- Research shows CEOs experience a dozen mostly negative emotions during an average week
- Many western CEOS find the job intensely lonely, and don't know where to seek advice
- Author Steve Tappin says Western CEOs could learn from the Chinese
- Human beings can experience 34,000 different emotional states. In an average working week, most CEOs experience just one dozen emotions across work and home life. Those 12 emotions are mostly negative: Being overwhelmed, frustrated, angry, disappointed, and fearful.
Why is it so difficult at CEO level?
The day to day pressures of the job are intense. Most CEOs are at the
mercy of their diaries, their businesses, the press and their
shareholders. With the western economies entering a long, hard winter,
and the rising competitiveness of eastern businesses, CEOs in western
countries face some of the harshest conditions of their careers.
The long term personal toll can also be huge. One typical FTSE100 CEO
told me: "I have been married twice and have four kids and one
grandchild. I can't remember the first two boys growing up when I was
with my first wife. We separated when they were eight and nine. I can't
remember them when they were young."
Most CEOs respond to this pressure -- and frequent self doubt -- by
creating command and control systems. They take all crucial decisions,
which are then meant to be executed lower down. The model depends on the
CEO being an expert with good answers, typically based on their
training as a finance director or deep commercial experience in their
market. But the reality is almost all problems are channelled up to the
top. So the CEO faces a huge burden.
Is life different for CEOs in the east compared to the west?
I interviewed a hundred leading Chinese entrepreneurs for my next
book, and found the CEOs are constantly near exhaustion. In contrast to
western CEOs they are tired not by a hard economic reality but because
they have huge dreams. Typically, they have not yet worked out how to
manage the hyper-growth their dream and the booming market are creating.
This can cause problems because businesses need the driving energy,
strategic clarity, commercial grip and inspiration that a great CEO can
provide if they are to deliver their full potential for their owners,
staff, customers and society. Tired professional managers and exhausted
dreamers will not get the best from their businesses. In the current
hard economic winter in the west and booming spring of China,
inspiration and trust from the top will be vital ingredients in getting
the best returns from businesses.
How can CEOs learn from different cultures?
Being a CEO is a huge and complicated job, and each business needs a
bespoke approach. But CEOs can make a start with five steps:
1. Clarify your dream. Western CEOs should learn from the Chinese.
What do you truly dream of building? Rediscover the excitement and
thrill that drove you to the top in the first place.
2. Build a fellowship. Most CEOs take too much direct personal
control. It stifles those around you and it exhausts you. Learn to build
a fellowship you trust and who will deliver for you every time.
3. Rekindle the spirit of your business. Narayana Murthy, founder and
chairman Emeritus of Infosys, arguably the most globally successful
Indian business of the last 25 years, told me: "To me, leadership is
primarily about raising the aspirations of people, making people say
that they will walk on water." Use your dream to inspire your teams and
businesses. Share it with business partners to help you build trust.
4. Build a personal support system to ground you. Make rules to
safeguard your recharge time, reconnect with your partners and kids and
stay healthy.
5. Get out of the day to day. The best CEOs work on business as usual
by exception, not as the norm. They maintain a tight grip of their
business with robust systems and review but do not lurch from day crisis
to day crisis.
Ultimately, CEOs who are suffering need to find a new way of leading.
In this high octane world, they can either work in a new way or burn
out.
Editor's note: Steve Tappin is the CEO of Xinfu. He is the author of "The Secrets of CEOs" (2008) and forthcoming "Dream Corporation, Dream Leaders, Dream Life" (March 2012).
CEOs: Burning bright or burning out?
November 23, 2011 -- Updated 0014 GMT (0814 HKT)
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/22/opinion/ceos-rekindle-dreams/index.html