The five temptations of a CEO

¶ … messages of the book the Five Temptations of the CEO written by Patrick Lencioni, including in-depth analysis of each of the five temptations for the perspective of a leader in 21st century. With the proliferation of social networks, instant celebrity from Facebook, Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets, these temptations are for many CEOs never been stronger. The tendency of CEOs to seek out their own cult status in the age of social networking is particularly alluring and troubling as the economic conditions have never been more uncertain or turbulent (Bernoff, Li, 2008). Each of the temptations are analyzed and assessed with the key lessons learned from each provided in each section of this paper.

Assessing Temptation #1: Choosing Status over Results

Having risen to the apex of their career goals, many CEOs take great pride in their accomplishments. Many have battled through decades of poverty and risen from very humble beginnings. Yet along the way, they lose touch with that work ethic and humility that led to their success. They become experts at delaying the hard work of focusing on problems and helping their companies grow. Just one more benefit, one more celebrity-studded dinner, one more dinner party with a politician, and the future of their companies slip away. Slipping out of the grasp like they don't even know if, their control and mastery of the skills and business acumen eventually go dormant as celebrity is chased more than the growth of the businesses they are responsible. It is easy for many CEOs to succumb to this temptation. There are many opportunities to be included in events to fill a social calendar for years, and more than enough golf tournaments or fundraisers.

Over time, the passion to excel and perform goes away within a CEO revels and celebrates their self-importance. It is tragic when a CEO loses their passion to excel and find meaning for their lives in serving their companies and growing their businesses, not serving their own egos and need for attention.

The author first writes in the book about this particularly lethal temptation from the standpoint of ego instead of accomplishment dominating a CEO's mindset and focus. When this happens, companies become brittle, break easily under the weight and stresses of economic uncertainty and turbulence, and eventually fail. The real tragedy of this first temptation is that is saps the energy and passion out of a CEO and they slowly become irrelevant and over time, incompetent. A CEO or for that matter any professional must stay engaged, challenged, focused and committed with passion to their goals and missions if they are to stay intellectually and morally sharp. Losing their edge, CEOs let not only their minds but also their bodies get bloated and out of shape from the rigors of tough competition. When this happens companies fail and people lose their jobs. Quite a high price to pay for a CEO to be in the limelight for only a short period of time relatively speaking (Bernoff, Li, 2008).

The section of the book both fascinated and angered me. I think there should be an intervention program for CEOs who have "gone Hollywood" and started believing their own press releases where they have to work on a ranch in Wyoming through the winter and see what real work is. They need to get back in touch with the innate value of hard work, the spiritual aspects of hard work, its cathartic value, and how embracing hard work is the best therapy someone can ever go through. If I was a chairperson of the board of a company where the CEO was going off on a self-importance tangent, I would put him on a 6-month review program to turn the performance of the company around or they would be gone. Board of directors are too tolerant of CEOs who think they are as important as heads of states, more famous than rock stars, and more important that the president. An intervention program is critical for getting CEOs focused again, on what got many of them there: a healthy does and respect for hard work and a commitment to service, not self-promotion.

Assessing Temptation #2: Choosing Popularity over Accountability

The tendency of CEOs and senior managers to focus on being liked above all else is what kills not only companies but careers as well. The book does an outstanding job of showing how these situations play out, with the CEO or senior manager trying to win favor with employees by relaxing standards and results. The lack of accountability and results focus is like a short-term high for the CEO or senior manager; they feel they have done something great for their subordinates and will be liked for it (Eisenbeiss, Boerner, 2010). The dirty little secret the book alludes to is that subordinates often see this type of behavior as patronizing and even arrogant. Everyone who walks in the door of a business every morning expects to work, and despite how they feel, they know they must produce and get something accomplished to feel good about themselves. Most people are honest enough with themselves to get to work on their jobs. Coming in as the CERO or even senior manager to tell a worker to not worry about working hard and removing accountability from their tasks is actually an insult. Many workers would wonder why the CEO was being so nice and what they expected in return. The truth is the CEO or senior manager would be much better off sitting down with the subordinate, asking what their goals are, how their jobs are going, finding out what their interests are and what roadblocks they are facing on their jobs. This is what being a transformational leader is all about (Eisenbeiss, Boerner, 2010). Workers find bosses who want to be their friend somewhat creepy honestly. It is also for many workers perceived as dangerous ground because if the friendship has conflict or stress, their jobs could be in jeopardy.

