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Have a broad background and adaptability? You win, says Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy.

The NYT has a great interview done by Adam Bryant with legendary Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy.  She and her management team have worked hard for many years to revitalize the company, succeeding in many areas against steep odds.

What stands out for me in this piece are two things.

First, she outs herself as a ‘pen tapper’ when irritated.  When you’re working with executives, it’s important to pay attention to the signs of irritation.  If they’re trying to get you to speed to the point, if they appear not to be listening, if, in Anne’s case, they start tapping their pen – pay attention.  Compress your pitch.  Get the key sentence out.

Do not drag them through the rest of the presentation just because you want to be heard.  If that’s the case, go see a therapist or talk to your dog during your evening walk.

Far too few of us spend time ‘reading’ the reactions of others in business.  One person I’ve worked with who is  brilliant at this is Rubicon Consulting CEO Nilofer Merchant.  An astute judge of character, she has a finely-honed ability to take an emotional intelligence reading at the same time she is untangling a complex multi-national business scenario.  And, as Mulcahy notes in the interview, “We also learned a lot about identifying failure quickly.”  CEOs like Merchant and Mulcahy are successful in part because they treat problem-solving like defusing a ticking time bomb.

Second, the man in the gray suit won’t work well in business today.  Structure?  It’s different than it was, and the rules keep changing.  Roles?  They morph to keep up with alterations provided by technology, culture, public sentiment (are you listening, AIG, Citi, and B of A?), and the economy.

Mulcahy’s take on the most important attributes she’s looking for in people?  “Adaptability and flexibility. One of the things that is mind-boggling right now is how much we have to change all the time. For anybody who’s into comfort and structure, it gets harder and harder to feel satisfied in the company.”

The individual who’s willing to roll up their sleeves and get dirty, try something new and risk failure, or innovate knowing it may change everything – they’re the new winners.    If you’re fluid with an ER-like penchant for using parallel inference to develop the right new answers to problems that might not have existed 10 minutes ago, you’re probably going to win.

For those who liked the old world of rigid, stratified, high-boundary hierarchy – sorry, game over.

Read the entire NYT interview with Mulcahy here.  I’m a fan.  Like Merchant, she’s a leader I’d follow anywhere.