Pitfalls of a celebrity CEO
July 8th, 2008 by ALVIN SOONG
According to Rice, there are 5 common pitfalls that befall celebrity CEOS:
1. They try to impose a copycat culture and try to replicate the strategies of the market leader or recreate the culture of their last firm without regards to the culture already in place. Thus forgeting the mission and values from the core of an organisation culture and should be authentic and unique to afford competitive advantage.
2. Compounding this is they think they can conduct a few town hall meetings and call it a day and fail to state/restate what the organisation stands for, strategies and values and risk the impact of their messages being ignored, with most employees thinking the speech is for the sake of investors and analysts not core to organisation’s mission. Thus compounding to communication error.
3. Any gauranteed to undermine a CEO is any hint of hypocrisy at the top
4. Most employees don’t feel safe challenging their leader’s decisions and behaviours and may move on if they disapprove of the going-ons in the boadroom.
5. Forgetting that success and culture change comes only if the whole team is engaged and behind it instead of just the mid-level managers
By Brian Amble and BlessingWhite CEO Christopher Rice
