The Myth of the CEO as Ultimate Decision Maker

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The Myth of the CEO as Ultimate Decision Maker
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Chief executives are responsible for guiding corporations, so the role inevitably requires making many decisions. But people overestimate the level of personal involvement CEOs have in this process. Instead of making decisions, CEOs tend to shape decisions, by designing the process, choosing when to participate directly, and monitoring the work — a selective process that mirrors the choices CEOs must make when carrying out other responsibilities.

A common misperception about the CEO’s role is that they are the ultimate decision-maker, and that the prize of getting this coveted position is that you now get to make all the decisions. In reality, the CEO’s role is much more aboutThere’s a fundamental reason for this subtle difference. Organizations face countless decisions daily, and it would be impossible for a CEO to be involved in each one. Attempting to do so would slow down the entire operation and could even bring it to a standstill.

The decision-making landscape in any organization is vast. A useful map is to think of categories of decisions on one axis and the organizational level at which decisions need to be made on the other axis . CEOs must choose how to personally engage to shape decisions across this entire landscape.

These two examples illustrate the intentionality CEOs must bring to these design choices. Depending on the specific matter they want to influence, they must choose the various parameters , and identify which issues they want to personally be involved in, and which others they are happy to delegate and trust others to make.CEOs must then choose how much they want to participate at various stages of the decision-making process.

In contrast, on the cost-cutting workstream, he attended no meetings and instead asked the CFO and CHRO to brief him on their progress and to seek his input whenever they felt it would be helpful. A key choice while monitoring decision-making processes is the altitude, or level of granularity, at which the CEO wants to engage. CEOs can choose to engage at a high level or dig deeply into the details. Some CEOs set these altitude expectations in advance; others choose them strategically in real time to keep the team alert and prepared to engage with them at any altitude they choose.

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