CEO Failure Mode: The Total Control CEO

The next in a potentially endless series on the pitfalls of the CEO role

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. —Theodore Roosevelt

One of the paradoxes at the core of the CEO job is this: You have full responsibility for the outcomes of the organization, but you lack full control over its daily activities.

When faced with the intense burden of responsibility and the lack of control, CEOs usually react in one of two ways:

• They retreat from the details and disappear into the land of abstraction. That’s the Master Strategist failure mode we already discussed.

• Or they try to take the reins wherever they can and become the Total Control CEO.

The Total Control CEO sees the lack of direct control as a threat, and responds by gripping tighter. They don’t just steer the ship… they check every life jacket, inspect the rivets, and rewrite the emergency signage. Their fear of failure and blame leads them to believe that if they personally …