The ideal CEO
What makes a good CEO? What makes a bad one? Refer back to our checklist in the very first posts. All of us have had experiences of working for CEOs who fall into both categories. We can instinctively judge which category a particular CEO belongs to. What subconscious or conscious criteria do we use to make these judgements? I believe that the main determinants of a successful CEO, apart from their business understanding and the business climate, are the following personal qualities:
1. An understanding, an acceptance and an active management of their positional and functional power within the organisation.
2. An understanding that they also have personal power, which they exercise more than their functional or positional power.
3. An understanding of themselves, an understanding of their weaknesses and strengths, and the ability to verbalise their weaknesses and strengths.
4. An awareness of their own behavioural impacts – how their behaviour impacts on others, particularly at lower levels.
5. They also need to be aware of what I call the “Queen of England” phenomenon, which is the way he or she writes letters or emails, arranges their office, the way he or she likes material presented, the way he or she interviews people in their office, etc.
Take note of the CEO’s office
Take note of whether their office is on the top floor of the building, or in the middle of the organisation? That tells you a lot about the CEO, whether they see themselves as the pinnacle – at the top – and hence whether positional power is very important to them. If they are located in the middle of the organisation, that means that they like to feel embedded within it. If they are to be embedded within it, do they have an office that is very open physically, or do they surround themselves with glass screens or partitions or officious, protective secretaries that lead to almost all people being prevented from seeing the CEO? Is the CEO “locked away” so that he or she is inaccessible?
Accessibility is the key
Their accessibility to all staff is very important in understanding how they relate to the organisation.
• When the CEO is seen on the floor, is it for negative reasons or positive reasons or both?
• Is the CEO seen as a Zeus-like god who destroys people or is he or she seen as someone who supports people?
• When the CEO is speaking with a staff member, do they sit formally behind their desk or do they sit at a couch in a very informal way?
• Do they always require appointments or can people just go and see them if possible?
The “Queen of England” phenomenon has to do with the way we always observe the way the CEO does things. We always look at what he or she does and says. So, their behaviour becomes a role model in the organisation in many different ways:
• If the CEO uses electronic mail for communication, the organisation will tend to use it.
• If the CEO uses a personal style of communicating, the organisation will tend to use that.
• If the CEO likes to deal with things in an indirect, way then most people will learn to deal with things in an indirect way.
• If the CEO is direct in their approach to dealing with people, then most people will feel that’s the way to do things.
The CEO has a tremendous impact on an organisation’s behaviour. The CEO more than anyone else determines the culture of an organisation, the way things are done, in other words. The CEO can be very positive in that way, as well as very negative.
‘Ritualistic’ power of the CEO
Do not underestimate the ‘ritualistic’ power of a CEO as well. When certain behaviours are exhibited by a CEO, they can be very powerful and can bind an organisation or break it apart. How many times have you seen a change in CEOs followed suddenly by offices being pulled down, desks and other furniture being thrown out, paintings being thrown out, plants being thrown out? New types of furniture are brought in, new pot plants, new paintings, new everything, to completely eradicate what was there before.
Yes, this is partly ego, but it is also the CEO saying “this is my unconscious”. What this means is that these actions are to do with the CEO’s intentions, what they are planning in terms of what drives him or her. For example, having ‘new this’ and ‘new that’ implies a ‘new broom’ is to be put through the organisation. Usually, once all the cosmetics are finished, the broom comes out in terms of people. This means that this CEO has strong positional power, but at the same time personal power in the sense of feeling that certain people need to be moved on in order to achieve results, to get things done. These moves can be negative or positive in terms of how they are perceived in the organisation. The point here is that, once a new CEO starts, he/she will strategically place and remove staff according to his/her need to achieve results.
‘Corporate memory’ of a CEO
The obvious question for you at this stage is whether you, as CEO or a senior executive, behave in appropriate ways?
If you can be honest, direct and open about your behaviour and what you would like to achieve, you give out a strong message of openness, honesty and directness to the organisation. Even if the openness, directness and honesty have some negative impact on some in the organisation, you will still be respected by most. However, if your approach is indirect, hidden, under-handed, quiet, or silent then this would have negative repercussions for the organisation, because these behaviours are always stored in what is known as ‘corporate memory’. Corporate memory is the accumulation of things we remember about what happened in the place. Corporate memory can have profound effects, even over the five or ten years that follow and even on future employees who have never even experienced the issue of behaviour in the past, because people talk in organisations and tell stories about what has happened.
These stories are like ‘war stories’ about “what we went through” and everything else that happened. Organisations are riddled with such stories. It is very important, then, that a CEO be very aware of possible ‘war stories’ that he or she could create as a result of any changes that are made – whether cosmetic, physical or human. Remember, though, that such consequences can be turned to your advantage.
A thoughtful CEO can create scenarios that will transmit very positive messages throughout the organisation, but more often than not, my experience is that this does not happen. Negative stories are almost always the norm, whether by thoughtlessness or a more basic lack of self- knowledge.
Lessons learned about CEOs
What are the lessons from this discussion for both CEOs and organisations?
The central message is that true effectiveness on the part of the CEO requires particularly deep insight into that individual’s own make-up, behaviour and thought processes.
Regrettably, my experience suggests that there are very few CEOs indeed, and very few senior executives generally, who possess such characteristics. All too often, technical skills or financial “number crunching” ability or “toughness” or good presence or marketing skills are seen as the marks of a successful CEO. Years of service or seniority often equate with perceptions of competence and effectiveness. CEO’s are often set up to fail – they are out of their depth.
The evidence in Australia and elsewhere to support this view is, I believe, quite overwhelming. Such CEOs eventually come unstuck. Regrettably, this may take some time and comes at considerable cost to the company, shareholders, and staff. But come unstuck they will – either because circumstances get away from them or because they suffer from hubris and believe their own propaganda and stop listening, watching, learning and growing, or because of their lack of understanding of their own positional power in the organisation. There have been many examples in recent Australian corporate history where this has occurred in both the private and public sectors. You can avoid these traps by combining a deeper understanding of the power issues associated with a CEO’s role, together with greater insights into your own behaviour as discussed throughout these posts.
