To be sure, a CEO is a special kind of animal. It takes a special combination of innate drive, incredible guts, business intelligence and savvy, and emotional intelligence. Of course, most CEOs will also come with specialized knowledge in either sales or human resources, the firm’s technology, or business strategic planning. They will post with skills in business acquisition, financial management, political acumen, and a variety of other skills some of which are unique to the business itself.
But they, like most of us, will also present with truly felt fears – and here are some of them. Every CEO fears …
No. 1: That They are Being Presented with Incomplete Information
Nobody likes to bring the boss bad news, especially if the CEO has an animated personality or is known as being extremely tough. To avoid being the bearers of bad information, subordinates and direct reports often spend hours upon hours couching, tweaking and watering down bad news to make it more palatable to the top dog.
Middle managers and VPs spend hours in meetings and on conference calls laboring over the order, content and messaging contained in PowerPoint decks to minimize the CEO’s angst derived from under-whelming factoids and sub-par data points.
In such fashion, data can become virtually meaningless or, worse, incomplete.
Don’t kid yourself, this type of message manipulation happens a lot in corporations and businesses of all sizes. Selective information sharing and group think are crippling practices that ultimately hurt every organization and its senior leaders.
Smart CEOs recognize this risk and the vulnerability they face with overly-sanitized information. The best solution to this problem is for the CEO and senior leadership to create a culture of transparency that spurs individuals to elevate bad news to the boss as quickly and completely as possible. Smart CEOs telegraph the message that bad news is inevitable and must come to them quickly and unvarnished.
No. 2: That as a consequence of incomplete information, or even complete information, they will make a bad decision
Usually, when a decision gets to the C-level of an organization, it’s a difficult decision that no one else in the organization can or is willing to make.
Ultimately, the decisions that reach the chief executive office are thorny. They’re the lesser of two evils where they’re striving to balance the most upside with the least downside. Cutting a baby in half is what CEOs do for a living.
Successfully neutralizing this CEO fear requires a combination of the best information available and the best advisers. The best top executives surround themselves with trusted counselors and experts both within and outside the organization, because the best decisions are generated by a diversity of perspectives.
Business executives rarely have the luxury of 100 percent of the necessary information to make every decision and need to rely on the expertise of their staff.
Within the U.S. military – a frequent business analog – successful leaders such as Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell have said that they’ll wait for 70 percent of the facts to become available, then factor in the recommendations of their advisers to help fill the information gap when making mission-critical decisions.
No. 3 – That they Will Look Foolish
Surprised? I know I was. But it is a fear of CEOs for the same reason that you fear it: No one wants to look foolish or incompetent. We tend to assume that once someone becomes a CEO they are thick-skinned, tough-minded individuals who are immune to such human foibles as worrying about the perception of others. We assume they have developed expert coping skills, but that’s rarely the case.
No matter how much of a maverick or iconoclast they might be, the perceptions and opinions of others matter to CEOs. It matters to all of us.
The reality is, that once a man or woman reaches the top spot in an organization they have nowhere to hide if things go wrong. Additionally, once in that top position, the stakes and risks are much higher. Many CEOs fear there’s little professional redemption if they fall from grace or look foolish. They believe that their credibility among key stakeholders such as shareholders, board members, customers, union leaders, employees, regulators, etc., might never be restored if they screw-up or look foolish.
Of course, most CEOs are able to bounce back from adverse perceptions and missteps. But it comes at a cost. And arrogance only goes so far. Even the CEO must face the CEO in the mirror. So, the best way to defuse this fear is for CEOs to always assume that everything they say or do – on the job or in private – will be on the front page of their hometown newspaper. A CEO job is a 24/7 job. There is no time off. The best leaders accept that responsibility and carry and convey themselves appropriately.
The mistakes of top execs tend to be more public and pronounced than those of the typical individual, so the fallout of looking foolish is much more real and magnified. The best way for CEOs to handle public perception mistakes is to accept responsibility quickly, apologize to the appropriate group(s) as needed and share the steps that will be taken to prevent similar miscues in the future.
Additionally, helping top executives see their blind spots and avoid resultant mistakes are invaluable ways that support staff and direct reports can help alleviate this particular CEO fear. The perfect subordinate is one who is not afraid to call a spade a spade. Trusted individuals who are able to assuage those executive fears will always be valued within organizations and by the CEO.
