In 1977, Tom Peters was fired from McKinsey. He had become so absorbed in the research that turned into In Search of Excellence that he lost track of the firm’s unwritten rules. He also took a Stanford teaching role without telling McKinsey, and his long hair didn’t help. In this revisited episode from April 2021, Tom talks with Mark Graban about that firing and what it taught him about passion, luck, and the norms organizations never write down.
The conversation then turns to his book Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism and the leadership ideas behind it:
- Why putting people first and focusing on execution matters more than the strategy document
- “Whoever Tries The Most Stuff Wins” and treating innovation as serious play
- Why positive feedback works better than negative feedback, and why kindness is not a weakness
- The case for more women in leadership and for valuing quieter, introverted leaders
- Why leaders shouldn’t assume their success was entirely self-earned
For leaders, the lesson goes beyond Tom’s career. Unwritten rules shape behavior in every organization, and people usually discover them by breaking one. Making those norms visible is part of building a culture where people can speak up and learn from mistakes.
Episode page with transcript and links: markgraban.com/mistake58