相反，巴德把公司几十亿美元的宝贵现金用来买西尔斯的股份。现在已然知道回购股份其实是白白浪费——自巴德领导公司以来，西尔斯的股票已经跌了60%左右，分析家们只当作这是房地产市场的一个玩笑。
好斗、自满的唐纳德•特朗普（Donald Trump）又是什么情况呢？我发现他真的很有意思，但如果将其他开创者赋予他身上的财产放到一边，你会很惊奇地发现他自1995年以来并没有多少建树。我报了一些高尔夫课程，在芝加哥一个高高的建筑里，由曼哈顿西侧一些并不符合审美标准的低建筑群组成。而与他毗邻的开发商（都位列福布斯400），如Steven Roth和Mortimer Zuckerman，他们都很注重自己助理的意见，特朗普在他们面前最多算是一个配角。
我并不是说每一个狂妄的人都会碰壁，也不是说听取意见的人永远不会在决策上失误。但是，没有任何一个人有绝对的权力，除非他或她玩的是单人游戏。如果你想强迫别人去做他们不想做的事情，那么，我希望你已经做好准备去付我一个麦肯锡公司前同事所说的“混蛋税”。也就是一些真正狂妄的CEO或领导们不得不给需要忍受他们狂语的员工的奖金。
你身边是什么情况？接受来自总部的指导和直接命令？剧院会场上突然最高长官来了电话？或者，在你那善于倾听、虚心请教他人意见的领导管理下的公司是不是蒸蒸日上呢？
你可以发送最喜爱的“弱势”老板如何不费力气就摆平很多事情，和“强势老板”处理事情如何寸步难行的例子发送给我。我会给你的来信写一个简短的描述并发布在我们的报纸上。
还有，关于我们强大的史蒂夫•乔布斯先生，他既不是大家所认为的绝对独裁者，也不是永远都正确的天才。首先，他也经常犯错（例如，Apple III，Lisa计算机，NeXT，Apple TV, MobileMe，以及苹果美国制造基地的破产和亚洲合同制工人恶劣的工作环境）。尽管他是苹果公司当之无愧的代表人物，但是他很多时候需要依靠其背后的团队，这些人其中就包括史蒂夫•沃兹尼亚克（Steve Wozniak），设计师乔纳森•伊夫（Jonathan Ive）和现任CEO蒂姆•库克（Tim Cook）。
Instead, Lampert used billions of dollars of the company’s precious cash to purchase Sears shares. The share-buybacks have been a waste—Sears stock is down 60% or so since Lampert took over, and analysts can only justify this as a real estate play.
What about the belligerent, preening Donald Trump? I find him genuinely entertaining, but if you set aside the properties that other developers attached Trump’s name to, it’s startling how little ground the man has broken since 1995. I count a few golf courses, a tall building in Chicago and an aesthetically unappealing collection of low-slung condo projects on Manhattan’s west side. Next to builders (and fellow Forbes 400 members) like Steven Roth or Mortimer Zuckerman, both of whom are respectfully deferential to their lieutenants, Trump is a footnote.
I don’t mean to say that every blowhard will hit the brick wall, or that conciliators will never create unreasonable strategies. But nobody has absolute power unless he or she is in a single-player game. If you want to force people to do things they don’t believe in, I hope you’re ready to pay what my former colleagues at McKinsey used to call the “asshole tax.” That’s the premium that some really arrogant CEOs or team leaders had to shell out to get people to put up with their nonsense.
How do things get done at your place? Mandates and direct orders from HQ? Kabuki theater meetings where the highest-ranking official makes the call? Or is your organization thriving under the guidance of leaders who listen, learn and look to others for good ideas and support?
Send me your favorite examples of “weak” bosses who are getting a lot done without much credit, as well as “strong” bosses who aren’t moving the needle much. I’ll post short profiles with your insights here at Forbes.com.
By the way, as for the mighty Steve Jobs, he was neither the absolute dictator nor the infallible genius that many remember him being. First of all, he failed frequently (with the Apple III, the Lisa computer, NeXT, Apple TV, MobileMe, the collapse of its U.S. manufacturing base and poor working conditions for Apple contract workers in Asia). And though he was certainly the public face of Apple, he relied heavily on dozens upon dozens of colleagues, from Steve Wozniak to designer Jonathan Ive to current CEO Tim Cook.
