Choose Your Own C.E.O.

You cannot choose your family, but you can choose your next Chief Executive Officer. To help you make this important choice, let’s look at some desirable qualities in a leader:

1.    She is both the coxswain and an oarswoman.

Coxswains are apparently misunderstood. They don’t just sit in the back of the racing shell and yell at the much larger athletes who are pulling the oars. According to a story in the Yale Daily News, a coxswain steers the boat, sets the pace, plots the race strategy and is an “integral part of the crew.” That may well be true – what do I know about rowing? My small college was stuck in the middle of Ohio cornfields. But even if the coxswain is indispensable to a team, a good C.E.O. does not want to be viewed as a coxswain who is being propelled forward due to the hard work of everyone else in the boat. 

Maybe appearances should not matter, but they do: Employees closely observe a C.E.O.’s actions and inactions – and many will model their own behavior accordingly. A C.E.O. who is seen as doing the hard work, and not just seen barking commands, is liable to have a higher-performing team. There is an additional benefit to being part of the team: A leader who occasionally pulls an oar will gain a better understanding of her teammates, the obstacles they face, and how to improve their job performance. Another benefit is avoiding a mutiny by the crew and being thrown into the river.

2.    He makes mistakes.

When running for president, Senator John Kerry said this about a piece of legislation to appropriate additional money for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq: "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.” His Republican opponent, President George W. Bush, gleefully used this quotation as evidence that Senator Kerry flip-flopped on important issues. Senator Kerry’s comment certainly did not help his candidacy -- nor did his attempt to explain the comment by saying he made it “late in the evening when I was dead tired.” He had made the comment at 1:20 p.m.

         Perhaps Senator Kerry should have said that he did what any intelligent person does – he evaluates the available evidence and makes the best judgment he can at the time. If new evidence arises that shows his earlier judgment was flawed, then he makes the necessary adjustments. Isn’t that the approach you want the captain of your ship to take? Or would you prefer the captain ignore the unexpected iceberg?  Pick the C.E.O. that is willing to change course or start picking out a good lifejacket.

3.    She wears bifocals.

When I turned 40, my ophthalmologist asked me why I was not yet wearing bifocals. Silly doctor, I did not need bifocals.  Not long after that appointment, I found myself taking off my glasses in order to read the fine print on a product label. Silly me, I did need them. So does a C.E.O. Bifocals allow a person to read the fine details as well as to clearly see the horizon. A C.E.O. also needs to be able to focus on both the near term and the future.   

         Does your C.E.O. boast about being a “big picture” person? Or does your C.E.O. somewhat proudly admit to being a “perfectionist” about tasks?  The former type probably does not know your name, does not regularly scrutinize the cash flow statements, and isn’t sure exactly how your company’s best-selling product works. The latter type is unlikely to periodically devote time to considering how to react to the new technologies and competitors who are going to disrupt your business model. The C.E.O. you want pays attention to what is happening today and plans for what will likely happen tomorrow. She wears bifocals.

4.    He is not the smartest guy in the room.

Albert Einstein changed our understanding of the universe, won a Nobel Prize and is considered a genius. When he was asked how it felt to be the smartest man on Earth, Einstein reportedly replied, “I wouldn’t know. Ask Nikola Tesla.” Not long ago, Abraham Lincoln was the subject of a best-selling biography by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin entitled, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Instead of staffing a cabinet with men of lesser ability whom Lincoln could easily dominate, the president chose a team that could push and challenge him to make better decisions. My friend Ed is a bit like Al and Abe. 

Ed started a screen-printing company out of his apartment. Through brains, brawn and a bit of luck Ed has grown his company to the point where it occupies a former warehouse. Like Al, Ed does not consider himself the smartest guy in the room. Like Abe, he does not want to be the smartest guy in the room. Ed says that if he is the most intelligent person in his company, then he’s keeping the wrong company.

A good C.E.O. should surround himself with the most talented people he can find. And if by chance the C.E.O. is the smartest guy in the room, then he should be smart enough to keep his mouth shut. A leader who boasts about being a genius is a leader who will discourage others from challenging his views and who will blind himself to the merit of opposing views.

By the way, Einstein’s response to the question about being the “smartest man” was certainly sarcastic.  Nikola Tesla had an enormous ego and freely offered scathing criticism of Einstein’s theory of relativity.

5.    She values inefficiency.

Winston Churchill had this to say about our form of government: “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time…." Despite Churchill’s wise words, voters try to change our democracy into a business by picking successful C.E.O.’s as their governors and presidents. They buy the argument that government is too inefficient and could benefit from a strong, no-nonsense focus on the bottom line. That argument may have some merit, but how many companies are still operating 244 years after their founding?

Here's an argument worth considering: Businesses should adapt some of a democracy’s inefficiency. One of the reasons the United States has lasted so long is that a president’s powers are limited – as are the powers of the legislative branch and the judiciary. The president is not going to be able to make significant changes without getting the other branches on board; this process involves consultation, communication and consideration of opposing views. The end product, hopefully, is a plan that will work and be acceptable to the government’s clients – the citizens of this country.

There are numerous examples of companies blindly following a strong C.E.O. down the road to ruin.  Think of Steve Jobs during his first stint at the helm of Apple. A prudent C.E.O. will avoid making the Board of Directors into a collection of “yes” women and men; she will value an employee’s loyalty to the organization more than loyalty to herself; she will understand that a bit of inefficiency now will help keep her from driving the company off the cliff down the road.

6.    He admires Marx.

Ask you C.E.O. candidates to pick their favorite Marx quote from these two good choices: (1) “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce”; or (2) “Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” If the C.E.O. candidate choses the first quotation, he has shown an admirable intellect but a deadly dull sense of humor. Give him a copy of The Marx-Engels Reader (available at Amazon for only $36.24) as a thank you gift and send him on his way. If the C.E.O. candidate choses the second quotation, give him a copy of Groucho and Me by Groucho Marx – and give him the job!

We spend a lot of our lives working and interacting with our colleagues. Do you want to spend that all that time in a company whose leader lacks a sense of humor? Remember this – a C.E.O. who can laugh at himself is a C.E.O. who remembers that he is human, that all humans make mistakes, and that sometimes those mistakes are just ridiculously funny.  A C.E.O. who can laugh at himself, and who does not mind others laughing at him, is a leader with humanity, with humor and with the self-confidence to know that he can do better the next time. Besides, as Groucho Marx said, “If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I would be happy to do it for you.”

Conclusion

So who will you choose to be the next C.E.O.? You may not be able to pick your company’s leader, but you do have a chance to help pick your country’s next C.E.O. On November 3rd, the United States will hold the presidential elections. You can and should vote – and when you do, think about the qualities you want in a leader.  

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Copyright 2020 by Steven L. Snyder.