I met someone recently who I'd only known through Twitter. His personality was nothing like the personality I'd met online or had expected in real life. Not better, not worse, just different - but very different. This made me think about what profilers call the professional mask. We are used to public figures presenting themselves in an image of their own, or their publicists', making. We expect authenticity and integrity from our public figures - so what if they're more gregarious, talkative, smiley, excitable in public than their normal thoughtful, surly selves? So what if they're more offensive, disrespectful, demanding in public then their usual caring and gentle selves? It is a matter of record that mafiosi patriarchs are family loving men who hug and love their children while carrying out violent acts away from home.
Politicians need to win over large swathes of the general public - they are after all, voted into office and not appointed by a small number of people who might be easier to hoodwink. We expect them to behave and talk in a way which would increase their chances of winning an election and staying in power, whatever it takes. But when we discover politicians behaving, behind the scenes, in ways completely counter to their public 'promise' we are nevertheless horrified. History is too full of examples for me to bore you by listing them here.
CEOs are in a different ballgame. They are appointed to bear the responsibility of running and representing their corporations, with which they share a brand, image, culture, attitude. Celebrity CEOs (think Welch, Perot, Black) whose personalities overshadow their companies, whose belief in leadership style runs through their organisations have been replaced by celebrated CEOs (think Branson, Bezos) who act as a bridge between their corporations and the global communities around them. I admit Steve Jobs and Bill Gates was/is a something of a conundrum - they appear to have had a foot in each camp...
Since the 2008 economic collapse, CEOs, with those in the financial sector leading the pack, seem to have discovered a shyness - they're no longer hogging the conference platforms and media profile pages, let alone the society diaries. Many pre-2008 CEOs have left their posts - either willingly or not - and today, bragging (or apologising) is saved for annual results. Only five of the top 20 Best Performing CEOs in the world HBR Best Performing CEOs 2013 can be considered household names (Jobs, Bezos, Agnelli, Whitman, Chambers). The others, a few of whom run household brands are impressive and celebrated but otherwise relatively unknown to the wider public outside their respective sectors.
When Ros Taylor interviewed 80 CEOs in 2002 for her book Fast Track to the Top, she extracted ten commandments of success (problem solving, delivering the goods, wanting to win, relating with stakeholders, trusting the team, de-stressing, loving change, self awareness, striking a deal and confidence). Ten years on, these commandments would look very different today.
Anyone brave or patient enough to trawl through the myriad of advice-to-CEOs in books, blogs and articles will see a wide array of top five, top tens, top threes...but self-awareness seems to be one of the few virtues which come up consistently. Image builders agree that authenticity is a top quality for those in public life, and today's social media driven world makes this even more important. With the disintermediation of the PR machine in corporations (though arts celebrities' publicists still seem to have the upper hand), CEOs are scrutinised to within an inch of their personal and corporate lives.
So do we pity CEOs today, do they need a completely new set of behaviours, do we need to appoint a different type of CEO to run our major institutions? CEOs who have remained in office for the longest periods are, inevitably, those whose companies they founded (Bezos, Mittal, Ambani, Lynch) though some of those are now under behavioural pressure either for accusations of under-payment of tax (morally, not legally) or inflating their company's value. I will be fascinated to see how Zuckerberg fares - he too is something of a conundrum.
Realistically, the public role of the CEO today is changing at amazing speed. We still have to take qualities such as competency, honesty, experience and confidence for granted. But the notion of representing a company has changed. A company's proof of delivery in shareholder returns, responsible behaviour, giving back to the community, ethical conduct, fair treatment of employees and suppliers are available to all for inspection. It is a representation of the company's future vision, culture, belief and value system which remains within the CEO's delivery and still a powerful basis of corporate valuation, when sustainability is acknowledged as being a crucial ingredient of success. Here, personal values and corporate values need to mirror each other.
Which takes me back to the professional mask. It's much tougher being a CEO today - your remuneration is challenged, your regulatory integrity is constantly checked, your personal life is investigated, your delivery is under scrutiny, your community spirit is questioned. But how much better will our major institutions be, run by individuals who, as a matter of course and without having to put on a professional mask, are people who are naturally comfortable with all that? Many will be working to synchronise the corporate and personal.
