For CEOs, failure is personal

In the world of C-suite leadership where outcomes are only partly controllable, having a firm grip on one’s personal definition of success is essential to maintain the strength, confidence, and optimism that everyone needs.

They may not say it, but they all feel it.

Right or wrong, CEOs take the credit or blame that goes with the fate of the organizations they lead. Success at the top is a complex mix of wins and losses. Some are the result the CEO’s actions while others are about luck (good and bad). Any CEO will tell you, some of their accomplishments are visible while others go completely unnoticed.

This makes it complicated for CEOs to sort out their own definitions of success.

And when success is difficult to define, energy, confidence, and optimism are difficult to sustain. It’s hard to know if you’re winning when you can’t see the scoreboard.

“But Matt,”?you ask,?“shouldn’t CEO success be easy to define?”?On paper, of course. With boards, shareholders, customers, yes. In the mind of the CEO, not so easy. Consider these examples:

• On March 1, 2010, Steven Newman stepped up into the CEO seat at TransOcean, an offshore drilling contractor. Exactly 51 days later, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, resulting in the tragic deaths of 11 rig workers. For Newman, his job as CEO, the company, its culture, and the future of TransOcean were instantly transformed.
• On January 16, 2007, Kevin Kabat was announced as the planned CEO successor of Fifth Third Bank. Exactly two months later, one month before Kabat’s first day as CEO, the 85-year-old investment firm Bear Stearns, collapsed. Global markets were tossed into chaos. The Great Recession was on. And almost overnight, the CEO role for which Kabat prepared became a radically different assignment.

Few CEOs face predictable challenges. Tragedy and global economic meltdown may be rare, but major shifts in the landscape of C-suite leadership are not.

And because the context and criteria for leadership success are continuously changing, so too must the definitions of success for senior executives, particularly in their own minds.

In the wake of escalating business complexity, stakeholders are unlikely to soften their expectations. Shareholders may hold their positions briefly while the company restores performance. Customers may tolerate short-term interruptions to service quality. Employees may temporarily endure more challenging working conditions while the company adjusts.

But not for long.

One of the most unforgiving aspects of the CEO’s role is to lead when the game suddenly changes.

As observers, we may shrug and conclude that,?“That’s why they get paid the big bucks.”?And fair enough. This is the job of a CEO – to steer through whatever challenges arise. I’ve never met a CEO who sought pity for the bad hand they were dealt.

But I have met CEOs on the brink of burnout because they have lost confidence in their ability to lead positive change.

Take healthcare, for example. System CEOs, large and small, are faced with almost incomprehensible obstacles to performance: ballooning costs, byzantine reimbursement schemes, restrictive government support programs, devastating worker shortages, and the looming prospects for the next pandemic. Ask a CEO, in a private moment, how she or he plans to improve the system’s ability to save lives in the coming years, and you’re likely to be met with a blank stare. Too much is out of their control.

But publicly you’ll hear a message of hope and optimism. And the point of this article is that, in my experience, CEOs who reconcile the disconnects between what is possible and what they must promise will perform more consistently than those who don’t.

Why? Because the absence of that reconciliation is fear. Fear of not meeting expectations. Fear of misusing resources. Fear of inhibiting the organization’s purpose. Fear of failure. And no leader operates consistently when distracted by the prospect of failure.

The plain truth is that CEOs have only partial control over the outcomes that their organizations achieve (despite public perceptions). But what they can control is their connection to the organization’s purpose. Their authenticity in working with people to confront the most crucial dilemmas. Their vulnerability in recognizing that they need help to make progress. And the courage and candor to acknowledge that the sum of their efforts may not amount to visible success.

If you or a C-suite executive you know is struggling with the prospect of failure, here are a few questions to consider in pursuit of more confidence and optimism:

• When you think of success, what words or phrases come to mind?
• Now narrow down success by audience. What does success look like for each of the following?
• The people, customers, and communities your organization serves
• Your team, colleagues, and associates
• You as an individual
• And finally, how would you feel if the only evidence of success was your knowledge of how hard you have worked, and that you did everything you could to be successful?

Inside the answers to these questions is every leader’s personal definition of success. And in the world of C-suite leadership where outcomes are only partly controllable, having a firm grip on that definition is essential to maintain the strength, confidence, and optimism that everyone needs.

And in the end, that might just be enough for success.

I hope this month finds you with a clear definition of your success, and mounds of evidence that you’re winning. Thanks for sharing a few minutes with us, and please consider sharing your reflections as well.