“When first he got up to speak, I felt hopeful,” she said. “Really, I did.”

“As the new Regional President, he’d called all of us, across all of our business lines, for a dinner. After we’d been milling around a bit, sipping drinks and chatting, he called for our attention.”

“He said hello. He introduced himself. He shared a little about himself and his family, which was nice to hear. He talked about his experiences in another company, how he’d aligned people across business lines to better serve their clients as one company rather than as separate business lines. Great idea! We could definitely use more of that.”

“And as he wrapped up, he told a stretching-history story about Paul Revere. He asked, ‘Can anyone say who Paul Revere was?’”

“Someone in the group said, ‘Yeah, he was the lights guy.’ And the Regional President went on to briefly describe Revere’s famous ride through Massachusetts to warn the colonists that the Regulars, the English army, were out, on their way to Lexington and Concord.”

“Then, he asked, ‘Does anyone know who William Dawes was?’  Nobody answered.

“And the Regional President said, ‘He was the OTHER guy who went out that night to warn about the English. Nobody knows about him. And the reason for this is that Paul Revere had a broad OPEN network and William Dawes had a CLOSED network.’”

“And he concluded with, ‘So, we’re all here tonight as an OPEN network. Thank you for coming this evening. I’m so glad to see you. Introduce yourselves to each other. Thank you for being part of the great team that we’re creating here tonight. I look forward to working closely with all of you.’”

“We headed toward the dinner tables. One of my work friends snagged a seat next to the Regional President at dinner and… the Regional President was on his mobile phone THE ENTIRE TIME through dinner talking to who knows who. Never said a word beyond ‘hello, nice to see you’ to the people on either side of him. Never got up to speak to anyone else in the room during THE ENTIRE DINNER. And then he said, ‘good night’ and slipped out immediately after dessert was served.”

I asked, “So, what did you think?”

“He’s just more of the same. Another self-absorbed, self-promoting senior executive. Another reason why I don’t think I’ll be working here much longer.”

Nick Miller is President of Clarity Advantage based in Concord, MA. He assists banks and credit unions to generate more and more profitable relationships, faster, with business clients, their owners, and their employees through better sales strategies and execution. Additional articles on Clarity’s web site.