CEOs Misperceived

[David Sandusky]

From a recent article in Harvard Business Review by Richard M. Rosen and Fred Adair - CEOs Misperceived Top Teams' Performance

New research suggests that CEOs have a rosier view of senior management’s performance than other top team members do. In a global survey of 124 CEOs and 579 other senior executives at large and midsize firms from a range of industries, 52% of the non-CEOs said that their teams were doing poorly in critical areas such as thinking innovatively, cross-marketing, leading change, overseeing talent development, and building a company culture. Just 28% of the chief executives reported problems in these areas. Rating their teams’ overall effectiveness on a seven-point scale (seven being the best), the CEOs gave an average score of 5.39, whereas the other executives gave an average score of only 4.02. (See the exhibit “Performance Scores Diverge.”)


Statistically, these ratings are worlds apart, and it seems that CEOs are the executives who need a reality check. The research, conducted jointly by the Leadership Consulting practice of the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles and the University of Southern California’s Center for Effective Organizations, also included a survey of 60 top HR executives from Fortune 500 companies, only 6% of whom reported that “the executives in our C-suite are a well-integrated team.”

Are CEO's out of the loop? I see that they are more than not. Perhaps they are living in their vision of the culture they are creating. That is not a bad place to be as long as the vision is communicated correctly and the CEOs truly listen and watch today. But many are not, what do you think?