The Five Temptations of a CEO by Patrick Lencioni

Temptation #1: Choosing Status over actual results

Solution:

• Publicly commit to measurable results.
• Make results the most important measure of personal success, or step down from the job.

 Temptation #2: Choosing Popularity over accountability.

Solution:

• Confront direct reports immediately about behavior and performance
• Clarify expectations up front to make confronting direct repots easier.
• Work for the long-term respect of your direct reports, not for their affection. Don’t view them as a support group, but as key leaders who must deliver on their commitments if the company is to produce predictable results. And remember, your people aren’t going to like you anyway if they ultimately fail.

Temptation #3: Choosing certainty over clarity

Solution:

• Set public deadlines for making key decisions.
• Practice making decisions without complete information around less risky issues.
• Remember that your people will learn more if you take decisive action than if you always wait for more information. And if the decisions you make in the spirit of creating clarity turn out to be wrong when more information becomes available, change plans and explain why. It is your job to risk being wrong. The only real cost to you of being wrong is loss of pride. The cost to your company of not taking the risk of being wrong is paralysis.

 Temptation #4: Choosing Harmony over conflict

Solution:

• Draw out differing opinions and perspectives from staff members
• Engage in and allow passionate discussions and key issues
• Tolerate discord. Encourage your direct reports to air the ideological differences, and with passion. Tumultuous meetings are often signs of progress. Tame ones are often signs of leaving important issues off the table. Guard against personal attacks, but not to the point of stifling important interchanges of ideas.

Temptation #5: Choosing Invulnerability over trust

Solution:

• Acknowledge your own weaknesses and mistakes.
• Allow direct reports to see your human side.
• Actively encourage your people to challenge your ideas. Trust them with your reputation and your ego. As a CEO, this is the greatest level of trust that you can give. They will return it with respect and honesty, and with a desire to be vulnerable among their peers.