CEO Pain #3: Like A Soapie
The Third of Three CEO Pains: Drama
Recap: Over the next few newsletters we’re discussing the “Three Pains” of CEOs in further detail, as first mentioned in ‘A CEO’s Journey’ previously; these pain points are experienced as very specific frustrations and fears, and have addressable solutions.
Two newsletters ago we discussed the first CEO pain.
In the last newsletter we discussed the second CEO pain.
A quick reminder:
The first CEO Pain focuses on visibility.
This shows up in the short-term as frustration with fogginess or “opacity” of direction.
Longer-term the team risks being “taken by surprise”.
How does this show up in practice?
Read more in the previous article, here.
The next CEO pain then comes into play, which is:
Being stuck, focused on productivity.
This shows up in the short-term as frustrations with being “stuck” in terms of outputs.
Longer-term the team risks being “left in the dust”.
Let’s now continue with CEO pain #3.
Consider the case of a large financial services company.
It’s profitable and has performed well over the last few years.
A long-time CEO resigns unexpectedly and a new CEO takes his place.
At first everything is wonderful. Great engagement with Board; great engagement with Exco and the broader management team.
Within a year of stepping into the role, the CEO no longer looks forward to Board meetings. Board members are quick to blame and criticize, undermining the confidence of the executive team.
Some of the criticisms are valid, however, many are trivial and petty, such as a single spelling mistake on page 87 of the Board submission, causing board members to “worry about the entire argument of the strategy in question.”
This becomes so severe that the CEO begins to reflexively whisper when he refers to certain individuals, even in private 1-1 meetings, as though they can hear him.
Meetings start to take on an air of being in a spy thriller.
Before long, the Board is starting to “request input” on hires one or two levels below the CEO, causing hiring to slow, which is not helpful at at time when executive turnover has increased dramatically.
This dynamic plays itself out for a few years, with strife among executive team members being visible to the whole team. Certain individuals are not welcome in meetings, other walk out of meetings. No one is willing to have constructive and sincere 1-1 discussions.
The various stakeholder don’t want to discuss “team dynamics” as everyone “should just get on with it” and push complicated strategy, and even greater execution.
The dynamic gets so extreme that after a particularly harrowing Board meeting the CEO quits. His executive team are gutted; many leave within a year or two of his departure.
The three pains are shown in the image above; in this article we’re focusing on #3 here.
So, at a fundamental level, the third CEO pain is focused in:
Team dynamics.
Is it healthy?
Is it drama-driven or data-driven?
This shows up in the short-term as frustrations with drama in terms of relationships, engagement, and interactions, in meeting and 1-1.
We’ve unfortunately seen this at all levels of organizations.
Boards. CEOs. CXOs. Excos. Senior management. Middle management.
And it’s easy to ignore or minimize, until it blows up spectacularly.
Frustratingly, it often manifest in the “politics” of relatively small and well-meaning organizations of 20-30 individuals.
It’s always easier to be in denial and avoid the difficult work of team dynamics.
Ironically, it’s easier to work on “hard” strategy and avoid so-called “soft” interactions.
This is precisely why many leaders end up experiencing something similar to “Lord of the Flies” or, perhaps insert your favorite drama or Soapie here.
So, core question: how has this CEO pain manifested for you?
Reply to this email if you’d like to let us know.
It is particularly important to understand the interaction of the three pains with each other. We will be digging into this in our next newsletter.
Thanks,
The Impactful Executive Team
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