Top Dogs Are Lonely: Confessions of a CEO Coach
- on 02.13.10
- Filed Under Business
- 9 Comments
There are no pressures greater and no challenges as complex as those that come with the CEO position. And the job is often a lonely one.
Executive coaches are now commonplace in organizations, particularly at the top levels. My experience for the past decade as a CEO coach has been an energizing and rewarding one. The role of the CEO coach is unique, because the job of the CEO is unique.
And the average longevity for CEOs in North America is less than 3 years. CEOs are beleaguered by constant pressure from shareholders, boards of directors, government regulators, the media and special interest groups. And the list goes on.
The job of CEO is unique from several perspectives: No one else needs to hear the truth more, and gets it less from employees; no one else is the focus of criticism when things go wrong; no one else is the final decision maker on difficult and often lose-lose decisions; and finally, no one else enjoys the almost hero-celebrity status and rewards.
For these reasons, and many more, no one in the organization needs an honest, close and long-term relationship with a trusted advisor than a CEO. As many CEOs have told me, the most significant issue for them to deal with is the feeling of intense and profound loneliness at times.
So the role of the CEO coach becomes critical for a CEO who uses the coach wisely. And for the coach, working with a CEO poses a number of potential minefields and dilemmas that must be dealt with:
Overidentification. The coach must be able to immerse himself/herself in the CEO’s world and experience without merging identities. While the coach’s presence in the organization may be common place, they are not part of the organization. So while the coach can empathize and be compassionate with the CEO, the coach’s job is to be detached and sometimes brutally honest.
Communication. How much information and the kind of information that is provided between the CEO and the CEO’s boss–the Board or President–and employees can be very dicey. The coach msut be vigilant about peoples’ ulterior motives and yet be a source of information that can help the CEO.
Feedback. One of the CEO’s most important tasks is to develop leaders in the organization, which requires honest assessment. The coach’s feedback can have enormous impact on careers.
Loyalty. If the CEO pays for the coach, it’s obvious the coach serves the CEO. But if the coach’s bill is being paid for the organization, the board may require some kind of reporting of results by the coach. In this case, the nature of the data collected and information about personal discussions must be handled transparently.
Friendship. Often, the coach develops a friendly, personal relationship with the CEO, who will often share more personal information with the coach than anyone else. And while the friendship can help, it can sometimes be too close. The coach must still maintain a professional perspective, one that allows the coach to be honest with the CEO.
Ego. Being a CEO coach can give the coach considerable status which could inflate the coach’s ego. The coach must ensure that his or her self-worth is not intimately tied to that of the CEO’s status.
A CEO coach can be a trusted role model, advisor, guide and mentor who helps the CEO shape visions, tap new energies and generate desired results. But more than anything, the CEO coach can provide an oasis of calm, a relationship of trust and honesty to help the CEO fulfill an extremely demanding role.
to be a CEO you need years of experience….like 10 or 15 years. You need a business experience and sometimes business degree. Some CEO come from business, finance or accounting background….example below….please let me know what you are looking for so I can help?
here is a BIO of a great CEO
Paul Wood CEO:
Paul is the President, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer of Odyssey Advisors. Paul Wood manages the equity portfolios at Odyssey Advisors with the exception of the Equity Value portfolio, where he shares responsibility. He has over 35 years of experience in the investment management and research analysis of common stocks.
Before co-founding Odyssey Advisors, Paul spent 7 years with the U.S. Trust Company, N.A., managing over $600 million in equity and fixed income assets. As Senior Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager, he was the top performing equity portfolio manager nationwide for U.S. Trust for all time periods measured at the time of his departure. Prior to that, he was President and Managing Director of Atlantic Century Advisors, a wholly owned subsidiary of Security Pacific National Bank. Before becoming an equity portfolio manager, Paul spent 12 years as a securities analyst covering a broad range of industries.
Paul is an angel investor, writer, and advisor to a financial education and media company dedicated to educating women about investing and has written and published a multitude of articles on various investment topics. Most recently, his extensive research on alternative energy has resulted in the publication of multiple articles on the topic of clean energy. Paul also volunteers as an unofficial financial advisor to non-profit organizations. A native of California, Paul graduated with an M.B.A. degree in Finance from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He also earned a B.S. degree in Business & Industrial Management from San Jose State University.
Basically you need a degree in Bcomm marketing of course. The only problem of the whole matter is that you only use about 23% of the stuff you learn in real life. The only true degree you actually need is good people skills and the motivation to make money. Also a sure fact if you want to become a CEO of a big company rather be it in youre own company. In a Bcomm degree marketing, you study a lot of entreuperneurship qualities, but if you do not own those qualities, youre scraped from the scene of earning big bucks. So indulge in the drive of motivation, but definately not for another company. Study and gain , but gain that for youreself.
do extensive research on the company and you'll probably think of many natural questions to ask about that (for example, "I noticed in a Wall Street Journal article that you're looking to expand into China, what are the factors that you're considering in making that choice?").
You could also ask him/her questions about how he/she got to where he/she is today. If you want to be in a certain position within a company, it's an awesome opportunity to find out information that you might not have thought of to get into that role.
My bf is a electrical engineer and the ceo at his company has about seven degrees in engineering and business, So i guess the more study you do the more likely you are to get the top job. But there are also those people that have started from the bottom and worked their way up to the top. I think those cases are rare though
The Boards usually control this sort of thing, not shareholders directly.
It's called "Socialism for the rich."
Yes, I believe you are correct.
And, a heavy emphasis on clinical psychology studies and specific work experience in that discipline would be a plus.
Spending some time working in the trenches is an excellent prerequisite which cannot usually be ignored.
Board of directors pick the CEO and oversee the company, where as the CEO runs the day to day operations.
Clearly CEO's have not used the tax cuts to create new jobs. Regardless of the economy the number one strategy of all corporations is to reduce labor costs either by cutting jobs or outsourcing. The fallacy of "trickle on" economics has been proven over and over.
Try The fair housing and employment department. ask them what to do .I have the same prob we went to HR and they have swept everything under the rug , LAWYER UP!!!!