On the Pride Test

I won’t claim this is the whole truth, but I was told about a curious feature of the promotion interviews run by German Gref, the head of Sberbank. He reads a résumé slowly and calmly, saying some of the facts or conclusions out loud. Only now and then does he put a direct question to the candidate. And who passes an interview like that? Only the ones who speak strictly when they’re asked, instead of rushing to fill the “rhetorical” pauses with self-praise — or with excuses the moment a hint of doubt about their competence is in the air.

The idea behind the method is simple and effective — it’s a test for pride.

Not long ago I recommended someone for a large holding company. The first warning bell came when I was describing the company and the context to him, and he suddenly cut me off to start telling me about his own achievements. I grew wary. But the real red flag was how he behaved when arranging the meeting with his future boss. He was given a place to meet — a particular metro station in Moscow — and he couldn’t help himself, writing back with the station where he happened to be (closer to the center). Plus phrasings like “I’m prepared to meet…”. My intuition was already screaming: “Are you out of your mind or what?” And, once again, it didn’t let me down. Three days later he signed his own confession of not measuring up to the challenges of the new role. Good thing it all resolved so fast! As for me, I took an important lesson from it: trust your own feelings, and don’t believe windbags with an inflated ego.

Ego is our enemy. Why are so few people able to see those more experienced and successful than themselves as mentors, as guides — to take pride in the chance to be a master’s apprentice?

Everyone wants, as the saying goes, “to land right at the top,” and to land there at once. But why would anyone want upstarts up there? How can you trust them, if all they think about is themselves and their own interests? Power can almost never be “taken” — it’s handed down by those who already hold it, to the ones they trust, the ones who don’t ask silly questions but simply go and do. Almost every successor to a president walked this path, save for the statistically rare and tragic cases of bloody revolutions.

Many want it; few are a fit. We live in a world where everyone wants to be the boss and there’s no one left to do the work. Because even good leadership is hard, diligent, painstaking labor.

Here’s to spending less time pondering our own greatness — and more on the real work! 😎