CEO Leadership – Key Points to Understand

By Michelle Malay Carter on November 23, 2008 

Elliott Jaques\' Social Power and the CEOElliott Jaques wrote Social Power and the CEO: Leadership and Trust in a Sustainable Free Enterprise System?in 2002.? It’s worth reading.? If you don’t care to read the whole book, an excellent summary was published by Business Book Review.

A reprint of the review was published in Organization Design, Levels of Work & Human Capability which you can download for free, here.

Here are some key points worth considering, as quoted and parphrased from the book review:

Accountability and Authority
“Because accountability and authority are at the heart of all interpersonal relationships, managerial hierarchies gain their success or failure through the success or failure of the working relationships between and among their people.”

The Collaboration Conflict of Interest
“Despite the deep importance of work to people, and despite the satisfaction gained from having conditions that allow effective collaboration in the that work, difficulties in ensuring such cooperation have been a perennial problem in managerial systems, where self-interest and employee rivalry are persistent issues.”?

“During the past 50 years or so, attempts have been made to overcome this problem via the introduction of group dynamics training, the use of group decision making, self-managed teams, and various kinds of group and department bonuses and profit sharing.”

The Employee Contract
“While these approaches may be effective in the short term, they are not sustainable over time because they are in direct conflict with the contract under which all employees have always worked.? The contract is between the employer and individual, not the group.”

CEOs must understand that people are not employed as groups and cannot be held responsible for working as an accountable group – only a board of directors can be held accountable as a body.

I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s Fix the System
“They must also understand that human behavior in managerial systems is determined by the people systems set by the CEO and the board AND NOT by the psychopathology of each individual.”

Your thoughts?

Filed Under Accountability, Corporate Values, Executive Leadership, Managerial Leadership, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Work Levels

Comments

2 Responses to “CEO Leadership – Key Points to Understand”

  1. David Zinger on November 24th, 2008 9:18 am

    Michelle:
    Thanks for the tip about this fine resource. There are many articles to take a look at.
    David

  2. Michelle Malay Carter on November 24th, 2008 9:30 am

    My pleasure David. Thanks for stopping by.

    Regards,

    Michelle