Tag Archives: CEO fail

Here are my top 10 most viewed posts of 2014 concerning all things CEO – from hiring to managing the board to failing by having a best buddy and more.

The 10 Most Common Ways That CEOs Fail In Epic Fashion

Regular readers of my blog know that I have an ongoing series about how CEOs fail.

Does this CEO failure mode sound familiar? The Drop-In Carpet Bomber CEO is too busy most of the time to pay attention to the business, but then suddenly decides that things are not going well and comes in barking orders like a marine drill sergeant.

Photo credit: By Túrelio via Wikimedia CommonsIn the summer of 1984 I was lucky enough to participate in a church youth group trip to Rome where Mother Theresa was scheduled speak to an assembly of all the youth groups from the U.S.

The tyranny of the annual budget reigns supreme over a business ruled by the Budget Tyrant.

Photo Credit: purpleslog via Compfight
My previous article for the CEO failure modes series was about the Roman Emperor CEO, who uses company coffers to fund lavish personal expenditures.

Your Optimism Might Be Stifling Your Team

This is a great article in Harvard Business Review about how unbridled optimism can be detrimental to employees.

Rarely has a CEO lost his job over a party, but MY what a party it was! The total bill for the birthday party Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski threw for his second wife Karen was $2 million. Tyco only paid $1 million.

Last week I introduced you to another CEO failure mode: the Total Control CEO, who is so afraid of making a mistake that he or she tries to control every decision, no matter how big or small.

This article is part of the CEO failure modes series…
I spent my first four years after college in the U.S. Navy teaching at the Naval Nuclear Power School.