Becoming a leader: Is “killing your old self” a good idea?

Becoming a leader: Is “killing your old self” a good idea?

Earlier in his career, when John Donovan [the former CEO of AT&T Communications] was a partner at a big consulting firm, his CEO at the time introduced a new incentive system for how people would divide commissions based on their specific contributions to landing new business. The goal was to train a spotlight on individual accountability and thereby increase productivity. Instead, it created a system in which people spent an inordinate amount o…