Book Summary: “The Five Temptations of a CEO” by Patrick Lencioni
In this book from leadership guru Patrick Lencioni, the CEO of a San Francisco-based company is struggling in his first year at the helm. Unbeknownst to him, what is required is not a review of marketing, strategic planning, and finances. Rather, the situation requires the CEO to step out of his comfort zone for a behavioral self-examination; something that many business owners and executives may be very hesitant to do. Many CEOs don’t realize that their success as an executive generally has less to do with intellectual skills than with personal and behavioral discipline.
In this fable of leadership, similar to Ebenezer Scrooge in the famous story by Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, the CEO achieves profound enlightenment over the course of a subway ride after being visited by a strange but perceptive fellow traveler. Whether real or a dream, the passenger opens the CEO’s eyes to some of his self-destructive behaviors and practices and imparts some useful business and behavioral insights along the way.
Labeled “temptations,” the passenger looks at five areas where there is a natural tendency toward human frailty and where CEOs often err, leading to less effective CEO leaders and unsatisfactory business results. .
The First Temptation: Choosing State Over Results
Lencioni says a common temptation for many CEOs is that they are more interested in protecting their career status than making sure their company achieves results. They can certainly be proud of reaching personal milestones in their careers, but that shouldn’t really take precedence. doing something with your status. Achievement should drive them, not ego. A focus on his career and status will make the CEO complacent and unfocused, which causes bottom line results. And too often, CEOs justify their own performance even when the organizations they lead are failing around them.
Self-assessment question: Would you be very upset if your company exceeded its goals but remained somewhat anonymous relative to its peers in the industry?
The Second Temptation: Choosing Popularity Over Responsibility
Whether done consciously or not, many CEOs would rather be popular with their direct reports (and set them free) than hold them accountable. It’s lonely being at the top of an organization and wanting to be liked is understandable, but it’s dangerous to judge yourself too much by what other people think of you. What is required is for the CEO to tell his employees what is expected of them and then constantly remind them of those expectations. And when performance falls short of expected levels, the CEO must address it directly and professionally. People may not always as the CEO when difficult situations are dealt with in this way, but I respect them.
Self-assessment question: Do you often feel reluctant to give negative feedback to your direct reports? Do you exhaust negative comments to make them more palatable?
The Third Temptation – Choosing certainty over clarity
Many CEOs are tempted to make sure their decisions are correct. Choosing certainty over clarity, some CEOs are so afraid of being wrong that they wait until they are absolutely certain about something before making a decision. They don’t like to decide things without perfect information, so things are presented in an ambiguous way. But if there is one person in the organization who cannot afford to be too much precisely, he is the general manager. Three words a CEO should get used to saying are “I was wrong,” because if a CEO can’t feel comfortable being wrong, then he won’t make difficult decisions with limited information. You cannot move forward in the face of uncertainty if a CEO is not willing to make mistakes. In addition, Lencioni writes that in these situations, CEOs “can’t hold people accountable for things that aren’t clear. If he’s not willing to make decisions with limited information, he can’t achieve clarity.” This, then, makes it impossible to hold people accountable. And without accountability, the results are a matter of luck. So make clarity more important than precision.
Self-assessment question: Do you pride yourself on being intellectually accurate?
The Fourth Temptation – Choosing harmony over productive conflict
The fourth temptation is the desire for harmony. Lencioni writes that “It is natural for human beings to desire harmony. But harmony is like cancer for good decision-making.” What it takes to make good decisions is not bad conflict, but productive ideological conflict, with passionate and heated conversations in which people challenge each other without permanently damaging their relationships. But many CEOs are afraid to consider conflict, to tolerate discord, and to put their own ideas on the line where they might be challenged. The result is that they do not benefit from the diverse opinions and ideas of their people.
Self-assessment question: Do you feel uncomfortable in meetings if your direct reports argue?
The Fifth Temptation: Choosing Invulnerability Over Trust
CEOs must trust their employees, even when they feel like they are putting their careers in the hands of others. But before a CEO can trust others, he has to be vulnerable. People who trust each other don’t worry about hiding their opinions or their passions. Getting results, holding people accountable, creating clarity for your people, engaging in productive conflict…all of these ultimately depend on vulnerability and trust. CEOs must trust their employees and actively encourage them to challenge their ideas. They will return that trust with respect and honesty, and with a desire to be vulnerable among their peers.
Self-Assessment Question: Do you try to keep your biggest weaknesses a secret from your direct reports?
Having one or more of these temptations is not the reason CEOs ultimately fail. Lencioni writes that “Leaders fail because they are not willing to put their temptations on the table for others to see.” But this requires a level of scrutiny that many CEOs resent and resist. Yet the willingness to do this is exactly what separates successful leaders from those who fail. “The key is to embrace the self-examination that reveals temptations, and to keep them open where they can be addressed.”
Nobody likes to admit they’re wrong, but some people hate it. Great CEOs don’t lose face in the least when they mess up, because they know who they are, they know why they are the CEO, and they realize that organizational results, not appearances of being smart, are their ultimate measure. of successful.