Be Brilliant

Facet 3 Expertise

Have you ever walked into a room, looked around and then thought, ‘Oh God, I'm not dressed right', ‘I don't fit in', ‘Ground, swallow me up now because I just don't belong here', or even ‘How will I compete with that?'

That's exactly how Stephen Scheeler felt on his first day at Facebook as the CEO for Australia and New Zealand. He was surrounded by people who were, on average, 20 years younger than him, including founder Mark Zuckerberg. There were also some very wealthy people around him who had been there since the start of the company and were seen as cultural icons — the pillars of the brand, he told me during an interview in March 2019. He explained further, ‘These people had a certain aura about them. There was this virtuous circle of great people coming in who just became even greater'.

Somehow, he had to work out how to add even more value to the company and in a way that he would be respected with these people who were now his peers and team. As he shared, ‘You can't fall back on your resume or “kids, I'm going to tell you how it is” — this was not going to work'.

So instead, Stephen's strategy was to turn everyone around him into his teachers. He started off with honesty, telling the team, ‘I really don't care if we succeed or fail and I don't care if I get fired. I'm not clinging to this job. I can get another. What I care about is you and you being successful'. He encouraged his team to move from being listeners, and sometimes unwilling ones, into ...