On the operating realities of the CEO role. Board relationships. Decision discipline. The work nobody hands you on day one. Written from inside five CEO tenures.
The board-CEO relationship is the single most consequential dynamic in an organisation's life. Most new CEOs walk into it underprepared, and most boards do the same. Five things I learned the hard way across five CEO tenures, written for the next person walking in.
Termination conversations are the most consequential people decisions a CEO makes. Most are handled badly. Here's what happened in my first one, and what I changed forever after across the five tenures that followed.
Most new CEO listening tours produce no useful insight because they ask the wrong people the wrong questions. Here's the version that surfaces what actually matters: less interviewing, more observing, and the questions that don't have a good answer.