CEO...a new brand of influence

By: Monika Evers

The super CEO is like any other super brands. They have succeeded in creating the influence that we accord the likes of super brands like Mercedes or McDonalds.

Remember the day that Jack Welch announced his resignation from GE, the share price halved. That is the mark of a superbrand of a CEO.

I was walking late at night at my favourite park with my over-sized standard poodle. When, I came across another of his kind, Louis. It is one of those things owning the same breed of dog, that causes relative strangers to walk together somehow bonded through our similar choice of animal.

We discussed the weeks events, as we ambled down the long avenue, serenaded by the creaks and calls of possums. I spoke at length for first time to Louis owner, about what I did and my philosophy of the influence. We somehow ended up on the CEO and the importance of vision and values as a key influencer in a brand.

I was pulled up in my tracks by the question of whether I really believed that a CEO carried any true influence in organisations today.

I mumbled something about Jack Welsh and Richard Branson having significant sway with investors and the public.

If it wasn't for the fact, that I later found I was walking with two professors and institutional heads I would have let the question slip by to the keeper as naive.

I was left wondering why people have that belief about CEO’s. What is the difference between your “everyday” CEO and the amazing entrepreneurs and super CEO’s like Branson.

— Monika Evers.

 

A new role of influence for the CEO

There is a fun axiom of corporate life and it goes like this

... Who is on top? Where am I in the scheme of things? What do I have to do to get on top? Yet, I would pose that it goes even further... What have they got that I have? What have they got, that I don't have ...and how can I get it?

Already in this conversation two things become apparent. There is a hierarchy at work and we place ourselves accordingly no matter how we want to believe we live in an egalitarian world.

Our competitive animal natures apply equally to work as they do our golf ranking or on the tennis court.

The second thing to notice in this conversation is around modelling. why has this person been more successful at obtaining the top position in an organisation than you.

Most people think its about the skills. My proposition is, that it is about the ability to influence on every level that makes a CEO a leader. The difference however between a CEO and a super CEO though has to do more with the quality of their vision and their ability to bring that vision into reality.

The power of influence

The super CEO is like any other super brands. They have succeeded in creating the influence that we accord the likes of super brands like Mercedes or McDonalds.

Remember the day that Jack Welch announced his resignation from GE, the share price halved. That is the mark of a superbrand of a CEO.

I was listening to an address given by Stewart Williams current CEO of David Jones. Stewart, in a relatively short career has taken a successful company albeit a bit of a dinosaur to now doubling its share price and wiping his market opposition in the process.

He talked about his success as a CEO which he believed hinged on his ability to influence his team and organisation as a person and outside of the position he holds as the CEO. His ability to influence.

From day one being the CEO is a purchase usually made by the board. They are the commodity“CEO” is the product. What is being bought is the qualifications to do the job.

But the real sale was the influence they garnered to sway the purchaser that they should buy them instead of the 15,000 other CEO’s in the marketplace.

CEO’s as brands

This influence comes from their personal brand (their name in the marketplace) and their positioning through their behaviour, their overall image which included things like the first and final impression they created, their presentation, spiel and their personal values. All of this is what I term the influence of their image.

What allows them to remain is their position is just like the superbrand ...to be relevant, maintain the esteem and the market kudos. The share price often touted as the ultimate measure of their success.

Now back to the original question. “Are today’s CEOs really important to the effectiveness of an organisation?”. That depends entirely on what measures you employ.

Using a different set of measures

I remember going to a lecture at the Theosophical Society many years ago to hear a guy expound his theory on brown holes.

For him there wasn’t spaces between bodies of mass. Instead, his contention was, that unseen...supporting the mass, were brown holes.

Brown holes he believed held all thought, visions and intentioning (the energy of our thinking)

Rupert Sheldrake was the first scientist to open this area for discussion with his 100th Monkey offering, on the subject of group minds. He called them fields of Morphic Resonance. Based on his theory I saw a remarkable study on animals.

This study observed the behaviour of animals separated from their masters who were on shopping trips or holidays. The animals were filmed during this entire time their masters were away, to see at what point they "knew" when their master was going to return home.

What the study revealed was that the instant the person (hundreds of miles away) decided to return home (they were also being filmed) the dog went to the door or their "greeting in wait" place every time and waited for their physical return, sometimes hours away.

It begs the question, how is this possible that an animal can know the instance you decide to return home.

Sheldrake proposed that we are all connected into a field of resonance he termed group mind. Family is a group mind (including animals). societies are a group mind as well as special Interest groups and of course business has a group mind.

Laying a different set of foundations

When you start a business with your intentions and your vision you are laying the foundation bed of a group mind.

Like a garden it can be nurtured or polluted.

The whole point of creating visions and values is to bring the collective structure to the vision you hold for the business, so that others when they join the business can tap into this field as well and get to know the culture and direction of an organisation on an intuitive level.

That is why using the Evers MetaBrand System the CEO is the most powerful influencer of the business. He is charged with the tenderer of the group mind, the gardener and the holder of the vision.

A corporate advisor actually gave me his scope on the difference between an Entrepreneur and a CEO. An entrepreneur drives his enterprise through his inspired Vision. A CEO on the other hand is a caretaker role.

The missing ingredient is of course the Vision and intentioning that goes with an inspired Vision.

The Inspired Vision

If you want to see the true capability of organisation then look at the intentioning, drivers and inspired vision of the CEO.

Branson, Welch, Jobs were all holders of amazing visions of purpose and intentioning for their organisations. Yes, they were CEO’s but they were CEO’s steering an organisation through their vision.

Want to see a lame business then look at the holders of the Vision and the intentioning of the business. If there ain’t no real vision, values or intentioning being done, then the business will be reflecting that in poor to average performance. Got some issues with morale, look here too.

Poor morale is a poorly tended group mind…usually with poor soil and no basis for growth. The CEO again has not been tending the garden. One of the greatest KPI's here is absenteeism. Show me absenteeism and I show you a poorly tended group mind. In fact there are dozens of KPI's to validate this normally unnoticed and undervalued aspect of business and organisations.

ROI is just the physical outcome that most Boards and investors apply their short term focus. It is tragic really, It’s like looking at boxes sold at market and not at the soil and its ability to deliver. Poor yields and erosion often come from over-farming. Not looking at group minds, visions, intentioning is like over-farming.

Business was never meant to be soul-less...after all it’s all about people. Morphic fields exists in business. The CEO’s role is that of a leader, influencer, tender and guardian of that group mind. A great CEO compels it through an inspired vision that can be tapped into and inspired through the group collective.

Recommend reading: “Presence” by Peter Senge, C Otto Scharmer. (These guys were behind the dismantling of Apartheid in South Africa...without the bloodshed! It’s compelling reading on inspired visioning and yes, Rupert Sheldrake gets a mention here too!

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