– Ronald Reagan
True story…
A few years ago, I worked with a leader in Company A (we’ll just call it that) who’s CEO was a superstar. This CEO was visionary, sharp-thinking and had a strong leadership team to work with. Together they managed to take Company A’s results to unprecedented levels.
Unfortunately, his leadership style was toxic. He managed to get results but alienated his people in the process. In fact, that’s why we were called in to coach the leadership team. Apparently, everyone needed help to be more impactful… except him.
Company A had done so well under the CEO’s leadership that he began to get noticed externally. As the share price rose, people far and wide heard of his success. He gained a reputation for achieving high growth levels in the industry and was soon offered a position to be CEO of another company. We’ll call it Company B.
Company B wanted to benefit from his visionary leadership and brilliance. The Board of Directors had plans for massive growth for the business and decided that this CEO was just the person to lead it into a new era of growth and performance.
18 months into his tenure as CEO of Company B, he was dismissed.
What happened? The superstar CEO was fired so soon? Why?
There’s an unseen part to this story, unseen by external observers who watch growth metrics, share price and don’t consider what’s going on, on the inside of the organisation.
In Company A, the culture was slowly being eroded by the CEO’s bombastic leadership approach. While he managed to push his team to deliver and got great results, these results were based on his brilliant ideas. At the same time, the top leadership layer began leaving the organisation because they didn’t want to be part of his leadership approach.
Those who stayed were threatened or coerced. When he left, many breathed a sigh of relief. He created a layer of leadership below him filled with “yes” people who did exactly what they were told. They executed on his great ideas (which he can truly get credit for) but nobody spoke up about his leadership style. If anyone tried, they were bullied into submission. As it happens, it does take time for results to reflect the toxic culture they stem from and eventually they do especially because your talent leaves and gets replaced by “yes” people who don’t speak up when warning bells begin ringing.
In Company B, there was low tolerance for this type of leadership style. Culture was all too important to allow a toxic CEO to destroy it. Company B took a stand for its people and culture and the CEO was asked to leave.
Leaders (and CEOs) get hired for results and fired for style.
In my work with top performing leaders and CEOs, we make sure to pay attention to leadership style as well as how they go about their work of getting extraordinary business results.
The secret of success is NOT to know how to push the people around you to do exactly what you want.
It’s NOT to hire the people who are going to agree with everything you say and follow instructions to the letter and when things start slipping through the cracks, no-one speaks up because they’re too scared to.
The secret of success is to have the kind of impact that makes people WANTto work with you and LEARN from you.
Success is about hiring a team of A-players who will ASK questions and challenge you, so that the results you create together take your business even further than you can imagine, all on your own.
The secret of success is to be a leader that inspires.
Now, if you are or want to be that kind of leader, click here and say YES!