use the meeting time to discuss. However, my experience with the execs I used to work with was this - get the info in advance, put in pile on desk, read during presentation, ask questions that don't apply during meeting, schedule another meeting to discuss.
If you have management that works hard and actually does their homework you'd be surprised at how much can actually get done in a meeting.
Posted by: Paul Hebert | June 05, 2009 at 08:02 AM