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January 27 - January 29, 2021
“People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed.”
“Well, I can’t be certain, but it seems to me that you may be more interested in protecting your career status than you are in making sure your company achieves results.”
“Because once a person’s ego is initially satisfied, they turn their efforts toward enjoying the fruits of their new status. They work less hours. They worry less about the company’s performance than they do about their own level of comfort and status.”
“Wanting to be popular with your direct reports instead of holding them accountable.”
It’s one thing to hold someone accountable for something and come back the next day and deal with him. It’s another to fire him and never have to talk to him again.”
“It’s the temptation to choose certainty over clarity. Some executives fear being wrong so much that they wait until they’re absolutely certain about something before they make a decision. That makes it impossible to hold people accountable.”
“Discord. Disagreement. Conflict. Any of those will do. The point is, it’s natural for human beings to want harmony.” He paused. “But harmony is like cancer to good decision making.”
Leaders fail because they are unwilling to put their temptations on the table for others to see.
Because too many of them mistakenly believe they can avoid it and still find a way to succeed. What they are doing is trading short-term pain (the struggle) for long-term pain (failure).
The key is to embrace the self-examination that reveals the temptations and to keep them in the open where they can be addressed.
Like so much of life, it is a messy, constant, and unavoidable process, but one that great leaders welcome.
Temptation 1 The most important principle that an executive must embrace is a desire to produce results. As obvious as this sounds, it is not universally practiced by the highest-ranking executives in many companies. Many CEOs put something ahead of results on their list of priorities, and it represents the most dangerous of all the temptations: the desire to protect the status of their careers.
This occurs because their real purpose in life has always been personal gain.
This causes CEOs to make decisions that protect their ego or reputation or, worse yet, to avoid making decisions that might damage them. They reward people who contribute to their ego, instead of those who contribute to the results of the company.
Simple advice for CEOs: make results the most important measure of personal success, or step down from the job. The future of the company you lead is too important for customers, employees, and stockholders to hold it hostage to your ego.
Temptation 2 Even CEOs who resist the temptation to overfocus on protecting their status sometimes fail. Why? Because they do not hold their direct reports accountable for delivering on the commitments that drive results. This happens because they succumb to a different temptation: the desire to be popular.
Ironically, those same CEOs will not hesitate to ultimately fire a direct report when his or her performance problem becomes too costly, thereby severing the relationship completely. But they often fail to provide constructive or negative feedback along the way.
Simple advice for CEOs: work for the long-term respect of your direct reports, not for their affection. Don’t view them as a support group, but as key employees who must deliver on their commitments if the company is to produce predictable results. And remember, your people aren’t going to like you anyway if they ultimately fail.
Temptation 3 Even CEOs who resist the temptation to protect their status and to be popular with their direct reports sometimes fail. Why? Because even if they are willing to hold their direct reports accountable, they are often reluctant to do so because they don’t think it’s fair. That’s because they haven’t made it clear what those direct reports are accountable for doing. Why don’t they make these things clear? Because they give in to yet another temptation: the need to make “correct” decisions, to achieve certainty.
Simple advice for CEOs: make clarity more important than accuracy. Remember that your people will learn more if you take decisive action than if you always wait for more information. And if the decisions you make in the spirit of creating clarity turn out to be wrong when more information becomes available, change plans and explain why. It is your job to risk being wrong. The only real cost to you of being wrong is loss of pride. The cost to your company of not taking the risk of being wrong is paralysis.
Temptation 4 Even CEOs who resist the temptation to protect their status, to be popular with their direct reports, and to make correct decisions sometimes fail because they don’t feel comfortable with the decisions they make. That’s because they haven’t benefited from the best sources of information that are always available to them: their direct reports. Why not? Because they give in to the next temptation: the desire for harmony.
Simple advice for CEOs: tolerate discord. Encourage your direct reports to air their ideological differences, and with passion. Tumultuous meetings are often signs of progress. Tame ones are often signs of leaving important issues off the table. Guard against personal attacks, but not to the point of stifling important interchanges of ideas.
Temptation 5 Even CEOs who resist the temptation to protect their status, to be popular with their direct reports, to make correct decisions, and to create harmony sometimes fail. Why? Because even though they are willing to cultivate productive conflict, their people may not be willing to do so. Why not? Because the CEO gives in to the final temptation: the desire for invulnerability.
No matter how much these CEOs encourage productive conflict, they do not achieve it because it doesn’t feel safe to their people, who see them as unwilling to enter the fray. As a result, those reports position themselves around the inferred opinion of the CEO and conflict with one another only when it is politically expedient.
Simple advice for CEOs: actively encourage your people to challenge your ideas. Trust them with your reputation and your ego. As a CEO, this is the greatest level of trust that you can give. They will return it with respect and honesty, and with a desire to be vulnerable among their peers.
On a professional level, organizational success and personal-professional success are one and the same.
CEOs must ultimately judge their personal-professional success by the results on the bottom line. This is not to suggest that other “human” factors are not important, or even most important on a spiritual and emotional level. However, only the CEO is ultimately responsible for the results of the company, and this must be his or her final measure.
The most successful CEOs focus almost exclusively on their current jobs.
Finally, worrying about how much public recognition one receives is a possible sign of susceptibility to the first Temptation. Although human nature dictates that we hope for a just share of acknowledgment, it is a dangerous part of human nature to entertain. Certainly, at one time or another all CEOs have experienced short shrift when it comes to public recognition. Those who eventually get that recognition are the CEOs who aren’t distracted by the occasional slighting that an unscientific press is sure to give. Interestingly enough, they experience a low degree of satisfaction from such
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The slightest reluctance to hold someone accountable for their behaviors and results can cause an avalanche of negative reaction from others who perceive even the slightest hint of unfairness or favoritism.
All executives need people they can vent to about challenges they face in the organization (for example, people they are frustrated with), but CEOs must resist the desire to use direct reports for this service.
Unable to realize that their success as an executive usually has less to do with intellectual skills than it does with personal and behavioral discipline, they spend too much time debating the finer points of decision making.
If there is one person in an organization who cannot afford to be overly precise, it is the CEO.
Productive executive staff meetings should be exhausting inasmuch as they are passionate, critical discussions.
When executives do get into an issue, CEOs often squelch any potential for passion by making peace. This sends a message that pleasant, agreeable meetings are preferred by the CEO. After a few pleasant meetings, boredom sets in and executives start lamenting the real work that they could be doing.
Great CEOs don’t lose face in the slightest when they are wrong, because they know who they are, they know why they are the CEO, and they realize that the organization’s results, not the appearance of being smart, are their ultimate measure of success.
Overcoming this temptation requires a degree of fear and pain that many CEOs are unwilling to tolerate.
