“Think back for a moment to your school days. Remember the best teacher you ever had, the one who seemed to know everything about his or her field and had something all the other teachers lacked: the ability to boil down the complex ideas of a discipline – whether it was psychology, economics or chemistry – so that you really “got it”. Other teachers may have had a great depth of knowledge and fancy credentials, but they couldn’t make the lightbulb go on in your head.
…the best CEOs…are like the best teacher you ever had.”
Ram Charan, What The CEO Wants You To Know, 2001
Ram Charan has been observing and advising CEOs for decades. His assertion that the great CEO is in fact a teacher comes from years of working with the greats, including Jack Welch and Larry Bossidy.
A great CEO – one whose company makes money year after year after year – is able to take all the complexity and mystery out of business by focusing on the core fundamentals. And is able to make sure that everyone in the company (not just executives) is able to understand those fundamentals. A good CEO, like a good teacher, inspires people and connects them to their work.
Michael Porter, the renowned strategy professor and author who visited Kenya recently, agrees. He once said: “The best CEOs I know are teachers, and at the core of what they teach is strategy. They go out to employees, to suppliers, and to customers, and they repeat, “This is what we stand for; this is what we stand for.” So everyone understands it. This is what leaders do. In great companies, strategy becomes a cause.”
Many Kenyan CEOs would obviously disagree. Their very mien suggests that the last thing they compare themselves to is a teacher. Those ragged, poorly paid fellows in those crumbling schools? No, no. Me, with my vast office, my army of assistants, my air-conditioned limo? Compare me to a rock star or a top sportsman – that would be more appropriate. Teachers are failures.
It is a terrible shame that that attitude prevails. Charan and Porter are right: a CEO’s key job is to understand and to explain. A leader who fails to do that isn’t leading at all. But understand and explain what? The basic building blocks of the business: what its customers really want from it; how it makes money; what it is the best at doing; how to grow it profitably.
A CEO who has those fundamentals always at her fingertips will be competent. If she can also depict those fundamentals to everyone in the company, she will be a star. The leader is the guardian of the core. In that core is what makes the company competitive, and what drives its success. The CEO’s ’show-and-tell’ act is to demystify the core and reveal it to the world.
By this reckoning, the last thing a leader should be is a star celebrity. Leadership in the modern era is about stewardship and mentoring. It is built on the recognition that teams deliver, not the leader alone. We should spend our time shopping for potential leaders who display business acumen and wisdom, and who have vast reserves of empathy and communications skills. That is a winning combination.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Its a funny thing. I have always thot the legacy a leader leaves is not in what he achieved – or was achieved by the firm – in his time; but by how much he learnt and passed on to the next generation.
I understand this to mean, I need to learn, and I need to teach. Am encouraged by a wise saying – when one teaches, two learn.
Sadly, in the Kenyan context, I have found few teachers , even in schools. In schools, we “learn” (write notes, do research if any,) for the exams & certificate. Not for advancement, or seeking better ways of doing things, working or not.
And so, we have politicians leading the country for decades – a number have been in all three regimes, nearly got into the fourth. And what do they have to show for it? Not one do we know of who has pro-actively mentored others. They even retire after losing elections, age notwithstanding.
I have decided, and I encourage you, learn what you need, and as you do so, walk with someone else, learning together if not teaching them.
A rather long comment….
J – CornelSolutions.net
James:
An excellent comment. I agree: we have few teachers, and even fewer who want to learn…
I agree near-perfect CEO’s are good teachers and much more, they are coaches who patiently guide and challenge their employees to outstanding performance. Many CEOs are too busy to spare time for their employees; with the resultant danger of having varied interpretations of company strategy.