If you are currently the CEO of a public company, and wish to continue in your current role, you may not be too inclined to make sweeping changes right now: to the overall mission; to the growth strategy in new and emerging markets; to your industry footprint. Your mindset may have been affected by the current credit crisis to do anything other than “keep the shareholders happy,” a drum roll of a message that I heard too often when I worked on Wall Street in the 1980s. The first commercial bank I worked for became the first US commercial bank taken over successfully in a hostile raid. I learned some important lessons when that happened in 1987—lessons that I apply to my coaching philosophy and personal branding strategy today when I work with CEOs. It was also a pivotal moment for my own career direction, as I became interested in working one-on-one with executives to manage and develop their careers separate from the organizational mission.
CEOs tend to do predictable things in unpredictable economic environments. If you lead a company that is starved for cash, the first strategies (or impulses) are to reduce the workforce and sell off assets. The current crisis is a clear example of CEOs who are left with few options to save a company in a near-death spiral. Or, we don’t have to look any further than the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers to understand the impact felt by executives one level below the C-Suite as well as company employees, not to mention the shareholders. In the last several weeks, reported layoffs are happening beyond Wall Street, as PepsiCo, General Motors, Merck and Yahoo—among many others—shed 1,000s of jobs. It’s the impact on human capital that I worry about here, tied to executive responsibility.
What will be the lasting effect of how CEOs manage and lead their companies now and through the tough times ahead? What are their lessons learned? Is there feedback for CEOs beyond company benchmarks and criteria for executive management skill sets? As their employees and managers make an exit, will there be a more critical lens focused on a personal brand that addresses specific, targeted leadership style, people management skill, and vision?
Some sites offer tools to the public as stand-in feedback for CEOs, such as Glassdoor.com, but they are not perfect models. Forbes.com has a CEO Approval Tracker, and again, they state “this is not a scientific poll.” Much better is 360º personal branding feedback that permits data from anonymous, diverse sources. A thorough analysis provides CEOs a blueprint if they remain in place or a prescription for what I call “career change management.” In both cases, the path to CEO success could well be through the personal branding process.
Comments