{"id":254,"date":"2009-01-02T14:27:04","date_gmt":"2009-01-02T14:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php\/2009\/01\/02\/the_heroic_ceo\/"},"modified":"2009-01-02T14:27:04","modified_gmt":"2009-01-02T14:27:04","slug":"the_heroic_ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/?p=254","title":{"rendered":"The Heroic CEO (again)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late last year I was at one of the usual round of Christmas
\nparties<\/a> I attend each year. Also as usual, I found myself talking to
\na new acquaintance explaining that I work as a Leadership Mentor when a third
\nperson joined the group. The conversation moved to executive remuneration
\nand specifically CEO remuneration. During the conversation my new found colleague
\nturned to me and said<\/p>\n

“You’d know this — the CEO makes the<\/em> difference”. <\/p>\n

I replied “The CEO makes a<\/em> difference.”<\/p>\n

He was unconvinced and repeated his earlier assertion.<\/p>\n

At this stage I deferred — neither of us was going to change our position.
\nIf my colleague is reading this I must say, with greatest respect, I still
\ndisagree with you.<\/p>\n

And still, after 20 years as a consultant, I remain absolutely amazed at the
\npredominance of this view. It is beyond the scope of this short piece to delve
\ninto a deep discussion of Wilfred
\nBion’s<\/a> Basic
\nAssumptions<\/a>, but it seems to me that the unchallengeable way in which this
\nview of the messianic CEO is discussed in business almost indicates a very
\nlarge group Basic Assumption Dependency.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Briefly, Major Wilfred Bion, whose task it was to provide therapy to thousands
\nof soldiers returned from the Second World War, after studying the many many
\ngroups he worked with developed a description of group behaviour in which every
\ngroup was, in fact, two groups — the Work Group<\/em> and the Basic
\nAssumption Group<\/em>. The Work Group was the group that any observer could
\nsee. A group assigned to and attempting to complete a task. Bion suggested
\nthat in addition to this the group behaved as if<\/em> some basic assumption
\nwere true — ie it was simultaneusly operating at two levels. The visible
\n(work group level) and the invisible (basic assumption) level.<\/p>\n

From his observations, Bion suggested that all groups acted with one of three
\nBasic Assumptions: Dependency, Fight-Flight or Pairing<\/em>. For the purposes
\nof this piece I will only discuss the first of these — Dependency — and
\nbriefly at that.<\/p>\n

Anything I write here will undoubtably reflect what has already be written
\nby others, so I will simpy quote from ChangingMinds.org<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

In this state, the group seeks a leader who will relieve them of all anxiety. This leader is thus invested with omnipotence and is expected to be able to solve all problems.<\/p>\n

If this magical leader does not perform up to scratch, then the leader will be attacked and a replacement sought. Thus a cycle of leader-seeking, idealization and denigration occurs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Does this sound familiar? The company is not performing as well as we want
\nit to so we bring in a new CEO. If the CEO is any good, they can solve all
\nthe company’s problems. If they don’t solve all the problems then they are
\nnot up to scratch and everyone from the board to the business press will point
\nout there shortcomings.<\/p>\n

Yes, I have seen many CEOs and leaders who have almost single handedly wrecked
\ntheir organisations and I have seen a very few individuals who have inspired
\ntheir teams to achieve beyond their wildest dreams. But most CEOs I have met
\nare somewhere in the middle. They lead a multi talented team — a team
\nin which they had only a small part in putting together. Sure they can set
\nthe tone for the day to day work of the company’s employees and they have the
\nfinal say on the most important decisions. However, the company’s success or
\notherwise depends first and foremost on the uniqueness of its products and
\nservices and the way they are marketed. This in turn is dependent on the company’s
\nculture. Something that is built into its DNA. The CEO can’t change this. They
\ncan influence it. They can make decisions that make best use of it. They can
\naffect the performance levels of their people to some degree. But they can’t
\nsingle handedly mandate and make happen large scale change.<\/p>\n

I was reminded of this when I read this
\narticle<\/a> by Greg Baum in Melbourne’s The
\nAge<\/em> yesterday. For those of you from non-Cricket playing countries,
\nI may need to tell you that the Australian
\nCricket Team<\/a> has just suffered
\nits first loss in a series at home since 1992\/1993 (having lost the Second
\nTest<\/a> to South Africa<\/a>.) <\/p>\n

Baum notes the predictable reaction <\/p>\n

In the aftermath, fingers of blame
\nhave been pointed in all directions: the selectors, the captain, Cricket
\nAustralia<\/a>,
\nMatthew Hayden<\/a>, Andrew
\nSymonds<\/a>.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But<\/p>\n

\nCaptain Ricky
\nPonting<\/a> has worn the brunt of the criticism.
\nThis is the captain’s lot, but it is also a manifestation of the syndrome
\nby which the leader of a sporting team — the captain in cricket, the
\ncoach in football — is made not only to account for his team, but
\npersonify it, so obviating the need for any more complex
\nor subtle study<\/em>.
\nHence, Ponting’s failings are Australia’s, Australia’s Ponting’s, all in
\none soundbite. (My emphasis added) <\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again, does this sound familiar? The second sentence eminently qualifies
\nBaum as a business analyst. Particularly the part I emphasised.<\/p>\n

Buam hits the nail on the head regarding the problem with our belief in
\nthe messianic
\nCEO.<\/a> It is too simple and it obviates the need for any deeper
\nstudy of the organisation.<\/p>\n

This would not be so much a problem if the wellbeing of us all was not
\nbound up in business. Our governments provide grants, low interest loans
\nand incentives to business because they believe it will grow the economy.
\nAs we have seen in recent times, we all depend on a healthy economy. When
\nthe economy dips we all suffer.<\/p>\n

How much more efficient would business be if it were not transfixed by
\nthe fantasy of a heroic CEO? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late last year I was at one of the usual round of Christmas parties I attend each year. Also as usual, I found myself talking to a new acquaintance explaining that I work as a Leadership Mentor when a third person joined the group. The conversation moved to executive remuneration and specifically CEO remuneration. During […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}