In the world of business, this is akin to angling for your boss’s job or beating out a fellow executive for a top position. The rewards are great if you go for it, but so are the risks if you fail. When Johnny grumbled about working for Carmine and suggested it might be better if he were out of the way, Tony had to decide if he should take Johnny up on his suggestion. Tony certainly had a strong motive to get rid of Carmine (Johnny suggested this possibility during the HUD feud) and Johnny’s assistance would have been invaluable. Tony went back and forth on this issue, displaying a rare (for Tony) indecisiveness. Ultimately, he decided not to go through with it, earning Johnny’s anger and a vow to seek vengeance against Tony for backing out.
Tony’s error was acting before thinking. His instinct was to clip Carmine because he would never have a better opportunity, and he was furious with him. He didn’t think through the repercussions of killing a boss, and when he did, he realized that it would be bad for business. Fortunately, Tony didn’t fall into the trap that snares many leaders: deciding only with the gut. When Tony used his head, he realized that killing Carmine would be bad for business. Still, Tony may have lost an ally in Johnny because of his fickle behavior, and this could spell trouble in the future.
What we can learn from this decision:
- Just because the time is right for a decision doesn’t mean the decision is the right one. Opportunities present themselves to leaders all the time, but leaders shouldn’t seize every opportunity that comes down the pike. No doubt, it’s tempting to seize the ones that offer great potential rewards. Tony could almost taste the increased power and decreased hassles if Carmine were out of the way. By thinking the decision through, however, he correctly judged that no amount of personal satisfaction in clipping Carmine could compensate for lost revenues and lost people.
- There’s nothing people hate more than a fickle leader. Think about why Johnny was so furious at Tony for backing down from his commitment to help whack Carmine. Johnny’s expectations were raised; he must have been dreaming about taking over for Carmine and no longer having to be at Carmine’s beck and call. When rising expectations are dashed by new realities, people are devastated. It’s better never to have raised their expectations than to raise them and fail to meet them. Fickle leaders are seen as being insecure, a label that derails careers quickly. Decision reversal is appropriate at times—new information can catalyze a reversal—but it alienates people who were positively impacted by the first decision and negatively affected by the second. While Tony was right to reverse his decision, he would have been better off if he had decided from the get-go that whacking Carmine was a bad idea.