Book Provides Insight Into Management Style

An anecdote included in the recently published book The Connected Leader, covered last week in glassBYTEs.com™, which features Belron CEO Gary Lubner in a chapter titled "The Case for Connected Leadership" provides a glimpse into Lubner's management style and penchant for praising his employees.

The passage that focuses on 'warmth' refers to a period of time when the author was following Lubner in some of his day-to-day activities while researching the book. This research provided an amusing look at the value of praise.

In the anecdote, author Emmanuel Gobillot recounts how, while visiting Belron branches prior to becoming CEO, Lubner would provide very liberal amounts of positive feedback and praise to his employees. While it made him a very warm and welcomed guest, it also proved a challenge to him later. An employee told Lubner that his habit of lavishing the same amount of praise, regardless of the achievement was making his compliments lose value in the eyes of his coworkers. This led Gobillot to say, "Gary was too nice!"

Taking the comments to heart, Lubner then learned to moderate his flattery so that it matched the accomplishment. Gobillot termed this transition 'recognition currency,' and said that the moderation was a lesson in learning the exchange rate of the recognition currency.

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