When reading this section of the book I asked co-workers about this specific temptation. Their responses indicate how uncomfortable this can get from a Gen Y workers' perspective. One had their boss attempt to friend them on Facebook, started following them on Twitter, and also wanted to trade text messages while traveling (Lee, Gillespie, Mann, Wearing, 2010). This crossed the line the worker felt and they reported the senior manager to HR. The senior manager, a VP, claimed it was because they were friends. CEOs with Facebook fan pages are also succumbing to the same temptation of trying to be liked and considered part of the popular group at work. Another co-worker told me our CEO had hired interns to go into Glassdoor.com and create profiles to drive up the approval ratings on that site for this CEO. Unethical as this is, it also speaks to how myopic and shortsighted a CEO can get when popularity becomes more important that actually getting results accomplished. Wanting to appear popular to the outside world, some CEOs today hire interns and freelance writers to blog about them and place messages on Yahoo Finance boards extolling their virtue. All of these activities are meant to drive up popularity at the expense of concentrating on results.

The counter of this temptation is the commitment to choose accountability not only of the organization but also of ones' self. The best leaders who transform organizations are authentic, transparent; inspire trust because they make major sacrifices for the good of their teams. They are completely and totally committed to excellence in the organization first. This permeates all they do, and they set a high standard of accountability first for themselves. CEOs including Steve Jobs, Jack Welch and others challenges their companies to grow and don't really care about popularity. Their attitude is that powerful financial growth and the ability to give people a chance to grow professionally excites them and energizes them more than hanging around with the CEO for drinks on a Friday night. These CEOs, Jobs, Welch and others like them get it. People want to be challenged and master their jobs, they want to be invigorated by success they achieve on their own. Truly transformational leaders set the foundation for these type of experiences and chances for growth for their employees (Liu, Siu, Shi, 2010). The transformational leaders realize that being respected for delivering on the commitment of excelling as a CEO is much more important than focusing on being "liked" (Eisenbeiss, Boerner, 2010). Like Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, an excellent stage play by Arthur Miller, the "important thing is to be liked." Wrong. The important thing is to be passionate about what you are doing as a leader, strive to be transformational and very clear about the vision, mission and values of the business, and strives to create more value over time so employees can progress on their careers. The CEOs who buy into this temptation ought to go and reads Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and realize that in that tragedy is the temptation to be liked -- and fail measurably because results were not a priority.

Assessing Temptation #3: Choosing Certainty over Clarity

Choosing certainty can paralyze a company and slow its progress to a grinding halt. The tendency to be very thorough and analytical to alleviate risk can actually backfire and lead to even worse results. The book makes the point through examples of how certainty being pursued never actually leads to closure; there is always the one last element of information to be gained before a decision is made. In the name of certainty a CEO can procrastinate and kill the momentum their company has towards it goals (Clapp-Smith, Vogelgesang, Avey, 2009). Certainty begets analysis paralysis, which can in turn lead to companies having to pass on opportunities that go by them very quickly.

This temptation of certainty over clarity also robs a business of being agile and able to react extremely quickly to market demands. CEOs, fearing that they will be seen as weak, often choose not to be clear but instead opt for yet more study and research. Transformational leaders have often said that studies and research of alternatives is where programs and projects go to die.

Instead of letting this happen a CEO must embrace the concepts of being very agile and quick to respond to market threats and opportunities first with clarity. A strong transformational leader will take responsibility for being clearer and less complete with analysis of the data leading to a decision (Eisenbeiss, Boerner, 2010). As many studies of data suggest, fully 70% of the information needed to make a decision does not exist. This further supports the contention that leaders must go through a trial-and-error process on strategic decisions if the data is not available at the time. As painful as this is on a CEO's ego, they have to make a decision and keep moving their companies forward if they are going to get close to accomplishing their goals. In addition, choosing clarity over certainty also sets the remainder of the organization in motion over time, leading to more knowledge being generate and greater collaboration taking place. The CEO has to remember when faced with this temptation that their response to uncertainty will be multiplied throughout their entire organization. Choosing to make a decision without the best possible information will lead to an entirely different culture of their company, as managers and directors will increasingly adopt risks as well. The entire company moves forward when a CEO goes beyond this temptation and is bold enough to make a decision. I also learned from this section of the book that as much as perfect information is appealing to have for making personal decisions, it is far more effective to have the basic knowledge needed and continue moving forward (Lee, Gillespie, Mann, Wearing, 2010). The lessons learned from this temptation apply to CEOs and students alike; knowing when there is enough data is critical for getting work done on time and at a high level of quality. Imagine if Microsoft's founders had waited for just the right forecast and data to be generated showing that the PC operating system would be successful, or if Steve Jobs waited on research for the iPod, iPhone and iPad. At one point both Bill Gates and Analyzing Temptation #4: Choosing Harmony over Conflict

The CEOs in this section of the book held up, as examples wanted too much peace and too much harmony, so much, so that it robbed their subordinates and staffs of the passion they had for their positions. The reality of organizations is that conflict propels progress and it is essential for a company to grow over time. Conflict also helps redefine relationships and is a natural progression in the development of an organization. Seeking harmony too much can squelch the creativity that is also inherent in conflict as well.