The fast-paced society has thrown up many new entities. Chief Executive officer or CEO is one of them. Though it is difficult to precisely define a CEO, one general agreement is that he is the top functionary of any organisation. Of course, defining the organisation is again a complex issue, but some general agreement can be arrived at on this term also. So we can conclude that a CEO is one who takes all the decisions for an organisation on behalf of all the members.
This entity, the CEO, can be identified by some cardinal attributes most being thrust on him by the yes men who invariably surround this CEO, cordoning off the right men whose numbers even otherwise is small. Two of the most common such attributes are omniscience and omnipotence, that is ‘I know everything’ and ‘I can do everything’. So the CEO is just one short of the three attributes ascribed to God, the third being omnipresence.
Well, the CEO tries for this also by displaying his name or picture along with some quote or value judgement either copied or cooked all over. Go to any big organisation and you may find big hoardings bearing testimony to this. But this does not create many problems. The problems arise when the CEOs start living these rather seriously, thinking as if the world was waiting for them to arrive on the scene and lead it to the promised land.
This mindset results in a serious disequilibrium for the organisation that was in one state of equilibrium. Most damaging outcome of this mindset is the chaotic situation that ultimately arises because of the simmering discontent. CEOs are and should definitely be agents of change. But change has to happen with continuity because that is how a system can survive. Forcing change without taking into account the existing state leads to chaos.
It is important to understand the nature of the existing system and create changes that would take the system forward. The rule is: Slow and steady wins the race. Speed is good as far as it goes but continuing with speed for long is fraught with possibilities of disaster. The job of the CEO is to lead the whole organisation. But guided by a bloated ego many believe that “to move fast, move alone”. They may be right, but they need to know that it is more important to move far. And the rule is, if you want to move far, move together.
Organisations are meant for long-distance races where more than speed endurance counts. The trouble with most CEOs is that they fail to understand this reality, and for them organisations seem to be entities that are coterminous with their own stay. So they all appear to be men or women in hurry, driven more by arrogance than reason. Results are that they think God set ridiculously high targets for the organisation members and push them with allurement, threats or sanctions.
CEOs must realise that they are managers and need to work with and through people who more often than not have different capabilities. Setting unreasonable standards of performance creates anxiety, frustration and even rebellion. The impatience due to arrogance turns the CEOs of today into megalomaniacs. It is time to rethink the qualities of a CEO. Because more than intellect it is the temperament that matters. Power has to be tempered with humility.
The writer teaches management at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (Jharkhand). He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com