The CEO Next Door

The CEO Next Door Plot Summary

Introduction

What truly separates exceptional CEOs from the rest? Contrary to popular belief, it's not an Ivy League education, natural charisma, or even flawless career trajectories. The path to extraordinary leadership is far more accessible than conventional wisdom suggests. Through rigorous analysis of thousands of executive assessments and performance data, a clear pattern emerges – four specific behaviors that consistently distinguish high-performing leaders. The research revealed surprising insights that challenge long-held assumptions about leadership. Most successful CEOs didn't set out with corner office ambitions early in their careers. Many experienced significant career setbacks. Introverts were slightly more likely to exceed board expectations than extroverts. What matters isn't the perfect pedigree or an unblemished history, but rather the cultivation of key behaviors: decisiveness, engagement for impact, relentless reliability, and adaptability. These behaviors aren't innate traits but learnable skills that anyone can develop through deliberate practice, providing a roadmap for aspiring leaders to elevate their performance and accelerate their journey toward extraordinary leadership.

Chapter 1: Decisive: Prioritizing Speed Over Precision

Decision-making defines leadership effectiveness, yet the most impactful aspect isn't what many assume. The research reveals that successful CEOs are distinguished not by the accuracy of their decisions but by their decisiveness – the ability to make choices with speed and conviction. Leaders who demonstrate this quality are twelve times more likely to be high performers, making it a critical behavior for executive success. The most effective decision-makers understand that waiting for complete information often costs more than acting on partial data. They've internalized the principle that a good decision executed quickly typically outperforms a perfect decision delivered too late. This doesn't mean reckless action – rather, they've developed frameworks to simplify complex situations. They focus on identifying the truly consequential decisions that warrant their attention while delegating or standardizing routine choices, creating mental bandwidth for more significant issues. These leaders also demonstrate a unique approach to inclusivity in decision-making. They actively seek diverse perspectives and give stakeholders a voice – but not a vote. This balance allows them to benefit from collective wisdom while maintaining clarity and momentum. When Christophe Weber led GlaxoSmithKline's Asia Pacific division, he incorporated input from high-potential employees across countries but stopped short of consensus-seeking, which he recognized could lead to lowest-common-denominator solutions and dangerous delays. Decisive CEOs also maintain emotional distance from their decisions, viewing mistakes not as failures but as learning opportunities. They look back at decisions systematically, conducting postmortems regardless of outcomes to refine their approach. This mindset shift is reflected in language – CEO candidates who referred to setbacks as "failures" were half as likely to deliver strong performance compared to those who viewed them as growth experiences. This disciplined reflection process helps them "train" their intuition over time, continually improving their decision-making velocity and quality. The most successful leaders complement decisiveness with the ability to adapt to new information. They make commitments firmly but remain intellectually flexible, willing to change course when compelling evidence emerges. This seemingly paradoxical combination – decisive yet adaptable – creates the foundation for exceptional leadership. They understand that moving forward imperfectly but purposefully allows organizations to learn and adjust, while paralysis by analysis often means missing opportunities entirely.

Chapter 2: Engaging for Impact: Orchestrating Stakeholders for Results

Engaging for Impact represents a leader's ability to connect with diverse stakeholders to drive business outcomes. The research revealed a fascinating insight: while likeable executives were more likely to be hired, this trait alone didn't translate to exceptional performance. Instead, CEOs who engaged others with a clear results orientation were 75 percent more successful than those who merely excelled at interpersonal skills. Effective engagement exists at the sweet spot of a bell curve – neither too accommodating nor too detached. At its core, Engaging for Impact involves leading with clear intent. Exceptional CEOs translate vision and goals into commercial purpose, aligning their aspirational intent (long-term vision) with transactional intent (immediate interaction goals). This alignment prevents the disconnect seen in cases like United Airlines' 2017 passenger removal incident, where transactional goals (getting a plane airborne quickly) conflicted with aspirational ones (providing excellent customer service). When leaders maintain this alignment, their actions appear authentic rather than manipulative, enhancing their ability to influence. The behavior's second component involves understanding stakeholders through what psychologists call "perspective getting" rather than perspective taking. Instead of imagining themselves in others' positions (which often leads to projection), effective leaders actively inquire and listen to understand different viewpoints. Neil Fiske demonstrated this skill in focus groups for a women's clothing company, where he didn't pretend to know what made women feel attractive in clothing but instead asked thoughtful questions and listened carefully to responses, helping create a billion-dollar business. Building routines forms the third pillar of this behavior. Consistent communication practices, including repetition in multiple formats, helps messages penetrate organizational layers. Robert Hanson exemplified this when turning around Levi's Europe's decline by personally visiting general managers in their countries to show respect and build common ground. Another powerful routine involves "going to where work is done" – leaders like Jim Donald spent up to half their time outside headquarters, connecting with frontline employees and customers to gather insights and build relationships. The balance required for Engaging for Impact explains why two seemingly opposite approaches often fail. Leaders who are "too nice" prioritize making others comfortable over business needs, while those who focus exclusively on results without building relationships create resentment and resistance. The most effective CEOs consciously navigate this balance, thoughtfully managing when to push for results and when to invest in relationships, creating what one CEO called "constructive dissatisfaction" among stakeholders.

