What One of Australia’s Most Notorious CEOs taught me.

‘Nick turn your phone off.’

With a swift kick in the back, my girlfriend again telling me to turn my phone off as it rings at 2:00 am. Almost to the minute. This was our nightly ritual.

Finishing work at 9:00 pm to be woken only a few hours later by my boss, the CEO. A seasoned entrepreneur, a world-class salesman, and a pathological liar.

Rolling out of bed and crawling half-naked to my phone, I would answer mustering all the energy I could.

‘Hello.’

Almost pleased with himself he would ask. ‘Nick, I didn’t wake you did I?’

‘If you’re working, I’m working.’ Would be my daily reply.

What would follow was my daily lecture on sales, business, spirituality, and life. Bouncing from topic to topic with no semblance of cohesion between his statements, it was an onslaught of condescending doublespeak.

The next day as I would look back through my notes from our call, a grin would come across my face. Although torturous at times and the topics often ridiculous, there was a part of me that enjoyed these chats. Very few people can talk for hours and still seem interesting. He was one of those people.

I never did quite figure out if he was a mad genius or a holistic idiot. Well, at least not in time to save the heartache, my team’s time and energy or my families money. His uselessness is epic, no doubt about it. But, to work under someone for almost four years and learn nothing would say more about me than him.

So what did I learn from arguably Australia’s worst CEO?

First the obvious. Companies rise and fall on leaders.

Tried and true. Big Review TV was no different. Yes, there were obvious flaws in the business model. But, the real problems stemmed from the company’s poor leadership and their terrible treatment of their employees, external business partners and lack of respect for their shareholders.

What is happening at the bottom is always a reflection of the top. The internal politics were nigh-on-epic. Worthy of a sitcom or a place on the big screen (stay tuned for this). None of us knew what was going on, at one point even having to hold meetings just to make sure our instructions given from the Board aligned, as all too often different and opposing directions were given.

When articles about how one of our offices was being run started to hit newsstands, an endless search to find out who the leak was within the company began. Shockingly, this effort to find the culprit was never put into solving the problems and the frustration felt by the employees, globally. It never would have warranted effort if an ounce of care or attention was given to daily operations and the employees that drove the company forward.

It was in these moments of crisis that the lack of respect our CEO had for everyone involved in the company shone through. Instead of taking responsibility for the situation, instead of solving the problems, he was looking to blame others, and protect himself.

Now with the mud-flinging above said, it also showed me that you can become the leader your team and company needs, even when you answer to a poor one. Without instruction, permission or title you can stand up and should stand up to become the leader needed. And I don’t mean to do this to claim the title. I mean lead through your actions. Show how a leader should operate by being one yourself. Lead up the chain of command.

Funnily enough, nine times out of ten it will actually work out better for you if you do this whilst working under a bad leader. There is never an excuse not to act as a leader. We just wrongly assume being a leader means you’re the one in charge. You don’t have to be in charge to lead. To lead means “the initiative in an action; an example for others to follow.” Be the example, no matter what title you hold.

Secondly. Communication solves 99% of all problems, the other 1% is solved by firing someone.

Without fail all of our problems – whether on product development, client relations, internal promotions or drama stemming from anything else within the company – was solved with candid and open communication. If that didn’t work, more often than not no matter how well you listened, told or explained to the person the situation, they weren’t going to change.

At that point, you only have one option. The team must outweigh the individual. Even with the CEO, if he were to be fired, I argue with the team we had, we would have solved all of our problems. Maybe that’s a tad over the top but, no one was ever fired within our company, especially at the senior level. They would simply be moved to ‘special projects’ and ignored, left to fester and infect those around them.

On the communication front, and now we know this may have been on purpose. But, the company was divided in almost every possible way. It was deliberate from the top down to separate everyone, so no one knew what was actually going on. From different CRMs used in different countries to senior managers being told not to go into offices without the CEO there. This is ridiculous, obviously. Communication breeds clarity. Transparency may be scary, but it is only scary to people that are doing a poor job or things they shouldn’t be doing. Transparency to others is a welcome spotlight.

