Mark Price: ‘Naked ambition is naked bad taste’

I clearly remember being told, when I started in business 30 years ago, that cream would rise to the top. The subtext was clear – work hard, do the right things, know your place and, if you have the ability, you will rise to the position you deserve. There was order. Sir or surnames were the greetings of choice and school effortlessly blended into work. The worldwide web was yet to be commercialised and there was a divide between work and home.

Shows about business such as The Apprentice were a rarity and certainly not prime-time TV. A veil of mystery shrouded boardrooms and business etiquette. But all of this has changed – for better or for worse – and a new set of manners for a modern, fast-moving world needs to be considered.

Today, there’s no doubt that there is more overt ambition in the workplace than was previously the case. But how to exercise ambition with good grace? With its instant access to a well-paid job or, more recently, an investment of £250,000, The Apprentice makes some people believe they can bludgeon their way to the top.

That, coupled with an education policy that encouraged every breathing 18 year old to go to university, and we now have in this country an American-dream culture, a heady cocktail of aspiration, naked ambition and a sense of entitlement. I may be stating the obvious here, but there are only one hundred FTSE 100 companies! And yet every year our business schools and universities produce thousands of candidates desperate for the top jobs.

Be modest in success

Let’s start with Lord Sugar’s testosterone-pumped apprentices. They give their teams boorish names such as Empire, Velocity, Phoenix and Sterling, all the while bragging to camera, “I’m like a shark, right at the top of the food chain,” or “I truly am the reflection of perfection,” and, “They call me the Blonde Assassin,” believing it is acceptable to trample their colleagues at any cost.

If you must have a nickname, a self-deprecating one is best. When I ran the High Wycombe branch of John Lewis, the splendid carpet department manager gave himself the nickname, underlay. Whenever he entered the dining room, everyone called out “underlay underlay”, like a surreal Mexican chant! It made people smile – everyone liked David.

This is the kind of thing the Mr Win types in The Apprentice do not understand. Naked ambition is naked bad taste. Can you imagine people calling out, “Blonde Assassin” in the same way? The Apprentice has stoked the fire of yob culture in the office. It is all about telling, not listening.

I was once advised to ask for five pieces of information for every one you give. This wonderful guidance forces you to take an interest in the views of others and avoid the breathtaking arrogance of those who assume they have all the answers. These contestants are not role models for business or, indeed, good manners in the workplace. They promote a look-at-me culture, fuelled by an age in which celebrities are worshipped. I am pleased to say, this approach rarely works. Lord Sugar worked hard all his life for his fortune. His apprentices appear to think they need put out only 12 episodes of effort. It is no surprise that only a few of the winners work for him for long.

We all know a person who does little work in a group, but then insists on presenting. They never think of acknowledging or thanking the team, a cornerstone of good manners in business. They go above the boss’s head to promote their credentials and, worst of all, knowingly allow a colleague to fail to feather their own nest. You meet them at parties looking for a more important person to talk to. They talk about their life’s work and ambitions at a business dinner, but fail to ask you even the most basic of questions. It really is all about them. They wouldn’t have the self-confidence to admit a mistake or say sorry, both of which are the height of good manners.

If you are fabulously successful, work colleagues do not want to hear about your yacht or ski chalet. A colleague made the fatal mistake of explaining he had travelled to a sporting event by helicopter. At every subsequent meeting the poor chap was teased mercilessly whenever a helicopter flew past with jokes about whether his pick-up was early. Good manners require you not to flaunt your worldly wealth.

If asked what car you drive simply say, “a green one”. Whenever anyone asks me about my position, I reply: “Standing up!” It is perfectly acceptable to burst the bombastic bubble of those self-aggrandisers. At a recent party, a retail multimillionaire was boasting about his garden, saying it took almost half a day to mow. I couldn’t help but quip that I used to have an unreliable old mower too!

Realistic expectations

Further fuel on this bonfire of self-promoted vanity is the notion that hard work can get anyone to the top. It doesn’t matter how hard I train, I couldn’t beat Usain Bolt in the 100 metres. I simply don’t have the physiology or DNA. The whole point of working hard is to be the best you can be. The flames of this American dream have been fanned by a staggering increase in the number of university graduates. And what’s the result? False hope and, ultimately, disappointment for the majority, followed by a feeling of resentment, which undermines the status quo. Few think they can play centre-forward for England so they don’t begrudge the player his fortunes, and yet many stare up the business chain thinking: “I could do that.” The best route to business progression is doing your job consistently well, the opposite to the Snakes and Ladders antics seen on The Apprentice.

The humble approach

Obviously, I’m not saying you shouldn’t be ambitious and I’m not saying you needn’t work hard: hard work is good and so is ambition. But my advice is to refrain from telling everyone you plan to be managing director. Just calmly set out your aspirations, acknowledging strengths and weaknesses that need to be addressed, then get your head down and do your job to the best of your ability.

Be sensible in your time horizons. Telling the boss you intend to get his job in double-quick time is poor form. And remember, you are not competing against your colleague, but against yourself. Business is and always was about the team and leaders can lead only because they are liked and respected by the people they manage. A management style that relies on generating a sense of fear is not leadership, it is autocracy. Your friends wouldn’t wear it so why should your colleagues?

In Waitrose, which is part of the John Lewis Partnership, all 50,000 employees are co-owners. The founder of the Partnership, John Spedan Lewis, believed that if his employees shared in the profits; were given information on how their company was doing and the power to influence its direction, they would give more.

As a consequence customers would feel valued and commercial success would follow in a virtuous circle. So in Waitrose and John Lewis we are all fellow owners and as such respect each other whatever our positions. Mistakes are seen as a way of learning and gaining experience, not hanging offences.

This approach has led Waitrose and John Lewis to become two of the most loved brands in Britain because the Partnership has been able to accept when things have gone wrong, has not defended mistakes and has then moved heaven and Earth to put them right. If this humble approach of being heroic in recovery works for a whole business, it certainly should work for an individual.