CEO Fail: The Budget Blower CEO
May 9, 2013
My previous article for the CEO failure modes series was about the Roman Emperor CEO, who uses company coffers to…
CEO leadership
Introducing my new Forbes column
April 18, 2013
I have just become a Forbes contributor and my site is aptly named The American CEO, where I give “practical advice for current and aspiring CEOs” much like I do in this blog. In my first article I write about why CEOs need to own their recruiting functions and provide 10 rules for how to manage them. I also recommend five tangible metrics for monitoring the performance of your recruiting organization, which have worked well for me. I invite you to visit my site and follow it as well as share my articles if you find them worthy. I’ll continue to post here regularly as well.
How executives hire: Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz on finding motivated employees
April 11, 2013
We want people to join Starbucks who have like-minded values. We need happy people—we’re a people company that serves coffee,…
Why Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s work from home ban is the wrong approach
February 27, 2013
Everyone is commenting on the recent Yahoo memo banning working from home. While most of the discussion revolves around whether…
10 Steps to a Nine Figure+ Exit
January 17, 2013
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of hosting the Austin Technology Council’s first CEO Forum of the year at…
Perpetually late CEOs fail to impress
January 15, 2013
Judging By This Angry Email, Marissa Mayer Hasn’t Yet Wowed ALL Yahoo Employees
Photo Credit: zoutedrop via Compfight cc
Every new CEO faces some resistance, and high profile ones like Marissa Mayer are especially susceptible to attention-getting PR stunts from disgruntled employees or people pretending to be them. So this e-mail from an alleged Yahoo employee should be taken with a grain of salt. Regardless of the letter’s authenticity, it does bring up an interesting point about her being late to every meeting so far: I think showing up late to meetings is one of the worst sins for a CEO (especially a new one).
Being late to meetings the CEO probably initiated in the first place basically says to employees: “My time is more valuable than yours – not only each individual employee but everyone at this meeting combined.” This behavior flouts one of the three critical tools I’ve asserted that every CEO needs to excel: caring. If the actions described in this e-mail are accurate, Mayer will not be a very successful CEO. I’ll write more about how new CEOs can set themselves up for success in a later post.