Tomorrow's CEOs, who today may be cutting their teeth in business or academia, will look back to their predecessors with wonder and ask: "You made a lot of people a lot of money, you contributed to your nation's economy, you gave your customers what they wanted to buy, but did you really do it the right way?"
Politicians need to win over large swathes of the general public - they are after all, voted into office and not appointed by a small number of people who might be easier to hoodwink. We expect them to behave and talk in a way which would increase their chances of winning an election and staying in power, whatever it takes. But when we discover politicians behaving, behind the scenes, in ways completely counter to their public 'promise' we are nevertheless horrified. History is too full of examples for me to bore you by listing them here.
CEOs are in a different ballgame. They are appointed to bear the responsibility of running and representing their corporations, with which they share a brand, image, culture, attitude. Celebrity CEOs (think Welch, Perot, Black) whose personalities overshadow their companies, whose belief in leadership style runs through their organisations have been replaced by celebrated CEOs (think Branson, Bezos) who act as a bridge between their corporations and the global communities around them. I admit Steve Jobs and Bill Gates was/is a something of a conundrum - they appear to have had a foot in each camp...
Since the 2008 economic collapse, CEOs, with those in the financial sector leading the pack, seem to have discovered a shyness - they're no longer hogging the conference platforms and media profile pages, let alone the society diaries. Many pre-2008 CEOs have left their posts - either willingly or not - and today, bragging (or apologising) is saved for annual results. Only five of the top 20 Best Performing CEOs in the world HBR Best Performing CEOs 2013 can be considered household names (Jobs, Bezos, Agnelli, Whitman, Chambers). The others, a few of whom run household brands are impressive and celebrated but otherwise relatively unknown to the wider public outside their respective sectors.
When Ros Taylor interviewed 80 CEOs in 2002 for her book Fast Track to the Top, she extracted ten commandments of success (problem solving, delivering the goods, wanting to win, relating with stakeholders, trusting the team, de-stressing, loving change, self awareness, striking a deal and confidence). Ten years on, these commandments would look very different today.
Anyone brave or patient enough to trawl through the myriad of advice-to-CEOs in books, blogs and articles will see a wide array of top five, top tens, top threes...but self-awareness seems to be one of the few virtues which come up consistently. Image builders agree that authenticity is a top quality for those in public life, and today's social media driven world makes this even more important. With the disintermediation of the PR machine in corporations (though arts celebrities' publicists still seem to have the upper hand), CEOs are scrutinised to within an inch of their personal and corporate lives.
So do we pity CEOs today, do they need a completely new set of behaviours, do we need to appoint a different type of CEO to run our major institutions? CEOs who have remained in office for the longest periods are, inevitably, those whose companies they founded (Bezos, Mittal, Ambani, Lynch) though some of those are now under behavioural pressure either for accusations of under-payment of tax (morally, not legally) or inflating their company's value. I will be fascinated to see how Zuckerberg fares - he too is something of a conundrum.
Realistically, the public role of the CEO today is changing at amazing speed. We still have to take qualities such as competency, honesty, experience and confidence for granted. But the notion of representing a company has changed. A company's proof of delivery in shareholder returns, responsible behaviour, giving back to the community, ethical conduct, fair treatment of employees and suppliers are available to all for inspection. It is a representation of the company's future vision, culture, belief and value system which remains within the CEO's delivery and still a powerful basis of corporate valuation, when sustainability is acknowledged as being a crucial ingredient of success. Here, personal values and corporate values need to mirror each other.
Which takes me back to the professional mask. It's much tougher being a CEO today - your remuneration is challenged, your regulatory integrity is constantly checked, your personal life is investigated, your delivery is under scrutiny, your community spirit is questioned. But how much better will our major institutions be, run by individuals who, as a matter of course and without having to put on a professional mask, are people who are naturally comfortable with all that? Many will be working to synchronise the corporate and personal.
Tomorrow's CEOs, who today may be cutting their teeth in business or academia, will look back to their predecessors with wonder and ask: "You made a lot of people a lot of money, you contributed to your nation's economy, you gave your customers what they wanted to buy, but did you really do it the right way?"
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