CEOs hate surprises. And yet many have found themselves, at some point in their career, overtaken by events that they should have seen coming. Such events cause paralysis, halt critical momentum and ensure that the length of their tenure is spent stuck
in the business while their mandate for working
on the business is continually diverted.
Tom Biesinger and Ross Wall divide these key moments into
Four Dilemmas - these are consistent across all industries and across all organizations of notable size, regardless of geography. The book outlines the common challenges that every CEO will face during their tenure and when to expect them. Once these dilemmas and their causes are understood, action can be taken to overcome them - executives will be able to break through the self-imposed glass ceilings that cause CEOs to lose momentum and be thrown off course.
The Four Dilemmas are:
1. You're in charge of everything, but cannot completely trust anything.
2. You know that today's executive cannot deliver tomorrow's results.
3. How do you engage the full capability of your executive working
on the business when they are at capacity working
in the business?
4. At what point does the price of remaining personally relevant outweigh your other options?
In the first book to focus on these four issues collectively, the authors draw on their 20-plus years of experience as trusted advisers across a range of industries, where they have helped to bolster and redirect individual careers, and so to influence the growth of the organizations they lead.
Momentum is your greatest ally--with it you can do anything, without it you will stall. As CEO you hate surprises, especially the kind that undermines momentum--yours or the organization you lead.
Every CEO's journey is unique. However, there exists a very predictable, but previously unknown pattern: the CEO life cycle. The Four Dilemmas of the CEO outlines the common challenges that every CEO will face during their tenure, irrespective of geography or industry. Once understood, action can be taken to break through these glass ceilings that cause CEOs to get stuck in the business, while their mandate for working on the business is continually diverted.
Framed within the life cycle of a CEO, the Four Dilemmas are:
1. You're in charge of everything, but cannot completely trust anything.
2. You know that today's executive cannot deliver tomorrow's results.
3. How do you engage the full capability of your executive working on the business when they are at capacity working in the business?
4. At what point does the price of remaining personally relevant outweigh your other options?
In the first book to focus on these four issues collectively, the authors draw on their decades of experience as trusted advisers across a range of industries to show every executive how to recognize and anticipate the individual dilemmas, master them, and accelerate through them.
With a foreword by Clayton M. Christensen, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, and author of The Innovator's Dilemma.