Thus, almost every single problem stemmed from either the wrong people in the wrong position or poor communication.

Solution: Remove the wrong-people, ruthlessly (the team must come first). And, set up clear communication lines. Transparency solves just about everything. Communication breeds clarity, clarity breeds confidence. Confident teams win.

Next: “Assume incompetence over malice.”

Although that quote is taken from Tim Ferriss, working with our CEO forced me to put it into practice. It is a bizarre human trait that we all to often want an enemy, we want something to beat or blame, otherwise, how do we win? And, how do we know who is at fault?

It’s so much harder to realize that it could have been an honest mistake or just incompetence.

It is assuming incompetence, that will bolster your patience. Despite his uselessness in all professional regards, it was attempting to practice this, that allowed me to help pick up the pieces he was dropping instead of becoming frustrated (which I still did) that they were dropped in the first place, let alone thinking they were dropped on purpose. After all, to assume malice, means you assume someone has an agenda. We often don’t, we are all just trying to figure this thing out.

To use him as an example.

Why would he be bad a CEO on purpose? He wouldn’t. Whether he was a dodgy businessman or not, being a bad CEO on purpose would only hinder his plans.

His uselessness as a CEO was genuine uselessness, not predetermined malice. Or, if it was, thinking it was, wasn’t going to help me work with him and solve the problems at hand.

All too often many of my fellow employees (and I) would say, it is like they (The Board) are against us, actively sabotaging or hindering the companies success on purpose. Why would they do that? They wouldn’t, they were just incompetent.

Developing the habit of assuming incompetence forces you to have patience and empathy. Two things that are so quickly thrown out of the window but are what ensures a close team that stands the test of time and thus, wins.

Then there was the Proof. The best story always wins.

Why is it when people meet their idols they are always so disappointed? Because at the end of the day they aren’t sold on the person, but the story that person portrays to the market.

I along with hundreds of employees and thousands of investors didn’t believe in him and his outrageousness, although they certainly were integral parts of the story. We believed in ‘The BIG Vision.’ Sure, we questioned it at times but, as much as people may deny it or regret it, we believed in the BIG story that he was selling.

There is no question he could sell and sell he did. But, to look a little deeper, it is the human condition. We want to believe in people and we yearn to be a part of something.

What brings those two things together better than a story. Storytelling has been a part of our culture since the dawn of time and is the exact best way to sell people on you, your ideas and your products.

Selling the ‘Big Vision’ was his bread and butter, he could do it better than any of us. To investors, employees and corporate partners alike. And, Big Review TV’s story had every bit of a perfect three-part epic tale.

A dodgy businessman who sees the wickedness of his old ways, turning over a new leaf he leaves his old life behind to reconnect with his long lost son. They travel together living a simple life where he teaches him the right way to build a business. His son grows to become a prodigy, ‘the Zuckerburg of Australia’, together they build a media empire, becoming the poster father and son duo for the new entrepreneurial world where the young run billion-dollar tech companies.

What’s not to love? It has family, a comeback, a prodigy, and global domination.

Everyone loves a good story, but more than that we love a good underdog story. Someone that has truly screwed up their life, only to come back and win. It’s got Rocky Balboa written all over it. Their story had everything we wanted and we lapped it up.

We, humans, have a bizarre flaw, we wrongly feel unique. So, when a story like this comes along, we don’t think how could this be fake, we think, yep I was destined to be a part of something like this. And, we buy in.

Now, knowing this and knowing, well as far as I can tell, no one has changed the world by themselves. We must leverage this human trait and the very best way to leverage it is to create a narrative, a story they can buy into. A story they can be a part of. A story they can stand behind, and of course, a story they can spread.

So what story are you selling?

And, finally. If this guy can do it, anyone can.

Yeah, he botched it. But, knowing that there are weirder and less capable people making waves in this world should give you all the excitement to get after it.

This is the start of a multi-part series of what I learned working for one of Australia’s most notorious CEOs.