Appearance
Talk About People
| Phrases | Sentence |
|---|---|
to aspire/əˈspaɪə(r)/ to (do sth/sth) | Wheather you already are a chief executive /ɪɡˈzekjətɪv/ or aspire to run an organization one day, the good news is: these behaviors can be learned |
stereotype /ˈsteriətaɪp/ | In fact, the stereotype we might have of a leader or CEO - might be all wrong. So is it possible that some of these factors that are stereotypes influence who gets chosen to be CEO, but they don't actually affect performance once you are a CEO. . They don't fit the stereotype. |
introvert /ˈɪntrəvɜːt/ vs extrovert /ˈekstrəvɜːt/ | One of things I found really interesting and surprising about the research, was that introverts are slightly more likely to be the most effective CEOs than extroverts. They're slightly more likely, you mentioned, to be introverts. |
meet the expectation vs exceed/ɪkˈsiːd/ expectation vs underperform expectation | When we did our analysis, we basically bucketed CEOs in three buckets. Did they meet the expectation? Did they exceed expectation? Or did they underperform? |
| me being | And me being an introvert, I'm excited about that finding. |
charisma /kəˈrɪzmə/ | |
| characteristics | And so what we found is exactly what you're describing, which is the characteristics that help you get the job, actually aren't the characteristics that help you succeed or fail in the job. |
| warm, confident, likeability | So being confident, appearing confident helps you get the job, but it doesn't seem to help you on the job. People fundamentally will attracted to people that are warm and confident. And so, you do find that likeability and confidence are associated with a higher probability of getting hired. Why doesn't that confidence matter post hire? When you get into the role, other things are more important. So confidence is no longer the factor that helps separate the best from the rest. |
| sophisticated, thoughtful, gut feel | Often, while boards and investors that make hiring decisions are very sophisticated and very thoughtful, ultimately, when it comes to picking people, they resort to gut feel |
| separate the best from the rest | Why doesn't that confidence matter post hire? When you get into the role, other things are more important. So confidence is no longer the factor that helps separate the best from the rest. |
| make much of a difference | In looking at these high performing CEOs, so confidence doesn't make much of a difference. |
| circuitous career path | One of the other things that I think would surprise people, is that they have a kind of more circuitous career path than maybe many people would assume. |
| the odd of sth | The odds of getting into the CEO role are so slim, even for somebody who has done everything right. |
| a flawless career track record | It's very natural to assume that you must have a flawless career track record. You cannot afford to make a mistake. |
| risk averse | And in fact, when we work with c-suite executives that aspire to the CEO role, especially when they're in the window, they tend to be really risk averse. |
| career mistakes, carrer blow up | And so a major blow up might be I led this acquisition that ended up eroding and destroying shareholder value. That turned out to not be successful for our business. So every single CEO candidate that we've assessed has had career mistakes, and 45% of them had major,major blow ups. Might including getting fired from a role, et cetera /ˌet ˈsetərə;. |
| tested, challenged | The board wants to see somebody who's been tested. If anything is true about the CEO role is, no matter how well you prepared you are for the role, you will be tested, you will be challenged in ways that you can't anticipate, and often in ways where you don't really control the outcome. |
| if anything is true about | If anything is true about the CEO role is, no matter how well you prepared you are for the role, you will be tested, you will be challenged in ways that you can't anticipate, and often in ways where you don't really control the outcome. |
| deal with pressure | And so, boards actually do want to see somebody who has had to deal with tremendous amount of pressure. |
| own up to sth, build trust with sb | And reason two is the fact that an individual is able to describe, explain, and own up to the failure or blow up also builds stronger trust with the board. |
| stunned sb | So the finding stunned us. |
decisiveness /dɪˈsaɪsɪvnəs/ | Bascially we think of decisiveness as kind of speed times quality of decision making. |
| think of sth as sth | Bascially we think of decisiveness as kind of speed times quality of decision making. |
| up close | We found when we looked at these CEOs up close and personal, they have a need to decide |
| put a brake pedal | Smart CEOs put people around them that helped put a brake pedal a little bit and balance their tendency to be very decisive. |
| be curious to do sth | If anyone was curious to learn more about these behaviours, could also look at Jeff's Letter to the shareholders. |
| Primer | It's a good primer that talks frankly about each of these four behaviours and different ways. |
move with velocity /vəˈlɒsəti/, move with really high speed, as opposed to | How important it is to mvoe with velocity , to move with really high speed to make decisions. As opppsed to really try to make sure that every decision is perfect. |
ironically/aɪˈrɒnɪkli/, counter-intuitively /ˌkaʊntər ɪnˈtjuːɪtɪvli/ | Becasue ironically or counter-intuitively, sometimes we find the the smartest executives we work with sometimes struggle with decisiveness. |
| move forward, move ahead, need for sth | Sucessful CEOs really understand the organization need for moving forward and having a clear direction to move ahead. |
| adapt | When they make mistakes, they adapt. |
| pacesetter | The CEO is the ultimate pacesetter for the business. |
| be aligned behind | The one way they really ahieve results typically is by setting direction, and then ensuring that their organization is aligned behind that direction. It's really hard to align someone behind something that you don't know or that you haven't decided. |
| address the business problem | Becasue for every brain cell of anyone who works under the CEO that's spent on addressing the business problem, there's probably at lease one brain cell that's worried about what does the CEO really want from me. |
| creep into | If the moment uncertainty creeps into that, you really paralyze the organization. |
| guess and jump | They always would say that it had a penalty kick, your best strategy /ˈstrætədʒi/ is jsut to guess and jump. |
statistically /stəˈtɪstɪkli/ speaking | But actually, statistically speaking, you just have a much better chance if you just guess. |
| go against sth | It goes against every sort of decision making principle that you would assume. |
