Remember the classic film, Harvey, with Jimmy Stewart in the role of Elwood P. Dowd? In it, Stewart, who’s about to get carted away to a mental institution for believing that his best friend is a 6-foot-4-inch white rabbit, talks about success. "Mother used to tell me that to get on in life one must be either very, very smart or very, very pleasant. I chose pleasant." Very, Very Smart or Very, Very Pleasant? So what is it today? Our data from working with hundreds of clients in a host of industries would suggest that "very, very smart" is most likely to get you the job—but that "very, very pleasant" may be the key to keeping it. That may or may not be a good thing—but it seems to be the reality. Example: Executive coaches across the country cite that their clients are most often in need of coaching on "people issues": communication, interpersonal

Carol Kallendorf, Founder

skills, and managing others. As they moved up the ranks, these skill sets were what their jobs "morphed" into. One of our "very, very smart" executive coaching clients, a top-flight manufacturing engineer turned plant director, turned his career around simply by learning to make eye contact and "connect" with people on the manufacturing floor.

Example: We’ve heard the same litany from countless organizations, "We hate to lose Joe or Mary—their technical skills are critical. But they’re not team players and they blow up every team they’re on. We can’t afford them any longer." An extremely talented quality engineer in a hard-driving tech company didn’t make the cut when his team kept mutineeing—and quitting in droves. His nickname was "Darth Vader." Another coaching client, a customer service manager, learned to find the balance point (somewhat unwillingly at first) and turned 100% attrition into 5%--and got a life in the process.

So what’s the balance point? Doubtless, companies are more in need of "very, very smart" people now than ever before. But without question, companies don’t grow and prosper without a lot of "very, very pleasant"—or at least very people-savvy—people.

Here are the key points from our experience:

• Being "very pleasant" or "very smart" isn’t an either/or proposition as Elwood P. Dowd in the movie Harvey saw it. They’re in dynamic tension and the interplay between those two poles will constantly change. You need to be acutely aware of what proportion of each you need in any role or any organization.

• While monitoring the changing dynamic between "pleasant" and "smart" you have to work within narrow tolerances of both. In other words, it won’t work to be "pleasant" one day and "smart" the next. People look for consistency in their bosses, their peers, and their employees.

• Know your own values and your own value. What is your highest and best contribution where you are? Can you live with that? Then do it.

• Understand the political lay of the land and the requirements of the job. We’ve had clients who hated socializing but willingly took on jobs with heavy doses of it. Some let those social demands suck the life out of them or they failed. Others got creative about how they could do the necessary entertaining without having it drain them.

Elwood P. Dowd made his choices and you’ll have to make yours. But if Elwood had exercised his "smart" muscle as well as his "pleasant" one, everyone might not have wanted to cart him off to the luny farm. But, on the other hand, then we wouldn’t have a film classic and a lot of people wouldn’t have learned how to see giant white rabbits.