Transform yourself
Employees expect the CEO to live
up to Mahatma Gandhi’s famous
edict, “For things to change, first
I must change.” The CEO is the
organization’s chief role model.
a large bonus to a woman who had
taken a clear leadership role in a very
important business initiative.
“This leader’s contributions generated
real economic value to the bottom
line,” he explains. “Of course, news
of that raced through the whole
organization, but it helped employees
understand that rewards will be based
on contributions and that ‘pay for
performance’ could actually be put
into practice.”
Typically, a personal transformation
journey involves 360-degree feedback
on leadership behavior specific
to the program’s objectives, diary
analysis to reveal how time is spent
on transformation priorities, a
commitment to a short list of personal Building a strong and committed top
transformation objectives, and
team
professional coaching toward these
ends.
The CEO’s team can and should
be a valuable asset in leading any
CEOs generally report that the
transformation. As Deutsche Post’s
process is most powerful when
Zumwinkel suggests, “You need
all members of an executive team
excellent individual players, but you
pursue their transformation journeys
also need players who are dedicated
individually but collectively discuss
to playing as a team.” Sharing a
and reinforce their personal objectives meaningful story and modeling the
in order to create an environment of
right role will certainly increase the
challenge and support.
odds of getting the team on board,
but it is also vital to invest time in
Murthy’s 2002 decision to take on the building that team.
job title of chief mentor at Infosys,
for example, meant that he had to
Assess and act
reinvent himself, because he laid
aside his formal managerial (CEO)
Successful CEOs take time to assess
authority at the same time.
the abilities of individual members of
the team and act swiftly on the result.
He explains, “You have to sacrifice
In some cases, input from third parties
yourself first for a big cause before you (such as executive search firms) is
can ask others to do the same,” adding, sought to create a more objective fact
“A good leader knows how to retreat
base.
into the background gracefully while
encouraging his successor to become
Many CEOs find it useful to map
more and more successful in the job.” team members on a matrix, with
“business performance” on one axis
Take symbolic action
and “role-modeling the desired
behavior” on the other. Those in the
The quickest way to send shock waves top-right box (desired behavior, high
through an organization is to conceive performance) are the organization’s
and execute a series of symbolic acts
stars, and those in the bottom-left box
signaling to employees that they
(undesired behavior, low performance)
should behave in ways appropriate to
should be motivated, developed, or
a transformation and support these
dismissed.
types of behavior in others.
The greatest potential for sending
For instance, C. John Wilder, CEO
signals involves the employees in
of the Texas energy utility TXU, gave the box of “undesired behavior, high
60 MAL 13/16 ISSUE
performance.” When clear action is
taken to improve or remove these
managers, the team’s members know
that role-modeling and teamwork
matter. Banca Intesa’s Passera affirms
that, “If necessary, you have to get rid
of those individuals, even the talented
ones, who quarrel and cannot work
together.”
How do CEOs know when to
intervene with the strugglers? They
can reflect on the following questions:
Do team members clearly understand
what is expected of each of them in
relation to the transformation? Is
the CEO serving as a positive role
model? Does everyone recognize the
downside and upside of getting on
board and doing what is required?
Have struggling team members
received a chance to build the needed
skills? If the answer to all of these
questions is yes, decisive action is
justified.
Experienced CEOs attest to the
positive impact this can have on the
rest of the company. EMC’s Tucci says
he had to take “public” action to tackle
the “whiff of arrogance” that used
to characterize certain parts of the
company. TXU’s Wilder recalls that
“When we did a cultural audit, we
found that the number-one complaint
was that management was not dealing
with employees that everyone knew
weren’t carrying their load.“
Invest team time
Even with the right team in
place, it takes time for a group
of highly intelligent, ambitious,
and independent people to align
themselves in a clear direction.
Typically, the first order of business
is for members to agree on what
they can achieve as a team (not as
individuals), how often the team
should meet, what transformation
issues should be discussed, and what
behavior the team expects (and won’t
tolerate).