Chapter 3: Relentless Reliability: Deliver Consistently

Relentless Reliability emerged as the only behavior that both increases a candidate's odds of getting hired and predicts their success in the role. Leaders demonstrating this quality are fifteen times more likely to be high performers, and their hiring odds double compared to others. Despite its importance, this behavior frequently scores lowest in leadership assessments, suggesting it may be undervalued or underdeveloped in many aspiring executives. The foundation of Reliability is personal consistency – developing predictable patterns that allow others to function at their best. Boards and shareholders value consistency of results as it creates confidence in future performance. The research found that 94 percent of strong CEO candidates followed through consistently on commitments. This reliability extends beyond mere task completion to encompass emotional steadiness. Unreliable leaders create organizational anxiety through unpredictable moods, shifting priorities, or inconsistent standards, while reliable leaders create psychological safety through dependable behavior. Setting realistic expectations forms another crucial aspect of this behavior. Effective leaders proactively shape commitments to ensure they can consistently deliver, even negotiating with stakeholders to redefine success criteria when necessary. They also watch for implicit expectations – what stakeholders assume but don't explicitly state – and address these proactively. One CEO succeeded with an Internet security firm acquisition because he recognized early that while he met stated revenue targets, improving market conditions had raised investors' unstated expectations, allowing him to adjust his strategy accordingly. The most reliability-focused leaders adopt practices from High-Reliability Organizations (HROs) like nuclear plants and aircraft carriers, where consistency isn't just about performance but survival. They make mistakes "safe" to report, transforming near-misses into "good catches" that prevent future failures. They create shared precise vocabulary to improve communication efficiency. They implement systematic processes that make reliability repeatable rather than dependent on heroic individual efforts. When Simon Castellanos led a division of Fresenius Medical Care, he implemented a clockwork-like system of reporting on quality metrics, driving employee turnover down and making his division the most profitable in the company. Contrary to concerns that reliability constrains innovation, surgeon Atul Gawande found that standardized processes like checklists actually enhance adaptability by freeing mental bandwidth. "The checklist gets the dumb stuff out of the way," he explains, allowing leaders to focus on complex challenges requiring creativity. Relentless Reliability thus creates the stable foundation that enables an organization to successfully navigate change.

Chapter 4: Adapting Boldly: Embracing the Unknown

Adapting Boldly represents a leader's capacity to navigate uncertainty and change with confidence. Research shows CEOs who adapt boldly are seven times more likely to succeed than those who wait for change to confront them. This behavior has rapidly grown in importance as business environments become increasingly unpredictable, making it a critical differentiator for contemporary leadership. The journey toward adaptability often begins with leaders letting go of approaches that worked previously. When Andy Grove faced Intel's existential crisis in the mid-1980s as Japanese companies commoditized memory chips, he asked his CEO a pivotal question: "If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what would that man do?" The honest answer – exit the memory business – led Intel to pivot to microprocessors, transforming a $4 billion company into a $197 billion giant. This willingness to abandon past success formulas, even when they formed the company's identity, exemplifies the bold adaptation required when circumstances fundamentally change. Building an "antenna for the future" forms another crucial aspect of adaptability. Research shows CEOs spend significantly more time – over 40 percent, equivalent to two days weekly – thinking about the long term compared to other executives who devote roughly one day weekly to future-focused thinking. Leaders with effective future orientation build diverse information networks that extend beyond their industry, actively questioning assumptions. Tom Bell, former CEO of Cousins Properties, demonstrated this when asking penetrating questions about leasing trends that revealed a nationwide downturn, leading him to sell over $1 billion in office assets at the market peak before the 2008 real estate collapse. Successful adapters develop specific practices to strengthen their adaptation muscles. Many actively seek out novelty in their personal lives – learning new skills or immersing themselves in unfamiliar cultures – to increase comfort with discomfort. They weigh career moves by learning potential rather than prestige or pay grade, taking lateral or even seemingly "lesser" roles that broaden their experience. They consciously acquire skills they lack, like Rob Wenger, CEO of Higher Logic, who overcame his aversion to public speaking by repeatedly putting himself in uncomfortable social situations until it became natural. Leaders who adapt boldly typically share a mindset that welcomes discomfort as a sign of growth. Jean Hoffman, founder of Putney Inc., compared leading a company to "being in a foxhole every day," while Ali Jameel, CEO of TPL Trakker, noted that in fifteen years as an entrepreneur, he'd never had a plan work unmodified from start to finish. This acceptance of constant change as normal, rather than exceptional, allows these leaders to maintain equilibrium amid turbulence. As one Navy SEAL officer surprisingly identified, the quality that distinguished great SEAL leaders wasn't bravery or confidence, but humility – the recognition that they didn't have everything figured out and needed to learn continually from changing environments.

