MONDAY PROFILE

Coleman knows how to play the corporate game and win

By L. Eric Elle
staff writer
  Harvey Coleman has finally become a "game player."
  After 11 years with IBM, he left, frustrated that his career hadn't moved as quickly as he expected, and disgusted because he wasn't certain why he hadn't.
  Since then he has concluded that his inability to play the corporate game was responsible.
  "I was one of those perception problems at IBM," said Coleman who now perceives corporate life as a game board and himself as one of the many players seeking to win it.
  In 1979, two years after leaving IBM, he founded Coleman Management Consultants Inc. to sell his philosophy about corporate life.
  "Succeeding in corporate America is like succeeding or winning in any competitive game," the CMC literature explains.
  The catch, it goes on to say, is that "in business one set of rules is written and obvious, the other is unwritten and vague."
  According to Coleman, companies tell their employees that quality performance is required.  While performance is crucial and may lead to pay raises, it only accounts for 10 percent of what is required for professional advancement.
  Image - how one dresses, how well one fits in - accounts for 30 percent.  Exposure - interacting socially with one's supervisors, volunteering for special assignments - accounts for the other 60 percent.
  There is an "invisible ceiling," Coleman says, that exists to keep out those who are not aware of the unwritten rules.
  

  He recalls from his days at IBM that "I couldn't speak the language, nor was I being taught the language.'
  When Coleman says this, he seems more excited at having made the discovery than bitter about his experiences at IBM.  This is probably because he didn't do as badly at IBM as his statements might suggest.
  When he left he was the personnel manager of the General Systems headquarters, and according to a former co-worker, his career at IBM was impressive.
  Nonetheless, Coleman has devised a solution for employees who experience the frustrations he felt while at IBM.
  Coleman says companies should teach people the language and share the unwritten rules of the game so that everyone can compete equally and contribute more fully to the organization.
  Coleman's ideas have had many buyers.  CMC has advised employees at American Telephone & Telegraph Co., Owens- Corning Fiberglass Corp., and the Georgia Power Co.
  The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce was so impressed, it named Coleman the 1986 Small Businessman of the Year.
  Coleman has defined seven levels in the corporate structure, each with its distinct language and culture.
  Style of dress, choice of recreational activities, civic involvement and choice of neighborhood and car are all important he says.  And he has followed his own advice.
  He lives in Dunwoody, drives a Cadillac, belongs to the Ashford Club, plays tennis and golf, and has recently taken sailing lessons and is enhancing his appreciation of classical music.
 HARVEY COLEMAN
'Succeeding in corporate America is like...winning in any competitive game.'

    "I'll change the color of my suits, where I live, the activities that I have my fun in," Coleman said. "Of course I would not change anything that is my established moral code."
  He and his wife Paquita have been married 24 years and have three children.
  His civic involvement includes presidency of the Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, membership on the Neighborhood Justice Center board and a campaign chairman for the United Negro College Fund.
  But even those gestures are not enough to place one in the front of the line of corporate succession.
  Moving up, says Coleman, requires tradeoffs, such as accepting an assignment in a far flung city, learning to play tennis or making new friends.
  Lenore Stephens, a procurement technical supports coordinator for Georgia Power attended a Coleman seminar last June.
  "I found it very helpful personally as well as professionally," she said. "It caused me to rethink my career goals."
  Ms. Stephens' new outlook influenced her decision to shed her Afro hairstyle in favor of a more conservative cut. "In a corporate setting wearing an Afro may not be appropriate," she said.
  Emerson Ross, the director of corporate affirmative action at Owens-Corning,

hired Coleman to devise in-house training programs for workers at the company.
  Part of what makes Coleman's theories so attractive to managers like Ross is that Coleman doesn't blame racism or sexism for the problems of women and minorities in business.
  Coleman asserts that the primary fault of corporations is not discrimination but inadequate grooming of their employees.
  "I can sell it on the basis of, 'This is what you should be doing for everybody and this is  what your manager should be doing for you,' " Ross said of the Coleman formula.
  Though Coleman's theories have special implications for women and minorities, and much of his work involves discussing those issues, he stresses that his suggestions for developing a winning
team and "growing people" are broadly relevant.
  A favorite anecdote of Coleman's is the story of how he chose to wear blue shirts during his early days at IBM.  "Big Blue's" dress code called for white shirts then.
  "You tell me you don't feel the color blue," his manager told him. "I can tell you that I feel it every time I see you, and you're telling me you don't want to be a part of us."
  "If you can't see your shirt as often as I do, you can't feel the color as intently.  Why are you dressing for yourself instead of for me?"
  "No one had ever explained it to me that way before," Coleman said, chuckling.
  "What I've found out in my seven years in this business is that the system doesn't oppress me," Coleman said. "I oppress myself in my choice of things to do."
 But there are women and minorities who feel
that Coleman's "choice  of things to do" is no choice at all.
  Some former seminar participants say Coleman advocates surrendering one's culture and imitating the white males who dominate the business community.  This is impossible, they assert, adding that furthermore, trying to fit in does not necessarily lead to advancement.
  John Fernandez, who is black, and a division manager for personnel services at AT&T, has debated these issues with Coleman on panels.
  In his book, "Racism and Sexism in Corporate Life," Fernandez interviewed 4,029 managers of both sexes and several races, and found that racial and sexual prejudices are powerful forces in the business community. "There is no way we're going to change (white managers') attitudes overnight," said Fernandez. "That's why after 20 years of affirmative action, we still have white males seeking out white males whom they feel comfortable with."
  But Coleman counters that the social structure will not change for him, so to be successful, he must change for it.
  Playing the game, is not a burden or a problem for him.  It is a challenge he relishes.
  "I want to send the signal out that I'm conservative, traditional and accept the values of the business community," he said.
  Coleman, who describes himself as a level 5 on his scale, says he intends to continue playing the fame, in the hope of ascending to level 6 or 7.
  "I've gotten to the point where change is not a sacrifice.  That to me is exciting," Coleman said. "It wasn't as much fun when I didn't know the rules."