The Biggest Mistake Leaders Make: Insights from Grant Wattie

Explore how declining tenure rates reveal gaps in CEO leadership and public trust expectations. Insights from expert Grant Wattie.

Declining tenure rates and public trust suggest that CEO leadership has not kept pace with increased expectations. Many new CEOs have gaps in their preparedness and need to keep developing, particularly when it comes to dealing with scrutiny from an array of stakeholders.

Research from PwC, “CEO20 Public Survey” (2016) suggests future CEOs continuous learning will not be an option, but a must and strong core experience such as general management, finance, and people management, among others, is no longer enough.

The role of the CEO is becoming more complex as competing and increasingly vocal stakeholders permeate organizations. Leading at this intersection requires new thinking; past experience is no longer a reliable guide for future action.

Approximately two-thirds of the people currently in leadership positions in the Western world will fail — they will be fired or demoted. The most common reason for their failure is their inability to build or maintain a team according to David L. Dotlich and Peter C. Cairo as outlined in their book Why CEOs Fail The 11 Behaviors That Can Derail Your Climb to the Top – and How to Manage Them.

CEO success comes with a heightened awareness of failures in your career enabling you to perceive patterns and to understand your derailers.

Tip: Reflect on disappointments and defeats by asking questions of yourself like: What behaviors in this situation didn’t serve me well? Are there behavioral themes or patterns? Do any of the following derailers fit this pattern? arrogance, melodrama, habitual distrust, passive resistance, eagerness to please, volatility, excessive caution, aloofness, mischievousness, eccentricity, and perfectionism.

The following 2 strategies to develop awareness and behavior change are imperative:

1.  Direct report evaluation – Ask your direct reports to answer the question: “How can I be a better leader?” Direct reports live with your derailers and are forced to work around them; they can provide the best insights into your vulnerabilities and may be able to make meaningful suggestions on how to address them.
2. Find a confidant or coach – Talk to someone you trust, a truth teller who understands your business context, and can provide you with objective advice and feedback – the antidote to ‘CEO disease’ – the inability to see your own blind spots and reluctance for others to tell them to you.

Success as a CEO today hinges on continual growth in the role, even more than on the preparation beforehand and developing the following capabilities:

1. Emotional intelligence and softer skills including self awareness and relational intelligence.

2. Flexible, systemic thinking, managing uncertainty, complexity, and constant change.

3. Sophisticated communication skills to address diverse and divergent stakeholders across audiences, languages, and modes.

4. Strong personal purpose, meaning and authenticity.

In summary, all of these capabilities are critical requirements for next-generation CEOs who aspire to collaborative team leadership. They can be learned faster and more effectively with the aid of a master CEO coach.