CEO Survey: Forward, March

From Inc.Magazine ....

We asked CEOs to define their leadership styles. Below, a sampling of their responses:

"Laid back with a single focus: the client. I wear sandals and shorts to work and lock people out of meetings when they're late."

-- Ron Huber, Achieve Internet

"I'm a big believer in getting everyone involved in decision making, but once the path is chosen and communicated, I expect everyone to get the job done without additional supervision."

-- Kevin Burke, Centuria

"Velvet fist: a cross between velvet glove and iron fist."

-- Steve Munroe, SANBlaze Technology

"I do not believe in micromanaging. I give people enough rope to climb to the next level. Unfortunately, some decide to hang themselves with it."

-- Jonathan Fine, Sting Surveillance

"General George Patton said it something like this: Never tell people how to do things. Tell 'em what needs doing, and they'll surprise you with their ingenuity."

-- Derek LaFavor, SellingSource

"Very hands on. Too much, actually -- I overcommit myself and do not delegate as much as I should."

-- Daniel LaBroad, Ovation Health & Life Services

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CEO Turnover Grows

From Inc.com, by Alexandra Zendrian ...

"The turnover rate of chief executives at the world's wealthiest companies jumped 10 percent in 2007, according to a study by New York-based public relations firm Weber Shandwick.

Last year, 81 CEOs at the world's top 500 companies by income left their jobs, including 27 at North American-based businesses alone, the study found. At 16.2 percent, the rate of CEO outplacement is approaching a 16.4 percent global high set three years ago.

Over half of North American CEOs left their jobs at the end of last year. The sharpest level of turnover was in the telecommunications and financial sectors.

"Although many CEOs leave for ordinary reasons such as retirement and succession planning, an increasing number also leave involuntarily," Leslie Gaines-Ross, a Weber Shandwick spokesperson, said in a statement.

"Just as CEOs receive most of the credit when things go right, they are expected to accept the majority of the blame when things go wrong."

Has the time come for C.E.O. Version 3.0?

From New York Times Business, by Stuart Isett

The first iteration made its mark in the 1990s, as chief executives like Sanford I. Weill, Gerald M. Levin, John F. Welch Jr. and Michael Eisner built empires, not to mention their profiles, at the companies they ran: Citigroup, Time Warner, GE and Disney.

When the shares deflated earlier this decade after the burst of the tech bubble and various corporate scandals, a new cadre moved in: the Fix-it Men. They were lower-key leaders like Charles O. Prince III of Citigroup and Richard D. Parsons of Time Warner, whose job it was to repair the excesses and mistakes of their predecessors.

Now, management experts and longtime watchers of corporate America say the current environment demands, and is attracting, yet another kind of chief executive: the team builder.

“It’s someone who can assemble a team that functions as smoothly as a jazz sextet,” said Warren Bennis, a professor of management at the University of Southern California and author of many books on leadership.

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