Book Review — Why CEOs Fail by Cairo & Dotlich
The 11 Behaviors That Can Derail Your Climb to the Top — and How to Manage Them
The Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): Leaders fail because of who they are and how they act in certain situations.
Executive summary
Many books cover topics related to the character attributes that differentiate good leaders from bad ones as well as good leaders from great ones. Additionally, countless books delve into the qualities and experiences that have set apart the most successful organizational leaders. However, the vast majority of these books are based on opinion, anecdote, and, in many cases, contain indefensible generalizations. Why CEOs Fail is not one of those books. Instead, it is based on empirical, not anecdotal evidence.
Individual characteristics underline effective leadership. However, two-thirds of people currently in leadership roles in the Western world are likely to fail due to their inability to build or maintain a team. Their behavior, whether acknowledged or not, significantly impacts this capability. Why CEOs Fail highlights eleven behaviors that, if left unchecked, can severely hinder a leader’s ability to achieve results. These behaviors include: Arrogance, Melodrama, Volatility, Excessive Caution, Habitual Distrust, Aloofness, Mischievousness, Eccentricity, Passive Resistance, and Perfectionism. The authors clearly understand why leaders fail, and their insight is evident in the stories they share and in their recommendations to overcome the derailing behaviors.
The content
The book includes two forewords, an introduction, and eleven chapters. The first foreword, written by Ram Charan, provides a brief overview of what makes the book and its authors distinctive: that the authors know what they’re talking about. The second foreword is authored by Dr. Robert Hogan, the founder of Hogan Assessments, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and one of the world’s leading experts on leadership behavior. This particular foreword, frankly, sets the stage for the book as it relies on empirical evidence and captures the reader’s attention early.
The introduction is compelling, as it clearly outlines what readers can expect from the subsequent twelve chapters: an understanding of the underlying factors of failure, the derailers that cause leaders to falter, and strategies to address them. In each following chapter, the eleven behaviors are identified along with their signs and symptoms, as well as practical steps that leaders can take to mitigate them from becoming derailers.
The first behavior is arrogance. If you’re right and everyone else is wrong, you’re likely exhibiting arrogance. To succeed in leadership, you must have confidence in yourself. However, if that confidence becomes overwhelming, it may cross the line. Arrogant leaders often remain unaware of their arrogance, which limits their ability to learn, leads to a refusal to take accountability, causes resistance to change, and prevents them from recognizing their limitations.
The second behavior is melodrama; if you constantly steal the spotlight, this might apply. Being overly dramatic to make a point can be a skill, but when it becomes excessive, it detracts from others’ performances. Melodramatic leaders often lack focus, fail to develop their team members, exhibit showboating tendencies in themselves and their teams, and create unwanted elevated expectations due to their flair and perceived effectiveness.
The third behavior is volatility, which pertains to sudden and unpredictable changes in one’s mood. Volatile leaders fail not because they have infrequent outbursts, but because they often display unconscious ones. If a leader’s team feels the need to hold back around them, strives to manage their emotions during interactions, or becomes distant, it is likely that volatility is at play.
The fourth behavior is being overly cautious. This shouldn’t be confused with prudence and thoroughness. Leaders who are overly cautious often fail because, as the stakes rise, the time available for decision-making decreases. These leaders struggle with terminating employees, tend to engage in busywork that produces minimal results, and create environments that lack opinions or debate.
The fifth behavior is habitual distrust: a focus on the negatives. As the authors point out, healthy skepticism and virulent distrust are not the same thing. Leaders who consistently display distrust show skepticism regarding the motives of others, have defensive direct reports, and may struggle to build alliances.
The sixth behavior is aloofness: disengaging and disconnecting. If you’ve seen the movie, The Big Short, featuring Christian Bale, then you may recall his character spending day after day in his office, sleeping on the floor, not leaving, and so on. This type of behavior is the epitome of aloofness, but it doesn’t have to be that extreme. Aloof leaders can become isolated from key individuals, which creates a problem. They may become invisible, ignore conflicts, lack cultural passion, and lead teams that stop working hard, filled with rampant assumptions and miscommunication.
The seventh behavior is mischievousness: believing that rules are merely suggestions. Those who engage in this behavior tend to alienate loyalists, causing others to question their commitments and the projects they’ve initiated. Additionally, they often fail to take the time to win people over; they may create challenges, become easily bored, and tend to smooth-talk through their mistakes.
The eighth behavior is eccentricity: being different just for the sake of it. Acceptance of eccentric-style leaders has grown in popularity over the years as the tech boom evolved and as efforts to open hearts and minds to unique character traits have become more commonplace. However, eccentric leaders may struggle with prioritizing, experimenting independently, and being taken seriously.
The ninth behavior is passive resistance, where silence can be mistaken for agreement. This type of behavior is most often exhibited by giving people what they want while quietly pursuing their own agenda. Such leaders tend to leave their direct reports feeling confused, cynical, and merely paying lip service, which ultimately causes their teams to fall apart.
The tenth behavior is perfectionism, where the minor details may go well, but the significant aspects suffer. The issue with this behavior is that there’s a fine line between doing the job well and striving for perfection. Leaders with this tendency struggle to delegate, tend to overlook obvious factors, and often find themselves stuck in stressful situations.
The eleventh and final behavior is an eagerness to please, which entails seeking to win popularity contests. Leaders who overly depend on this behavior often lose the support of their team due to their unwillingness to advocate for their members, their avoidance of tough personnel decisions, and their lack of the motivation needed to upset the apple cart.