| proxy for | Because we looked at CEOs as kind of proxy for the most successful people in business. |
| never too early and never too late, in your daily life | It's kind of never too early and never too late on any of these four behaviours. And there are plenty of opportunities to practice in your daily life. |
| go hand in hand | So adaptability /əˌdæptəˈbɪləti/ and decisiveness actually go hand in hand. |
| ability to adapt to , change course | And abitly to adapt, either adapt because you have to change course as a result of making the wrong decision, or adapt to the environment and to the opportunities and the risk presented to you is really critical. |
| exceptionally well | These folks do two things exceptionally well. |
| exhausting sounding | That is true, if a little bit exhausting sounding at the same time. |
| the infuriating part about sth | The infuriating part or the sad part about those storiesk, is that they fail to adapt not, because they didn't know the right answer. |
be vigilant /ˈvɪdʒɪlənt/ about sth, around the corner | Andy was forever vigilant about what's the next latest and greatest kind of risk and opportunity, and what's coming around the corner. |
| be struggle to do sth | I think anytime when you're struggling to let go of something, life proves that when there's no other choice people are much more adaptable than we might even expect of ourselve. |
| take it too for | Can you sort of take it too far? |
| be mindful of sth | You do want to be mindful of that. |
| reflections on sth | We had a converstaion about just his reflections on being a CEO. |
| responsible to sb | We were very consicous as a leadership team that we had three set of stakeholders. It was our employees, our customers and our shareholers. And we were responsible to all three. |
constructive dissatisfaction /ˌdɪsˌsætɪsˈfækʃn/ | I had to keep them in a state of constructive dissatisfaction. So it wasn't that I need to please all three, but I had to keep them in the state of constructive dissatisfaction so that the business could grow, and so that the business could be successful. |
| affinity, strife | CEOs who relate for affinity, meaning their dominant need is to be liked as opposed to be effective in the role, actually end up producing a lot of strife and a lot of unhappiness in the organization. |
| crush the targets, under motto, line up | I'm sure there's somebody in your life that just feels seems to operate under this motto /ˈmɒtəʊ/ that as long as I crush the targets, they'll line up. |
| emotioanl labor | It seems like that would take a lot of emotional labor. |
| black belts at sth | Successful CEOs have to be black belts at emotional self-management. |
| clear and reset | This ability to clear the plate mentally and reset and come into every dialogue fresh, it takes real practice. |
| be scheduled in | His day is schedule in 30 minutes increments. |
deliver results reliably, unsung heroism/ˈherəʊɪzəm/ , be consistent day in day out | The fourth behaviour, deliver results reliably, it really speaks to the kind of unsung heroism of just being consistent day in day out. |
| focus attention on | Which is not something that I think our culture focueses a lot of attention on. |
| reliable delivery | So reliable delivery was fascinating. |
spectacular /spekˈtækjələ(r)/ homerun, at the end of the day | It gets a lot of press and the accolades /ˈækəleɪdz/ is often spectacular homerun. But what we find at the end of the day is that it's really consistency that winds the day. |
proverbial/prəˈvɜːbiəl/ tortoise /ˈtɔːtəs/ and the hare | So then in the proverbial tortoise and the hare, the tortoise does end up winning as it turns out when you look at the CEO data. |
| count on | Those CEOs are not just willing to be counted on, but they actually want to be counted on. |
supplement sb's propensities /prəˈpensəti/ | Reliability of these four behaviors is probably one that's easier for the CEO to supplement their natural propensities if you will, with a team around them. |
inspirational ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃənl/ visionary founder, move a mile a minute | The classic founder example of this inspirational visionary founder who is moving a mile a minute and has lots of different ideas, often unintentionally, some of their behaviors not only don't help them build reliability directly, but actually prevent others from building a reliable business around them. |
a marching band, a jazz improv /ˈɪmprɒv/ | Reliable business often feels a bit more like a marching band than a jazz improv. |
| much for the same reaon | Much for the same reason that boards struggle with picking the right CEOs. |
| uncanny | It's uncanny. |
| quote unquote | We know that when it comes to quote unquote, hard business decisins, we must reply on hard tools. |
| above average, no exception | We all think we're above average drivers, and we all think we're above average at picking people. And so, CEOs are no excetpion. |
| inverse of | Is it sort of just the inverse of the four things that we just talked about? |
| dire straits | The comapny was in dire straits. |
| be publicized | It's well publicized that the prior CEO had a lot of challenges. |
| be demoralized | He walked into a company where the stock was trading in the teens, the team was demoralized. |
| inherit | He inherited a pretty difficult situation. |
| to be innovative | Pfizer if in a business where the only way to compete is to be innovative. |
| rallying cry | One of Ian's kind of rallying cries has become dare. |
| turning point | To a few years back, Pfizer pursued acquisition of AstraZenera, which was going to be a really, really big turning point for the business. |
| stay in the running | How can people kind of stay in the running if they think they fit these four behaviour? |
| write off | I would say kind of the real tragedy, is that people write themselves off before they even try. |
| measure up to the stereotype | Most people don't even try, because they see early on that they don't measure up to that imaginary stereotype. |
| I have to be honest with you. more and more, on the cutting edge | Well, you know, I have to be honest with you. More and more boards and CEOs actually want to be on the cutting edge. |
| motto | I think there's probably a reason why Nike's motto is just do it, as opposed to just think it. |
| as opposed to | I think there's probably a reason why Nike's motto is just do it, as opposed to just think it. |
| It doesn't matter where you start/what it is | It actually doesn't matter what it is.Because amazing things happen when you change one thing. So it actually doesn't matter where you start, as long as you start somewhere. |
| Attorney General | Here's former Attorney General Jeff Sessions talking about the program in 2017. |
| I firmly believe | I firmly believe that your work saved lives. |