If you are new among CEOs, this article is for you: It will teach you how not to behave as a leader. If you are experienced, read it too, we hope you won't find yourself in these leadership styles.
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The first bad CEO syndrome we may call "Must see everything". No matter how big or small the company may be, this CEO must see everything. Production plans, strategies, marketing and their ads, the schedule of office cleaning, quantity of bathroom papers, strategic relationships with partners, market positioning, quantity of bread in workers sandwiches... This CEO must see it all "to be informed."
This kind of behavior may have two sources: it frequently appears in CEOs that achieved much with their two hands, CEOs that came the long way from a small startup to a big company and now don't realize that small and big can't be led the same way. That's why there are other executives, boards, team leaders, and all other support to make CEO's life easier.
The other reason is that the person is micro-management freak and simply can't let go, can't allow anybody else to take even the smallest bit of decision making. Unfortunately, those persons need some very serious help because in most cases that is not a learned behavior, that is a deep psychological problem.
The second syndrome we may call "I know best!" Forget all experts you have in the company, this CEO will interrupt anybody in the middle of conversation and offer his own view and, of course, the solution. Which may or may not have sense but if you try to contradict and offer a different approach, this CEO will become very aggressive and in many cases will jump from a business to a personal level.
In this case, the problem is insecurity. If the CEO is not sure about his abilities to run the company, he will try to offer a solution for any problem at hand, trying to prove - first to himself and than to others - that he's a CEO with a reason. Our advice would be: a) if you work for such a CEO, leave the company; b) if you are an owner or a director, fire him. It is obvious that one person can't know everything so "I know best" is the best way to ruin the company.
The third syndrome we may call "Focusing on what, not how". You must lift the production effort, you must cut the cost, you must do this, he must do that... And then the CEO turns around and leaves. Not a single word about efforts and costs associated, what the company will gain, who will do that, why the heck you must do that right here and now... This is a very frustrating experience for everybody in CEO's team but also for every employee in the company.
The background is most probably in CEO's wish to prove to the board, shareholders or even his friends that he's the one and only, above all and everything. In other words, a very dangerous narcissistic person. Without consultation with his team, no CEO can make a good decision and focusing only on goals without paths to get there simple doesn't work.
So, if you are new, try to avoid leadership styles we just wrote about. And if you are experienced and still managed to find yourself in one of these examples, please stop for a while and focus on this Leadership section. From the article No1. ■