The final and most reflective chapter is titled, “Why CEOs Succeed,” which nods to the authors’ desire to write a future book with that title. However, they admit that this will only be possible if leaders learn to manage the stress that triggers derailers, rendering today’s leaders fallible.
Ten insightful quotes from the book
1. On arrogance: “Leaders most afflicted by arrogance are the ones most likely to deny its derailing effect on their careers.”
2. On being overly cautious: “Overly cautious leaders give off clear signals that they’re headed toward failure.”
3. On habitual distrust: “Never underestimate the power of personality in undermining the success of even the most brilliant and well-suited leader.”
4. On aloofness: “Aloof cultures historically are hit by developments that they should have seen coming but didn’t.”
5. On mischievousness: “When leaders become too mischievous. They alienate loyalists and come to be seen as gadflies and provocateurs rather than serious leaders.”
6. On eccentricity: “Unclear priorities and the inability to execute will eventually doom any leader.”
7. On passive resistance: “Private agendas help people succeed in organizations up to a certain point.”
8. On perfection: “Being demanding is fine. Being detailed to the point of obsession is not.”
9. On leadership popularity: “The first rule of being a true leader: it is always better to be respected than liked.”
10. On putting stress in perspective: “To deal effectively with stress, the first step is to accept that you-that all leaders-are fallible.”
The wrap-up: why you should read Why CEOs Fail
So, who is this book for? Essentially, anyone who works in or aspires to work in a leadership role and possesses a growth mindset. In other words, this book targets those who believe that “what got you here won’t get you there.” But why is this relevant? As one rises through the ranks of leadership, the challenges become greater, the spotlight shines brighter, and the stress associated with the ascent only increases. Leadership never gets easier, so if you genuinely have a growth mindset, the time to identify and address your dark behaviors is sooner rather than later. Why? Because as the pressure to perform escalates, the chances of one’s behaviors derailing them and their environment grow exponentially.
Since this book is grounded in science, meaning it’s based on empirical, indisputable facts, it’s difficult to find fault with it. Therefore, if you’re a people leader and you don’t believe in this material, you’re already showing the first of the eleven behaviors outlined in this book, and statistically speaking, your arrogance may lead to eventual failure. But don’t just take my word for it; challenge the authors on their evidence. Just understand, as you enter the argument, that you’re likely going to lose, no matter how intelligent you think you are. As a side note, truly successful companies and leaders have adopted the concepts and content presented in this book. Why? Because they know better. Smart leaders are paying attention today because the opportunity to fail is now more pronounced than ever with Leadership 360 reports and public feedback mechanisms. Our greatest leaders have figured this out, and they’re staying alert.
Therefore, this book is designed to help you avoid becoming part of the majority of leaders who fail due to derailing behavior. It aims to assist you in understanding what these behaviors are, why they obstruct careers, teams, and organizations, and how to navigate them. Derailing behaviors are ingrained in your DNA; you cannot simply eliminate them. However, with the tactics outlined in this text, you can effectively manage them and transform them into strengths. There are exceptionally successful leaders who exhibit all eleven of these behaviors, but as the authors point out, these leaders are aware of and control them. For the sake of your career, your reports, your team, and your organization, I hope you recognize the importance of this in your leadership journey and read and re-read this book. In doing so, I hope you’ll be able to perform your leadership functions in a way that ensures consistent success throughout your career.
About the book’s author
David L. Dotlich, Ph.D., has been involved with planned organizational change in academics, business, government, and consulting for twenty years. He was formerly executive vice president of Honeywell International and Groupe Bull. David is a business adviser and coach to senior executives of Johnson & Johnson, Bank of America, McKesson, Merck, Novartis, Intel, Washington Mutual, and many others. He is the coauthor of Action Learning (Jossey-Bass, 1998), Action Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 1999), and Unnatural Leadership: Going Against Intuition and Experience to Develop Ten New Leadership Instincts (Jossey-Bass, 2002).
Follow David L. Dotlich, Ph.D., on LinkedIn
Peter C. Cairo, Ph.D., is a consultant who specializes in the areas of leadership development, executive coaching, and organization effectiveness. He is the former chair of the Department of Organizational and Counseling Psychology at Columbia University and currently a member of the faculty of Columbia University Business School Executive Education. Peter’s clients include Avon Products, Merck, Colgate, Bank of America, Lilly, and Thomson. He is the coauthor of Action Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 1999), and Unnatural Leadership: Going Against Intuition and Experience to Develop Ten New Leadership Instincts (Jossey-Bass 2002).
Follow Peter C. Cairo, Ph.D., on LinkedIn
Book details:
Publisher: Jossey-Bass (December 10, 2007)
ISBN-13: 978–0470330708
FOUND THIS POST USEFUL? PLEASE SUPPORT MY WORK.
Reading is one of my passions, and I hope you find this book review insightful! As a leader and educator, I love learning and sharing. With each book I read and summarize, I consider how its content can be applied to teams and organizations, searching for resonant elements such as impactful quotes while discerning who the ideal readers are. I seek opportunities to implement what I’ve learned from each book and share that knowledge to improve myself, my teams, colleagues, peers, and those pursuing personal and professional growth alongside me. I write these reviews partly because I love to read and write, but also to share leadership lessons.
While I often either know the authors personally or have developed a relationship with them post-review, nothing about this process is sponsored or previewed. As the book reviewer, I am not paid to write reviews nor influenced in how I write them. The process requires hours of reading and reflection, making it a significant undertaking, so I truly appreciate everyone who takes the time to like my content and subscribe to follow it.
