Cisco CEO explains why he thinks it's 'stupid' to interview internal candidates for a promotion
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- Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said you should treat "every day" like a job interview.
- It's why he grows frustrated when he has to interview internal candidates for promotions.
- Robbins also has advice for those who would like to take his job one day.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins says he hates interviewing internal candidates for promotions.
"I think when we have two or three internal candidates for a promotion, the whole interview process is stupid," Robbins said during a recent interview on TBPN. "What are we going to learn about them when we sit down in a room for 30 minutes and ask them questions when we can watch them work?"
This frustration, Robbins said, translates into his belief that "every day you're working is an interview for your next job."
Robbins, who started at Cisco in 1997 as an account manager, said it's also not enough to simply strive to climb higher and higher on the corporate ladder.
"You also have to have people who care about making sure their peers are successful as well," he said. "The person who is solely focused on getting to the top as an individual, it's probably not going to happen for them."
Robbins' advice for advancing your career.
There's a simple exercise, Robbins said, that people should use when envisioning their promotion.
"If your peer group would look at your promotion announcement and go, 'that makes perfect sense,' then you've done your job, right?" he said. "And if you can't look in the mirror and say, 'OK, those people, would they be happy, would they believe it's the right decision?' And if they wouldn't, you're probably not quite where you ought to be."
When it comes to those gunning for the C-Suite, or maybe even his job, Robbins said you "can't underestimate" the value of EQ.
"The people who are wildly successful have this really incredible combination — in our industry — understand the technology, have high EQ, and really care about the mission of the team," he said.
As for himself, Robbins said he's always had a way to compartmentalize things he can't control. It's why he said he's nothing that is keeping him awake at night.
"Look, I've gone home where I've had a really bad day, and I look at my wife, and say, 'You want to hear the good news? I wasn't diagnosed with cancer today,'" he said. "And somebody was, and I wasn't. So if my worst day, if I'm not being diagnosed with cancer or some sort of terminal illness, tomorrow I'll get up and fight another fight. You just gotta have perspective."