1: McKinsey consultants asked a CEO how much time he spent managing other people’s egos. 

Probably 20 to 30 percent of the time, he answered.

Then, they asked him what percent of time people spent managing his ego.

Silence.  

“Beyond the anecdote,” Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra write in CEO Excellence, “the research is clear: When CEOs are asked if they act as a … continue reading

1: The year was 2012.  DBS, a large Asian bank headquartered in Singapore, had a problem.  Card skimmers had hacked into their ATMs.  Money was being stolen. 

CEO Piyush Gupta moved quickly to identify how the breach had happened.  

“The problem was traced to a decision made by a junior operations colleague,” Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra write in CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That … continue reading