HBR: What Only the CEO Can Do
If you were strip the CEO's job down to the bare basics, what is the one thing she can do that no one else in the organization can accomplish?
According to Procter & Gamble Chairman A.G. Lafley, one of the better CEOs over the last decade, it boils down to this:
The CEO wears many hats: communicator, coach, problem solver. While others in your organization can also fill those roles, there's one critical job only a CEO can do: link the outside world (society, economy, technology, customers) with the inside world (your organization).Writing in the May issue of the Harvard Business Review, Lafley says this essentially means accomplishing four tasks:
- "Define the meaningful outside" The chief executive must identify the single outside constituency that matters most. For many companies, this is simple: it's the consumer.
- "Decide what business you're in" These are the core growth businesses in which you are investing.
- "Balance present and future" Quarter-by-quarter management is getting a makeover. The CEO must make sure the long-term interests of the company and stakeholders are served.
- "Shape values and standards" Do organizational values place needs of employees ahead of needs of the consumer? That is a value shift that needs to be pushed across the org chart by the chief executive.
Does Obama Make the Grade?
Let's hold the Lafley Standard up against another noted chief executive, President Obama. Do you think he has:
Defined the meaningful outside
Decided what business the country is in
Balanced present and future
Shaped values and standards