My mission is "to help business leaders discover and
achieve their potential." One of the things that I discover is
that many business leaders – more than half – limit their
success because of inadequate attention to reflection and
self-examination.
My clients would say that I’m not prone to make or accept
excuses and that my approach is rather direct. In that spirit
…
If you believe, or even suspect, that your past or current
success preordains future success, you are in deep trouble!
The people who I know who sustain enduring professional
success are those who can balance their self-assured,
rightfully-deserved confidence with a healthy dose of "Oh my
God, what do I do next?" suspicion of their own success and
potential – enough to keep themselves honest, reasonably
objective, and appropriately paranoid.
As the Bard would say, "Herein lies the rub." The greater
your current success and the higher your perch, the greater
the likelihood that you are headed for a fall because of the
deceptions your mind feeds you. Some of those, as well as my
responses, follow:
THE LIE – I am successful because I am intelligent,
insightful and competent about all things. If the people who
criticize me or volunteer feedback were as capable as I am,
they’d be as successful as I am. They’re not, ergo….
THE TRUTH – You got where you are because of your assets
and in spite of your liabilities. Additionally, attributes
that may have comprised the strengths required for previous
success may now be the liabilities keeping you from future
success. An example: Your early success may have occurred
because it required strong strategic and analytic skills, two
of your personal strengths. You now run a more mature
enterprise with a requirement for superior operating
management. If the voice in your head provides rationale for
sustaining a status quo that has outlived its usefulness, you
and your company are headed for deep yogurt.
THE LIE – Every personal exchange, whether one-on-one or in
larger meetings, must give everyone an "aha" moment. My
comments must demonstrate that I am omniscient, that I have
command of all of the relevant dimensions of the business and
that I am "the man."
THE TRUTH – Get over yourself. First, in an executive
chair, you get paid to ask great questions, not to have all of
the answers. If you want to create a lasting, productive
impression and do some real good, the next time you critique a
presentation, instead of saying, "That’s wrong; do this," ask,
"What were the options you considered and what motivated you
to make the recommendation you did?" In lieu of saying, "Your
recommendation doesn’t comport with our strategy," ask, "How
does your recommendation drive our strategic success?"
Second, when you have nothing of real value to add, don’t
add it. Before making a comment, ask yourself, "Does what I
intend to say contribute to fulfilling my conditions of
satisfaction, the success and development of the other
person/people, our customers’ satisfaction and our
shareholders’ value?"
THE LIE – I’m in charge, the grand poobah, the main gazane,
the great and powerful Oz. I can do whatever I want to! I’ve
earned that right!
THE TRUTH – Exercising your prerogatives has nothing to do
with creating organizational success. Over time, if you depend
on the job title on your business card to move people to do
what you want them to do, you are dead! If, however, you
believe that enthusiastic, voluntary contribution is a better
road to success than indentured servitude, you’ll take another
route.
THE LIE – I know what people are thinking. I’m an "open"
guy. My people know that they can come to me with any concern,
issue or problem and that they’ll get an open hearing.
THE TRUTH – You do not know what others think or vice
versa. You must create and exploit formal feedback mechanisms
to get a valid, ongoing sense of what people are thinking.
Employee surveys are great, but they’re inadequate. They don’t
convey emotion; they don’t allow for probing; they don’t allow
you to "peel the onion" to get an explicit sense of deep
truth.
One CEO I know (and this is a guy who runs a Fortune 100)
spends about 10 hours a month talking one-on-one with people
at all levels of his company. At first, it made people
uncomfortable. Now, they really get into it. He learned
a couple of important lessons along the way. First, nothing
beats nose-to-nose contact. Second, when you create a high
level of openness, you inherit a responsibility for what you
do (and even more importantly, don’t do) with what you
learn.
THE LIE – People understand my motives; they’ll forgive my
idiosyncratic behavior.
THE TRUTH – No they don’t, and no they won’t. It’s funny,
but as early as age five, we have a good idea of the impact
that other people’s behavior has on us. Most of us, however,
never fully develop an appreciation for the impact that our
behavior has on others. We assume that they know what we’re
thinking and feeling – what our motives are.
Do you remember when you were in elementary school and ran
into one of your teachers in the grocery store? Do you
remember your reaction? Here’s a guess: You sheepishly said,
"Hi, Mr. Smith." What you were thinking, however, was, "What’s
Mr. Smith doing here in the grocery store?" It was as if Mr.
Smith, because of his lofty position as your teacher, should
be above going grocery shopping.
Some things never change. When you hold a position of
authority, you assume characteristics and attributes in
people’s minds simply by virtue of your position. Whether you
perceive that ought to be the case misses the point. If you
are "the boss" (pardon me, Bruce), you are expected to conduct
yourself with a level of virtue that exceeds that of mere
mortals.
I entitled this article "Do You Have CEO Disease?" for a
reason. Although the heads of companies do not lay exclusive
claim to the issues I outlined, they are extraordinarily
susceptible to them. If you are a CEO or aspire to be, you’ll
be wise to be mindful of these pitfalls and to create
processes to avoid them.
