Tag: ceo

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Tech CEO Report Card

As a leader you want to be liked, or if you can make it happened…loved. If you can get and keep people on your side they tend to spend more time working and less time huddling in cubicles. quietly but passionately complaining about the boss. With this concept/desire in mind, the ever vigilant folks over at Glassdoor.com have just released a employee-generated report card for the CEO’s of the 12 largest tech companies. From Google’s much loved but soon to be ex-CEO Eric Schimidt (96%) to Microsoft’s not-so-adored Steve Ballmer (40%) the list gives us a decent snapshot of how these organizations are faring from the inside out. If your like me and you want to get a head start on next year’s Tech CEO Fantasy League draft, check out the entire list and anaysis at Glassdoor.com.

p.s. I am not sure there is an actual Fantasy League for CEOs, if there is please send me the link

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Building a Better Boss

Can you build a better boss? According to the brilliant minds at Google, you can.  It’s odd because I personally  thought that Apple would beat Google to the punch on this one (i.e. iBoss) I am sure as we speak, the big brains/egos down at 1 Infinite Loop are being told by their perfect boss to come up with the perfect boss. But I digress.

The New York Times’ Adam Bryant recently reported on Google’s Project Oxygen. Bryant explains that starting in 2009 Google “began analyzing performance reviews, feedback surveys and nominations for top-manager awards.” From this information “…they correlated phrases, words, praise and complaints” to come up with their Eight Habits of Highly Effective Google Managers.

Since Google has attempted to reinvent the wheel (and succeeded) over the past few years, you might be expecting some ground breaking and life changing stuff to be on this management list.  Gems like “Take this green pill and you will become the world’s greatest leader” or “stop using Bing, it will kill you”. Sadly, this is not the case (I am not 100% sure about the Bing thing, but I am guessing you will be fine). Instead, the list is filled with common sense ideas such as:

1. Be a good coach

2. Empower your team and don’t micromanage

3. Express interests in team members success and personal well being

4. Don’t be a sissy: Be productive and results oriented

5. Be a good communicator and listen to your team

6. Help your employees with career development

7. Have a clear vision and strategy for the team

8. Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team

Nothing earth shattering here, but after reading this list I bet you can find a few that you (or your boss) fail to do on a daily basis. And therein lies the rub: leaders today are ignoring the obvious.

After decades of convoluted leadership training, bosses and the bossed are confused and lost. Did we really need a detailed statistical study to tell us that it’s a swell idea to “be a good communicator and listen to your team”? I guess we do, because we are so bogged down by leadership mantras and how-to-lead books (type leadership books into Amazon and you get 57,602 results) that we don’t know which way is up.

The fine people at Google spent untold amounts of time to  create a list that  basically is telling us, “don’t be a jerk, don’t be stupid, and get your head out of your backside”.  The sad part is that we needed them to do so.

What do you think? Did you need to be told how to lead? Or for that matter did you need to be called a sissy by a bunch of four-eyed geeks? (full disclosure, I am wearing thick  glasses and writing a blog so…)

Take a look at the list, read Adam Bryant’s outstanding article, make up your own mind and please tell us what you think. We want to listen and we worry about your well being.

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Can’t Change Leadership Without Changing Culture

Leaders changing leadership within a company without changing culture is like shuffling a deck of cards. No matter what, you are left with the same players and one game to play. The players should not be the focus. It should be the game. Here’s an article from sfgate.com about a recent attempt to reshuffle the deck over at Microsoft, without dealing with the culture first. Will it work? Only time will tell.

Microsoft’s CEO Is Said to Extend Management Shake-Up

photo: Todd Klassy
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Frugal Flying: Ryanair’s Different Leadership

“Putting the customer first.” Service corporations live and thrive with strict adherence to this stock adage. Businesses struggle to out-service their customers and win coveted spots on public ranking lists. Meanwhile, disgruntled consumers expect lavish reparations for any perceived injustice perpetrated by a careless company.  Your food was cold? Have a free panna cotta. You found Doritos in your sheets? Enjoy a complimentary massage. The flight attendant spilled Merlot on your infant? Here’s a free flight voucher. Across the service industry, CEOs flaunt their customer service creed, insisting that service represents a central rudder on the ship that is their corporation.

Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, steers his corporate ship with a very different rudder. He believes that the customers who choose his low-cost European airline forfeit service for frugality. Forget customer comfort or satisfaction, these passengers will return for Ryanair’s unmatched discount fares. O’Leary then guides his company through one controversial, yet thrifty, innovation after another. First came the decision to institute a bathroom fee on all flights. O’Leary explained that the £1 toilet charge was a means of, “raising revenue so we can keep lowering air fares.”  Next was the introduction of “standing room vertical seats” at the back of flights. “We need to make sure our efficiencies are high, so we can offer the lowest prices,” explained the head of communications. Soon after, O’Leary proposed eliminating co-pilots on flights. O’Leary explained to BusinessWeek, “Let’s take out the second pilot. Let the bloody computer fly it.”

