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The CEO Blind Spot
When Leadership Behavior Becomes a Business Risk
Who holds a CEO accountable when the CEO is surrounded by people whose careers depend on keeping the CEO happy? It is an uncomfortable question. Perhaps a more constructive question is this: How does a great leader know whether people are telling the truth?
Every CEO needs honest information. Every board depends on transparency. And investors need confidence that management is acting in the best interests of the organization and its shareholders. Yet the very authority that helps leaders succeed can also make it harder for them to hear the truths they need to make sound decisions. Jean Lipman-Blumen, Ph.D., a distinguished scholar whose work has brought unusual intellectual depth and truth to the study of leadership, power, and human relationships, calls this dynamic the “pinched waist” of information flow.
As organizational cultures evolve, employees quickly learn to proceed with caution. Executives filter what they share, and bad news is softened before it reaches the leader. Over time, people become adept at anticipating what the leader rewards and what the leader will not tolerate. The result is a narrowing flow of information that can leave leaders less equipped to understand what is really happening across the organization.
