The other day we were talking about Elon Musk in the comments here and Brad Marley asked, “How do we deal with difficult executives?”

This is hard for me because I am an executive so I have an advantage many don’t: Other business leaders see me as a peer, which gives me some leeway in counseling them to do something new, different, and scary.

That said, there are lots of times we have to gain consensus and approvals from the leaders of our client’s organizations and sometimes that isn’t easy.

Often times you’re trying to convince them they not only should have open, honest, and transparent communications, but it’s a complete mind shift from what they learned in business school and how they’ve run their organizations for years.

There are a few things that speak to difficult executives when you want them to take a risk: Money, proof, buy-in from his or her executive team, and what the competitors are or are not doing.

Let’s start with the competitors. (more…)