NYT: “Imagining a World of No Annual Reviews” – interview with Carol Bartz, CEO Yahoo

Click here for the article of the New York Times, October 17, 2009.

This interview with Carol Bartz, chief executive of Yahoo, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.

….

Q. What should business schools teach more of, or less of?

A.
I think there ought to be some classes for people to get more
philosophical about who they are and what motivates them, and therefore
why they act like they act.

Some of the most fantastic training
I’ve had over the years is the tests and the feedback I’ve gotten on
what drives me as a person, and to sort of face up to it. What’s
important to me and therefore why would I make certain decisions? For
instance, I grew up dirt poor. I am constantly in fear of being poor.
I’m so far from being poor, it’s crazy, but I’m constantly in fear of
being poor. And I know that drives a lot.

Now you could say
the dark side of that is maybe that would drive me to make risky
decisions that I shouldn’t make. It actually drives me the other way.
It drives me to be more conservative, so I’ve had to teach myself to
get out of that conservative zone.

It also turns out that I’m
an introvert. You would not believe that, would you? And I know I am
because introverts have to refuel by being alone. Extroverts — Bill Clinton’s
a famous extrovert — have to go to a party. At the end of the day, he
comes home tired, and he wants to party. I come home. I suck my thumb
and don’t talk to me. I learned how to get down time. Even an hour by
myself feeds me.

What motivates you? What are you scared of?
Knowing that will help inform how you lead, how you make choices, how
you face the day. And I don’t think we do enough of that.

…