Being a CEO is the most significant responsibility in an organization. Though boards are hierarchically on top of the CEOs, however, because of external and internal visibility, impact & complexity integral in CEO’s responsibility, makes it significant. Let me explain.
For the internal & external world, CEOs are the face of the organization. Besides, being answerable to the board they are expected to meet the opposing expectations of 3 powerful, large, and diverse forces, i.e., customers, employees, and investors.
While boards expect CEOs to deliver profitable growth, customers demand ‘fulfillment’ in everything they pay for and managers expect entire spectrum from inspiration, direction and employees expect fairness, inspiration, open culture, good pay, great benefits, comfortable workplace & career growth etc. These expectations put CEOs in the middle of high intensity tug-of-war and expect them to balance the hugely opposing forces on either side without getting torn! I am not implying boards don’t care about customers or employees, but the executing position of CEOs makes their position far more challenging because they are in the arena.
All goes well if they are successful, but if things turn southward, CEOs end up with bad name and reputation. No matter what really caused the failure, difficult market, team capability, impatient boards or not enough free hand, it leaves almost a permanent scar on CEOs & could cost a lifetime to repair the damaged perception. Thus, CEOs are also to safeguard their image at stake. That looks like a lot on the plate for CEOs.
Of course, CEOs go through an arduous journey, the rigor & hardship of it prepares CEOs rather well to shoulder this challenging responsibility. Be aware that this journey is grueling, highly competitive & only one comes out winner amongst so many odds only by performing.
The outcome of this arduous journey is two-fold, on one hand, leaders master the art of war & develop their own uniquely crafted quiver but on the other hand, it sets-in some deep-rooted convictions, beliefs and ways of being within the leaders which influences how they operate, what drives their behaviors & what prompts them to act. Not all these behaviors could come in handy and some of them could come in their way for further growth as leaders. Because of repetitive application these habits have become their second nature which might require tuning once you have become leaders. Most leaders don’t notice them because at the top nobody points it to them.
Let me highlight 3 such crucial behaviors which if they could pay attention to could pave their way for further growth as a leader. If they could work on them, they could stop them from becoming the reasons for their stagnation or struggles.
- While it is arguably true since the CEO has indeed succeeded in the grueling journey and winning the race against other competing candidates, this experience etches in them a deep sense of belief that “I am the best executive around”. This is not wrong but operating in this paradigm as a CEO has some damaging impact.
Since CEOs move up solving operational issues, due to inertia there is a tendency to continue to operate to satisfy personal hunger to perform at their best and grow. There is a natural tendency to be involved in operational topics & decisions to demonstrate personal engagement, to add value, wanting to get it right without organization wasting time and moreover, it is their comfort zone. Continuing to operate with this paradigm (or I would call, blind spot), their behaviors & actions result in many severe downsides. Most significant downside being that ‘development of others’ (esp. next line of command) is impacted & has a cascading effect throughout the chain of command and across the organization.
Such behaviors influence workplace practices, culture, relationships amongst peers and bosses, leadership perception, credibility & trust, and many other practices & beliefs. In no time whole organization acquires that culture. Since CEOs take charge, others though wanting to develop but due to cultural aspects stay on back-foot. Many in the thing of wanting to please the boss, keep pushing most decisions upwards. Consequently, CEOs’ confidence in the next line remains low, managers do not show signs of development, CEOs continue to operate without many delegations & continues to spend time on operational topics at the cost of topics of strategic importance to future-proof their business.
One crucial & instant switch in behavior required as soon as one becomes the CEO is to immediately change the focus to “development of others”.
2. As CEOs lead the pack to carry out their daily business, one of the key limiting factors they point, comes in their way is ‘people capability’. While working on this challenge, one noteworthy pattern (or a blind spot) is that they talk about development of their people but not often about themselves. In almost all my conversations with CEOs, they want to see the development (change) in the people. It’s very rarely that they express their own development. In other words, this behavior is expression of a belief that “everybody else need to develop”. Acting on this paradigm could be stagnating for CEOs if they stop investing in further learning or developing themselves. (Read a more detailed blog on this topic)
3. ‘Ignoring the signs of change’. No matter what business you are in, on one side you will find yourself firmly grounded in the ‘current’ times (paradigms / practices / products etc. to that helps you achieve current topline & bottom line goals) & on the other side you will experience glimpses of future (trends, products, or signs etc. that could secure future growth, expansion & survival) which is trying to draw your attention from time to time. These signs are when your customer is asking you for product or service upgrade that you feel its ahead of times or one of your customer defects to a competitor who is solving your customer problem in a different way. CEOs often do not act on the cues which are drawing their attention towards future trends. Despite multiple knocks on their doors, leaders shy away from investing some energy, thought, resources towards the ‘change trends’ because they are quite consumed to maintain course and stability in current business. Gradually these undercurrents of change sweep you by surprise. Leaders often do not react until its late and then they become industry laggards, lost the first mover advantage and busy chasing or playing a catch-up game in the market.
In order to continue their unhindered growth, CEOs could inculcate a habit of reflecting on their behavior from time to time to find such blind spots & work on them. It might be difficult for them to do it on their own for which they can leverage one of their confidant, coach or mentors to do the same. Nevertheless, it is more imperative than ever considering the fast-paced disruptive & unforgiving trends in the business world.
