Strong Woman: The Truth About Getting to the Top. Karren Brady
Читать онлайн книгу.
an honorary doctorate in business from the University of Birmingham and, when I received it, I gave a talk to the graduates. I said to them, ‘No matter how much you know, you have to have the personality to deliver it. People need to have confidence in what you’re saying, and you have to have the confidence to convey that.’
I’d go a bit further – to be successful, you also have to have balls. You need that bit of aggression to get the job done and lead well. I’ve always been pretty tough, whether that’s about being able to stand up for myself, or to be straight-talking, and I believe that comes back to always wanting to win: I’ve always pushed the boundaries to get what I want. Ultimately, I credit my nan Nina, who was certainly a woman with balls. She was never scared to stick up for herself or to push me forward. My mother says I’m fearless, and maybe that’s true. I certainly don’t like letting anyone get one over on me, which may sound a bit less heroic but can mean the same thing!
Here’s an example. When I first started work, I was mugged. I was living in Enfield, and as I pulled up in my car one evening a man walked out of my front door. ‘Can I help you?’ I asked.
He said, ‘I’m with the police. You’ve been burgled.’ But when I asked to see his ID, he pushed me to the ground, snatched my handbag and drove off. I drove after him – I didn’t even think about it. I’d just bought myself, for the first time, shoes and a matching handbag, and he had taken the handbag. He could have had anything else but not that!
I ended up cornering him in a cul-de-sac, where I jumped out of my car, ran up to him and tried to get the keys out of his car so that he couldn’t go anywhere. I was fishing around in the back of his car looking for my handbag and I was so angry I hit him over the head with a flask I found on the seat, yelling, ‘Give me the handbag – keep the contents, just give me the handbag!’
Then he pulled out a knife, and I said, ‘Okay, fine, go.’
I called the police, and they didn’t do anything, but I’d made a note of the number plate of the man’s car and drove around Enfield until I found it, abandoned. I think I got the handbag back, but I can’t remember now. What I do remember is that the story made the local paper with a real ’80s headline: ‘Have-a-go Yuppie’.
And I do know I’m at my absolute best when the chips are down. That’s an operational style, and I think you only really know what yours is when you’re under real pressure. It’s how you manage people, what you do, how you cope, what you say, how you go about challenging someone.
That’s why your approach to problems is very important. If you panic in the face of a problem, you’re going to have an unhappy life because life is a series of problems. How happy you are relates to the solutions you find to deal with them. I don’t panic. In fact, I love problems and challenges.
For me, a problem is an opportunity to show off my talent and put everything I know into action; this is an attitude that has underpinned my whole career. I understand that the way to deal with a problem is to break it down, work out what the elements are, then start to fix them. If I think back to the day that I first met David Sullivan, when I sat outside his office and pitched the deal to him to buy airtime on LBC, that situation came out of a problem. I had no clients, I had no money coming in and I had to go and fix it.
Often the solution requires hard work, of course. It is ingrained in my DNA that nothing can substitute for the sheer hours you put in. I saw hard work all around me as I was growing up – if you want to be successful, you have to graft – and that gave me great energy.
I also learned that you shouldn’t be ashamed to try anything. If I had a cleaning job I wouldn’t be ashamed – I’d just make sure I was the best cleaner. When I say to my husband, ‘Darling, I could live in a caravan with you and be happy,’ he says, ‘Yes, but knowing you, if we lived in a caravan, you’d work until we got the best caravan with the best view.’ And I know that’s true. I’ll always work hard to improve my situation: I’m ambitious.
I want to be the best and I’m ambitious, but I’ve never seen that as requiring me to be nasty. I think that comes back again to my inner core: a belief that I can win. I’d pitch myself against anybody at the things I know I’m good at. But I don’t need to be unpleasant to people to be successful because, if I’m tested, I believe I can match others and win.
It’s never about being nasty. I hate bullies – I know how it feels to be on the outside – and there are far better ways to get the best out of people than by bullying them. It’s much better to encourage them: that way you give them confidence. It’s the same with children. If you say to a child, ‘You’re naughty and you’re no good at anything,’ they will be naughty because they think that is what they have to be. If you say to them, ‘You’re great, you’re good, you’re really talented,’ then they feel they’re someone with things to give. Of course, every now and then when you’re running a business, you’ve got to give people the push they need, but you don’t need to be a bitch.
Instead, I aim to instil loyalty in my staff. Loyalty is very important to me. I am a very loyal person, I have very loyal friends, and you can’t put a price on that. It’s the most important ingredient in running a business. The best thing I do is work with people I admire, who are talented and successful, and I know so many things about so many different people that I would never talk about. I have never been a gossip, and that is one of the reasons why I work for Simon Cowell’s company and Sir Philip Green’s board, and have worked with David Sullivan for more than 20 years. It is about loyalty and understanding the position you’re in.
When the chips are down you need to know you have loyal people around you. I sometimes ask myself who, in my organisation, if I rang them up at three o’clock in the morning and said, ‘I need you now, there’s a crisis,’ would embrace the challenge and look forward to being part of the solution, and who wouldn’t answer the phone. Confidence under pressure comes from the belief deep down that you are not on your own. I have had David Sullivan in my life for virtually the whole of my career, and I know, if things get tough, that he will be on my side. Loyalty goes both ways.
And loyalty is created by mutual respect, by promoting people and allowing them to take credit for their work, and standing in front of them when things have not gone right. ‘Protect and serve’ is the motto of the LA police, but it’s also true of good leaders and how they deal with their staff and customers. My staff know that I will deal with them directly. I will promote them and protect them. I will never hide behind any of them, but I’ll always let them hide behind me.
Now, everyone who knows me would say I’m fiercely competitive. I am not competitive about sport, or personal possessions, fame or money, but when it comes to business I’m one of the most competitive people I know. I could never see the point in running around a track to be the fastest. But when my skill set is being assessed, I have to admit that I want to be the best. When I was team leader on The Apprentice for Comic Relief, I had to win. My focus was entirely on that – not on being on TV, not on getting the glory jobs: it was about leading my team to victory. I am competitive about the things I think are really important, the things I stand for.
But I do think you can be too competitive. When I was younger I wanted to win everything, and I would get fiercely passionate about the tiniest challenge. I was very feisty – always fighting my corner. I remember David Sullivan saying to me, ‘Don’t try to win everything. Just win the things that are important.’ It was very good advice. It led to an understanding that not every detail can be controlled at all times – even though I’d like it to be!
My attitude also changed when I became the team leader, as opposed to the team player. You spend all your young life being the team player who wants to be the team leader, and once you get there you realise what it actually means to lead. You can’t be this hugely competitive individual any more, protecting your own glory. You have to bring out the best in everyone else.
Plus, I’m in my forties now and, like everybody, I’ve changed and matured over the years. It’s hard to believe, but I have mellowed – a bit! I have definitely become more tolerant – you learn that when you have children, since as a parent you have to develop patience. When I