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Excerpts from Cracking the Corporate Code

When David Hinds became a senior vice president and managing director, it was a significant promotion, but at first he did not realize how significant. "When my boss delivered my first bonus check, he came in, put his arms around me, and said, 'Welcome to the club.' His words were interesting in that there was a performance dimension associated with it, but there was also something else I couldn't quite figure out. The check itself was a further shock. It was vastly larger than any I had received in the past. It was one-third of my annual salary. When I opened it, I said, 'Excuse me?' This was real big money.

"At that moment I began to be consciously aware that there were other things in the mix here, that I was entering into a different realm within the company I was completely and totally unaware of. No one was coming in to say, 'Oh, by the way, here is the set of opportunities in front of you.' People were not going to be as straightforward as that. If you figured it out, you figured it out. It was almost like a secret. That is probably the best way to describe it."

Hinds took a long time to pick up the message, just as he was slow to recognize hatred defined by skin color. Once he decoded the message-or was hit over the head with it-he pushed back with strength and great confidence. He concentrated on work and built a strong reputation for excellent results. "I happened to be sitting at a meeting, and my boss said something about the partners meeting. I said to myself, partner's meeting? Here is something else new. After the meeting I asked him to explain. There was another realm of compensation, a higher echelon. It was very quiet, and few people really knew about this structure. I told myself, 'This is crazy" Here I am trying to do the best I can, and there is another level of recognition that is a secret.' I got as much information as I could and then had a conversation with the president. Soon I became a partner."