Why CEO's Fail

Books Comments

The book talks about 11 personality traits that could derail an executive/CEO’s career. They’re -

  1. Arrogance - You’re right and everybody else is wrong.
  2. Melodrama - You always grab the center of attention.
  3. Volatility - Your mood swings drive business swings.
  4. Excessive Caution - The next decision you make may be your first.
  5. Habitual Distrust - You focus on the negatives.
  6. Aloofness - You disengage and disconnect.
  7. Mischievousnesss - Rules are made to be broken
  8. Eccentricity - It’s fun to be different just for the sake of it.
  9. Passive Resistance - Your silence is misinterpreted as agreement.
  10. Perfectionism - Get the little things right even if the big things go wrong.
  11. Eagerness to Please - Winning the popularity contest matters most.

Learnings From the Book

  1. Stress - Most of these derailers are a result of stress to a positive personality trait. For example, if self confidence is one of your strengths it might turn into arrogance under stress or being charismatic might become melodramatic under stress. And if you think about it, self-confidence and charisma might be the reason for your climb to the top of the ladder.

  2. Crossing The Line - The goal of this book isn’t to eradicate these traits but to be aware of them and act on them when under stress. The other thing that I liked about this book is that for each of the trait, there is a section which indicates when you’ve crossed the line from it being a strength to a derailer - from self-confidence to arrogance or from analytical to overly cautious and so on.

  3. The book is applicable to everyone - just think of yourself as the CEO of your life :)

A good read!

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Kaushik Rangadurai

Kaushik Rangadurai

Code. Learn. Explore

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