I love CEOs. I am one.
And I have a number of CIO friends whose companies are welcoming new CEOs or should be seeking new CEOs.
Sometimes, I field the question, “What do I do with a new CEO who shouldn’t be the CEO?” At other times the question is, “How long can I keep going with the current CEO?”
Over the years, I have lived by the mantra of “outlove them, outlast them.” I have applied that to subordinates, peers, and superiors.
Outloving people is always a good practice. Outlasting people, not always.
When Flashing Yellow Lights Lead To Waving White Flags
In the event of a new CEO that you are unsure of, you gauge your ability to outlast them by two reality checks:
- Knowing the Board as you do, is there an eventual power struggle on the horizon? If yes, you might outlast them.
- Knowing the people as you do, is there a culture clash looming. If so, you might outlast them.
When you work with a longer term CEO, and you are unsure that you can outlast them, you don’t want to if two things are true.
Little Compromises - Larger Consequences
In trying to make it work (which is a bad sign itself - “I can make it work” is the signature confession of a doomed relationship).
Let me start again: If in trying to make it work, you are making small compromises in order to please others, to get by, to get through a “season,” you are relinquishing peace and eventually joy. You cannot lose either one.
If you are not at peace, but you find peace here and there, you are done.
If you are not deriving joy from the totality of work, not just pieces of the work, you are done.
Neither peace nor joy are foreigners to conflict and aggravation - but they stay vibrant in the midst of them. Lose the vibrancy, and you have lost. Cut your losses.
You are not meant to erode. You are not meant to take this beautiful being inside of you and forfeit it to the mold of dull existence.
Your family and friends want the renewed and invigorated you, not the worn down you. And that’s not because you are sad or that they don’t love any version of you that isn’t spectacular; it’s because they know that you are spectacular and it kills them to see you suffer from anything less.
You stay in because you want to provide for your family. I love that. But you might want to ask your family what it is they want you to provide for them. Because if the money keeps coming, but you keep fading, they likely want to trade money for the real you.
Less Challenge - More Checking The Boxes
You thrive on challenges.
Once your CEO has you in a place where the challenge isn’t there but the maintenance is, more checking of boxes, you are drifting. To drift is not your dream, wasn’t your dream, will never be your dream.
Why is there no challenge? Well, your being challenged and therefore creative, innovative, and productive means work for everyone else (including the CEO). Maybe the CEO is drifting and is fine with that.
Perhaps, succeeding in challenging work requires expenses the CEO doesn’t want to justify.
Drift or thrift. Who knows?
The issue is, if you are no longer facing work that is challenging and the CEO has no impetus to change that, you need to make the significant change, and quit.
I don’t want to offend the CEOs who are reading this; but, I suspect, the CEOs who do read my work aren’t the CEOs you are concerned with.
I started CIO Mastermind nearly seven years ago to advocate for CIOs and technology leaders. Lately, the common theme is problems with CEO transition: either ones that have happened or should happen.
I would be happy to speak with your CEO if they are making your life difficult; but since I likely won’t have that opportunity, I thought I might help by jogging your thinking and maybe waking your senses.
It feels weird, but it has its truth:
The winning is in quitting.