Chapter 5: Career Catapults: Accelerating Your Leadership Journey

Career Catapults represent pivotal experiences that accelerate a leader's trajectory toward the C-suite. The research identified three specific types of career inflection points that appeared consistently in the journeys of executives who reached CEO positions faster than the average 24-year timeframe. Understanding and strategically seeking these experiences can dramatically compress the path to senior leadership for aspiring executives. The first acceleration mechanism, the "Big Leap," involves accepting roles that stretch significantly beyond previous experience – either managing substantially more people or taking on unfamiliar responsibilities. About a third of fast-track CEOs had made such leaps, with roughly half occurring during their first eight years. Robert Hanson exemplified this when accepting the presidency of Levi's European division despite being considerably younger than the country managers reporting to him. Though initially "terrifying," this experience provided invaluable enterprise leadership development, transforming the brand from an 11 percent revenue decline to positive growth in just three years. The "Big Mess" forms the second catapult, where leaders take on struggling operations or failed initiatives that others avoid. Approximately 30 percent of fast-track CEOs had led through significant organizational problems. These experiences forge decisive leadership under pressure, as illustrated by Shanti Atkins, who became CEO of a compliance e-learning company with just twelve employees remaining after multiple layoffs. Rather than merely winding down the company as expected, she completely restarted it, eventually growing it to over $100 million. The pressure of crisis situations develops rapid decision-making skills and confidence in navigating uncertainty. The third accelerant, "Go Small to Go Big," involves accepting smaller roles or building new ventures, often contradicting conventional career advice about always moving up. About 60 percent of fast-track CEOs had taken this seemingly counterintuitive path. Damien McDonald, for instance, left a prestigious position at Johnson & Johnson to lead a struggling $250 million division at Zimmer, which eventually led to larger roles and ultimately the CEO position at LivaNova. These experiences provide opportunities to build businesses from the ground up, developing essential skills in creating systems and processes rather than merely operating within established structures. Interestingly, the research revealed that career "blowups" – significant failures or setbacks – had no negative effect on candidates' likelihood of becoming CEO. What mattered was how leaders processed these experiences – those who owned their mistakes, extracted clear lessons, and evolved their approach were twice as likely to succeed as those who deflected responsibility or labeled these experiences as failures. Anne Williams-Isom, CEO of Harlem Children's Zone, transformed a potentially dangerous school conflict into valuable lessons about risk assessment and leadership presence that strengthened her effectiveness as a leader.

Chapter 6: Building Visibility: Getting Noticed by Decision Makers

Building Visibility encompasses the strategic practices that ensure a leader's accomplishments are recognized by those who make promotion decisions. Research revealed that career advancement depends on two equally important factors: delivering results in the right roles and ensuring those results are noticed. Even exceptional performers can stall in their careers without deliberate attention to visibility with key decision-makers. The foundation of effective visibility begins with cultivating strong relationships with direct supervisors. Executives who consistently advance in organizations typically maintain positive relationships with bosses throughout their careers. They view these relationships not as mere reporting lines but as strategic partnerships, investing time to understand their manager's goals, preferences, and priorities. They provide regular updates on matters important to their boss and look for ways to make their supervisor successful. Rather than positioning themselves as rivals to their boss, they demonstrate how their success contributes to their manager's objectives. Building a network of sponsors – influential figures who can open doors to valuable opportunities – forms another crucial visibility component. Nearly half of fast-track CEOs had powerful sponsors throughout their careers. While the importance of sponsorship is widely recognized, accessing sponsors can be challenging, particularly for those outside established networks. Successful leaders overcome this through deliberate relationship-building approaches that remain authentic to who they are. Nataly Kogan, CEO of Happier, found that using humor rather than forced sports conversations helped her connect with colleagues at a venture capital firm where she was the only female managing director. Strategic focus in relationship-building emerged as another key insight. Executives who scatter their networking efforts too broadly often generate less visibility than those who concentrate on building deeper relationships in areas central to business success. VJ Joshi, now CEO of 3D Systems, learned this lesson early at Hewlett Packard when he was passed over for promotion despite meeting all his goals. His boss advised him that advancement required contributions that "moved the needle for the company" in core value areas, not just checking performance boxes. This insight led VJ to take on challenging projects in HP's critical printing division, eventually leading to significant leadership roles. The research also revealed counterintuitive findings about visibility-building approaches. Successful leaders don't hesitate to create productive conflict when focused on business improvement. Rather than avoiding difficult conversations, they engage in them constructively when important principles or opportunities are at stake. They also demonstrate courage in asking for what they want – approximately 60 percent of fast-track CEOs had proactively requested greater responsibility at pivotal career moments. Finally, they master executive presence through communication practices including speaking more deliberately, pausing strategically, making every word count, and scanning continuously for audience reactions – habits that create confidence and authority regardless of formal position.

