How to Read Fortune's "Best Advice"

Jack Flack is a complete sucker for Fortune's "The Best Advice I Ever Got" feature.

Seriously. Who would not want to know the best advice accomplished business biggies like Michael Bloomberg or Sam Palmisano ever got? And who wouldn't want to know what odder characters like Nelson Peltz or Eddie Lampert consider the ultimate piece of wisdom?

Even so, no good flack can resist speculating on the spin motive behind each business leader's stated choice of guidance. After all, by revealing to Fortune the most important counsel you've ever received, aren't you telling the world something deep about yourself?

Of course you are, and so you better give some thought to the spin implications. The current iteration reveals six traditional archetypes of spin found in Best Advice.

1. Toe the company line.

   That happens when the reporter's request for an advice-nugget is forwarded to the boss, who then says, "Sure, draft something up for me to look at." Faced with that fun task, the dutiful flacks then try to dress up one or more of the company's predictable "core messages" as something a human being might actually say.

   How else can you explain Ford's notoriously thoughtful Alan Mulally revealing the radical notion that your future actions should be focused on the customer? He concludes with an example.

   Ecoboost, our new turbo-charging direct-injection engine technology that significantly increases fuel economy and driving performance while reducing CO₂, is being introduced across our product lineup beginning next year.

   Super. But doesn't that sound suspiciously like a company talking point from the C.E.O.'s letter to shareholders or annual meeting remarks? Or even a standard company press release?

   Implied message: "It's about the company. You're not going to get anything that's actually from me."

2. Advocate/defend your strategy.

   For instance, Andrea Guerra tells us we have no reason to worry that his Luxottica has too much of its working capital tied up in an aggressive expansion into emerging markets, and Joanna Shields assures us that any money she left on the table in selling Bebo to AOL was done do so on purpose.

3. Send a personal message.

   If you've got an important message to send to an individual, what could give it more importance than sending it publicly via Fortune's Best Advice?

   Leonard Lauder makes it clear to an anonymous power-player that he still regrets writing an ugly letter, while GE Enterprise Solutions' Charlene Begley polishes up a nice, shiny apple by pointing out how smart she thinks her boss is.

4. Reveal a pulse.

   Business bosses often use Best Advice to demonstrate that a real person — maybe even a deep or caring one — exists underneath the public personae.

   Larry Page, for instance, confirms that it was sheer luck that now gives him dominant control over how most humans get their information, and Craig Newmark assures us that some engineers can be darn funny.

   Meanwhile, Indra Nooyi sends a clear signal to those insiders who think she's taking the fun out of Pepsi, urging them to "assume positive intent" the way she does.

   Sometimes the stories reveal more human being than probably intended. Eddy Lampert admiringly recalls his father drilling him with football as a kid, an anecdote that seems to explain a lot more about Lampert than just his investment philosophy.

5. Indirectly define what you are.

   Pete Peterson confirms his heavyweight status by sharing his personal connection with a heavyweight from a prior generation. Implied message: "Most great masters have sat at the feet of other great masters."

   Nelson Peltz, on the other hand, demonstrates the flinty single-mindedness that has made him such a beloved figure everywhere he goes. Implied message: "Money, money, money...."

6. Indirectly define what you're not.

   Bob Iger let's us know he's not a one-dimensional suit, having grown up pondering Shakespeare.

   Michael Bloomberg cautions against speaking before thinking, implying that his plodding oratory is quite intentional.

   Mark Hurd says that style without substance is disastrous. Implied message: "I'm not Carly Fiorina!"

So, after probing the potential spin motivations of the current batch of Best Advice, what is Jack Flack's favorite response?

Oddly enough, the most telling advice seems to be about not putting too much value on advice that you're actually told, as Sam Palmisano says:

"Some of the best advice I ever received was unspoken."

Implied message: "Pay attention, and stop looking for sound-bite solutions in business magazines."