O’Leary took this anti-customer service strategy to new heights this week after passengers “mutinied” on a flight from the Canary Islands to Belgium. The airline, projecting its revenue-saving doctrine, attempted to charge a passenger extra for outsized carry-on baggage. Over 100 student passengers on the plane revolted and were ultimately removed from the airline. However, O’Leary, refusing to sacrifice his corporate ship to customer service concerns, publicly advised Belgian universities to provide, “an online tutorial in how to pack light.” Forget an apology or flight voucher, the CEO scolded the customers and continued with business as usual.

While O’Leary’s policies attract significant backlash, observers credit his campaigns as both a creative means of increasing profit and a clever form of free media for the company. As the eccentric captain boasts of toilet fees and pilot cuts, news outlets rush to report on (and advertise) the airline. His rebuke of the Belgian students drew publicity-enhancing news articles around the web. Despite recent drops in revenue, the airline stands as the 2nd largest European airline and 7th largest in the world. The Ryanair case study then stands as an oddity in corporate and leadership studies. Arrogance and ego appear to win the day, as a leader abandons traditional micro skills in favor of a militantly economic model. The question than emerges whether pure supply and demand economics can supersede leadership logic. Can a leader throw figurative panna cotta in the customer’s face and still survive if the corporate ship floats on? The answer remains to be seen but the world eagerly watches as O’Leary drives his co-pilotless ship forward.

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Tough Act To Follow: 3 Tips to Transferring Charismatic Power

The sociologist Max Weber realized long ago that one of the challenges of leadership is the transference of power.  Weber knew that this was especially the case when you are forced to replace a charismatic leader. How does a visionary, an inspirational leader, a person driven by a sense of calling and purpose transfer their charismatic energy to the leadership that follows?

More often than not, the issue of charismatic transference emerges in startup organizations. Organizations led by entrepreneurial, paradigm breaking, charismatic revolutionaries may reach the pinnacle of success but the problem then becomes: how does the company keep it going if the leader chooses to go fly fishing, become  a college professor or just decides the time has come to move on.

Having a charismatic leader seems like a great idea, especially during a start up period or during a time of crisis.  Having such a luminary, such a solitary star in the sky makes it easier to navigate through both the good and the bad.  But anything that shines so bright will inevitably burn out. Then you have a big problem to solve.

A current day example of the daunting task of charismatic transference is Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs is Apple and Apple is Steve Jobs.  That’s what we’ve been sold, and that’s what we choose to believe. This week Mr. Jobs announced that he will be taking another medical leave of absence, his third in the last six years. When the news first came out, shares in Apple fell 8% in overseas markets (due to the MLK holiday on Monday, US markets were closed).  Of course the stock rebounded later in week thanks to Apple’s amazing earnings announcement, which included at profit increase of 78% ($6 billion) and record revenue of $26.7 billion. It’s pretty clear that even if Jobs were not to return, Apple would continue being a giant in the tech world, but for how long?

Apple and Jobs offer a look at both the upside and the downside of having a charismatic leader. More importantly, they highlight the near impossibility of having to replace one. There is no question that without Steve Jobs at the helm, Apple would have never reached the heights it has. The company itself has created fundamental shifts in the tech industry, if not the world, time and time again. Then again Jobs’ charisma has had a lot to do with how many of us respond like moths to a flame when he rolls out of a new iPod or iPhone.

So without Jobs, can Apple survive? The answer is a resounding, but qualified, yes. Things will hum along just fine as long as the next wave of leaders at Apple focus on one thing and one thing one: Execution.  It’s clear that charisma has played a large role in their success far, but in reality it was Steve Jobs’ ability to get things done, to execute, that made Apple what it is today. His dedication, if not obsession, with high quality, forward thinking projects is legendary. His drive, his desire to succeed and his ability to get those around him to execute at levels that they never thought possible are what make Steve Jobs a titan of industry.  To say the least, Jobs’ overwhelming charisma has certainly helped, but it alone cannot explain his or Apple’s success.

Tim Cook and the rest of Apple’s future leaders need to focus on not trying to out-charisma a cult hero like Jobs. It’s not going to happen. If they can just find a way to continue Jobs’ record of execution, they just might have a chance. It’s not going to be easy, but I can guarantee it will never happen if they choose to focus on charisma over execution.

Bottom line, if you have a charismatic leader and you’re facing a transference of power keep the following in mind:

-In the short term build on the plan laid out by the charismatic leader

-During the transference period make sure that concrete steps of execution are built on the charismatic vision

-Move agendas forward built on the charismatic vision but get beyond it

Simply put, change little, reinforce the vision, make sure you know how to execute on the vision and most importantly, respect the vision for a while but don’t be afraid to move beyond it when the time is right. Charismatic leadership, even when it slightly fades, can be a base for successfully moving forward.

Photo: willamli