Chapter 7: Navigating the C-Suite: Overcoming Hidden Hazards

Navigating the C-Suite requires awareness of formidable yet rarely discussed challenges that await new CEOs. Research into seventy situations where CEOs were fired revealed common pitfalls that derail even highly capable leaders. Understanding these hidden hazards prepares executives to successfully transition into top leadership roles while avoiding predictable traps. The first challenge involves conducting a thorough assessment of inherited problems – what the research termed "ghouls in the supply closet." New CEOs must systematically investigate potential issues ranging from financial bombs to unrealistic board expectations before launching their vision. This initial due diligence phase is critical because problems uncovered within the first six months are typically attributed to previous leadership, while those discovered later become the new CEO's responsibility. Scott Clawson demonstrated this principle when taking over Culligan water treatment company, immediately discovering that actual EBITDA was $45 million rather than the $60 million projected to investors. By transparently addressing this gap with his board, he established realistic expectations and eventually delivered a successful turnaround. New CEOs also face overwhelming demands on their time – entering what the research calls "warp speed." Their external focus typically doubles from 20 to 45 percent of their time while they simultaneously must master unfamiliar responsibilities. Successful CEOs manage this acceleration by developing rigorous filtering systems to determine which issues merit their attention and which can be delegated. They train their teams to package information efficiently and structure their calendars to align with strategic priorities. Madeline Bell, CEO of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, discovered her assistant was still prioritizing internal meetings over board and external stakeholder interactions – a misalignment that required explicit redirection to succeed in her new role. The phenomenon of "amplification" presents another significant challenge, where a CEO's smallest actions and expressions take on outsized importance. Jim Harrison, CEO of Party City, adopted what he calls the "Smile Rule" after learning his natural expression was interpreted as anger by employees, while Tom Monahan discovered that a casual comment about seeing his childhood home from Boston office windows had prevented the location from being considered for closure years later. Successful CEOs consciously manage this amplification effect, using it strategically to reinforce important messages rather than allowing it to create unintended consequences. Perhaps most importantly, new CEOs must quickly master unfamiliar levers of enterprise leadership – including culture shaping, financial strategy, and corporate diplomacy – instead of defaulting to the functional expertise that got them promoted. In the research of CEO dismissals, 20 percent were fired for failing to utilize the full range of tools available to them. Ian Read of Pfizer demonstrated the power of cultural focus when, despite inheriting numerous business challenges in 2010, he made cultural imperatives his first priority – a decision that contributed to doubling the company's stock price over the subsequent seven years. This ability to see beyond functional expertise to enterprise-wide leadership represents the critical transition that separates successful CEOs from those who stumble in the role.

Summary

The CEO Genome research overturns conventional wisdom about leadership success by revealing that extraordinary performance stems from mastering four specific, learnable behaviors rather than innate traits or pedigree. Decisiveness, Engaging for Impact, Relentless Reliability, and Adapting Boldly form the foundation of exceptional leadership, while strategic career moves and deliberate visibility-building accelerate the journey to senior roles. These insights democratize leadership development, making the path to executive success accessible to talented individuals regardless of background. The implications extend far beyond those aspiring to the C-suite. Organizations benefit when leaders at all levels develop these behaviors, creating cultures of decisive action, stakeholder alignment, consistent execution, and agile adaptation. In a world of accelerating change and complexity, these behaviors provide a framework for navigating uncertainty with confidence and purpose. By focusing on behaviors rather than backgrounds, the research opens leadership opportunities to diverse talents whose potential might otherwise be overlooked, ultimately enriching organizations with broader perspectives and innovative approaches to solving tomorrow's challenges.

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Elena L. Botelho

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