Business Week asks "Has
the job of CEO for a megacompany become too complex to
handle?" We might well ask, "Has the job of
Chairman of an AmLaw 50 firm become too complex? Is
it asking too much to expect one person to occupy a position
of stature and respect both within the firm and within
the profession at large, to deliver ever-increasing revenues
and profits per partner, to undertake expansions astutely
and contractions humanely, all the while projecting
a sunny personality?" Business Week‘s
answer is "no," as is mine.
How can that be? Aren’t the demands overwhelming? Wise
leaders recognize their job is not to do it
all, but to shape and communicate their vision for the
firm, encourage and reward behaviors that serve that vision,
and to get out of the way. This is leadership as
"obstacle remover," as the article puts it. To
quote a (perhaps composite) figure in the piece:
"My job is to take away any obstacles that keep
you from succeeding. Then, it’s just you and the goal line.
If there’s an obstacle between you and any of our targets,
I need to know about it."
This is actually subtler than it appears.
On the surface, all it amounts to is Chairman/CEO as red-tape-cutter-in-chief. If
the marketing department is stalling on delivering the
presentation you’ve requested or IT is late with the report
you need, just go to the Chairman and he’ll get them in line,
right?
But here’s the genius of it: You’re never actually
going to do that. What you are going to do is work
it out with marketing and IT, so you don’t look like an
extremely well-compensated crybaby. Yes, you have
been deprived of the excuse that because "us vs. us" is
getting in your way, you can’t attend to "us vs. them"—but
so has everyone else.
There are just two more things: This requires the
leader to actually trust that the partners and key business-side
people know what they’re doing and can be let alone to
do it; and it means any inherited dysfunctions within the
firm need to be confronted even if it means breaking some
china. But that’s what you as Chairman are getting
paid for.
