What Sets Successful CEOs Apart

img

1. Deciding with speed and conviction (坚定的信念).

Legends about CEOs who always seem to know exactly how to steer their companies to wild success seem to abound (大量存在，有许多) in business. But we discovered that high-performing CEOs do not necessarily (未必，不一定) stand out (脱颖而出) for making great decisions all the time; rather, they stand out for being more decisive. They make decisions earlier, faster, and with greater conviction. They do so consistently—even amid ambiguity (在模棱两可的情况下), with incomplete information, and in unfamiliar domains. In our data, people who were described as “decisive” were 12 times more likely to be high-performing CEOs.

Good CEOs realize that a wrong decision may be better than no decision at all.

Interestingly, the highest-IQ executives we coach, those who relish intellectual complexity, sometimes struggle the most with decisiveness. While the quality of their decisions is often good, because of their pursuit of the perfect answer, they can take too long to make choices or set clear priorities—and their teams pay a high price. These smart but slow decision makers become bottlenecks (瓶颈), and their teams either grow frustrated (which can lead to the attrition of valuable talent (人才流失)) or become overcautious (过分谨慎的) themselves, stalling (拖延) the entire enterprise. So it’s no surprise that when we looked more closely at the executives who were rated poor on decisiveness, we found that only 6% received low marks because they made decisions too quickly. The vast majority—94%—scored low because they decided too little, too late.

High-performing CEOs understand that a wrong decision is often better than no decision at all. As former Greyhound CEO Stephen Gorman, who led the bus operator through a turnaround (度过难关，通过转折), told us, “A bad decision was better than a lack of direction. Most decisions can be undone, but you have to learn to move with the right amount of speed.”

Decisive CEOs recognize that they can’t wait for perfect information. “Once I have 65% certainty around the answer, I have to make a call,” says Jerry Bowe, CEO of the private-label manufacturer Vi-Jon. But they do work actively to solicit (征求) multiple points of view and often poll a relatively small, carefully cultivated “kitchen cabinet (非官方顾问团，私人顾问团；厨房的餐具柜)” of trusted advisers who can be counted on (指望，依靠) for unvarnished (无装饰的；无掩饰的) opinions and sound (合理的) judgment.

Bowe motivates himself to act on decisions by framing things this way: “I ask myself two questions: First, what’s the impact if I get it wrong? And second, how much will it hold other things up if I don’t move on this?” That approach, he says, also inspires his team members to trust their own judgment on operational decisions (经营决策)—which is critical to freeing the CEO up to home in on fewer but more important decisions.

To that end (为此，为了那个目的), successful CEOs also know when not to decide. Stephen Kaufman, former CEO of Arrow Electronics, suggests that it is all too easy to get caught up (被卷入) in a volley of decision making (人们很容易陷入一大堆决策中). He advises pausing briefly to consider whether a decision should actually be made lower down in the organization and if delaying it a week or a month would allow important information to emerge without causing irreparable (不能挽回的；不能修补的) harm.

But once a path is chosen, high-performing CEOs press ahead without wavering (犹豫的；不稳定的). Art Collins, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, told us: “Employees and other key constituencies (支持者) will quickly lose faith in leaders who waffle (胡扯；闲聊) or backtrack (由原路返回；放弃) once a decision is made.” And if decisions don’t turn out well? Our analysis suggests that while every CEO makes mistakes, most of them are not lethal (致命的，致死的). We found that among CEOs who were fired over issues related to decision making, only one-third lost their jobs because they’d made bad calls; the rest were ousted (取代，赶下台) for being indecisive.

See you tomorrow