The Story of Rock and Sponge

I once wrote a story about two coworkers named Rock and Sponge. Only one of them made it to the executive suite.

Rock was a hard, seasoned pro. He threw his weight into every problem and bulldozed through people to make it happen his way. He rarely asked questions, he believed he already had the answers. Suggestions bounced off him like a brick off cement. Eventually people stopped offering their opinion and just went about their own business around him.

Sponge worked differently. She put herself in others' hands to learn from them, helped with all sorts of jobs, and built trust along the way. She listened like she had ten thousand little ears. She absorbed what she needed and squeezed away what she didn't, generous with her ideas and connections.

After a while, people realized they could hand Sponge any mess and she'd clean it up. She was surrounded by people willing to help her get the job done, even though she saw herself as working for them.

Within a couple of years, Sponge became an executive. Rock got lifted out of management and buried back in individual work.

I've watched this play out for real ever since, at Dell, at Bazaarvoice, in nearly every company I've touched. The executives who last aren't the ones who insist on being right in every room. They're the ones porous enough to absorb what the room already knows.

How porous are you, really, in your next hard meeting?