The New CEO in You! by Russell Newman

Author:Russell Newman [Newman, Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business Strategy
ISBN: 9780987490612
Publisher: Duet Consulting
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Booz Allen Hamilton, in their “CEO Succession 2005 Study”, found that in 2005 the chief executive succession rate set another record – more than one in seven of the world’s largest 2,500 companies experienced a change in executive leadership. In comparison, this figure was just one in eleven in 1995. Such trends must tell us something.

A survey of 208 Fortune 1000 CEOs, highlighted in the book Leaderships Secrets of the World’s Most Successful CEOs (Eric Yaverbaum, 2004), revealed that:

■ 84 per cent considered themselves to be “voracious readers” as children

■ only 4 per cent describe themselves as being very popular in school, with most (59 per cent) saying they were unpopular

■ 43 per cent admit to being motivated by fear, with 22 per cent motivated by power and only 7 per cent by money.

What is important here to me is the evidence supporting my own consultancy experience – that most CEOs are likely to be relatively introverted (as distinct from extroverted). From Duet’s sample of over 4,000 profiles, and the executive coaching and other processes we have engaged in with them over 20 years, it is the implications of this phenomenon that are worth exploring. For instance:

■ influence – they are not used to bothering to be influential

■ operational and finance people are invariably introverts, and they are the ones most likely to be seen as the best CEO material by their boards

■ stakeholder relations – most are unclear about who, in order of importance, are their key stakeholders

■ communication – it’s not high on the agenda of introverts or the “unpopular”

■ all the other attributes sought by followers are more likely to come from “people people”!

I note too, for your information and consideration, that while searching for some new information regarding the trends affecting CEOs in the near future, I came across some research by Benjamin Hermalin of Berkeley University titled “Trends in Corporate Governance”. He found that a trend toward greater board diligence will lead, sometimes through subtle or indirect mechanisms, to trends toward more external candidates becoming CEO, shorter tenures for CEOs, more effortless perquisite consumption by CEOs (even though such behavior is not directly monitored), and greater CEO compensation. An additional prediction is that, under plausible conditions, externally hired CEOs should have shorter tenures, on average, than internally hired CEOs.

My interpretation of such insights is that you CEOs have boards that think about things laterally just as little as your fellow CEOs!

There is much research and much written in recent years that raise concerns about a disproportionate percentage of “old school tie” (“Ivy League”) appointments to Top 100 (500) boards and, commensurate with that, their CEOs. I have no problem with that if they are the right people for the role and the times. The continuing challenge offered by this book is that maybe it’s time for CEOs and their boards too to be looking outside of tradition and convention.

So what’s my point? It must be very challenging to look outside the “square” when, by design,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.