This weeks post is a tour de force on leadership between Marc and I! Not surprisingly corporate leaders tend to accentuate “the good”, whereas more often you will hear the “the bad and the ugly” from employees, customers, partners  and the general public or non corporate world. In a fast changing and often turbulent world some CEO’s are justifiably nervous about communicating a vision for the future, and most that do communicate such a vision are frequently held back by the need to pay lip service to boards, stockholders and investors, Employees, etc. This begs the question as to what kind of leadership an organisation really needs.

Luke Johnson, writing in the FT, recently set things alight with a column entitled How to Tell a CEO from a Dummy!

“One day I would love to conduct an experiment by replacing the entire board of directors of a major corporation with shop dummies and see how well things go. I’m confident most organisations would carry on regardless – and quite a few would unquestionably perform better. Out would go mad strategic initiatives, doomed takeovers, suicidal rebranding exercises and so forth. Responsible leaders on the ground would be able to get on with the job without distractions……..

One company I know fired its chief executive two years ago, and has since been run by an ad hoc committee of senior staff. Progress during the period has been spectacular, in spite of having to compete in a tough sector and a patchy track record in the past. Of course, defined leadership is preferable to a confused structure, but the potential for one man or woman to make that much impact on a corporate outcome is wildly exaggerated. Nevertheless, such a belief suits our prejudice of how management actually works – and it suits the leadership class, as well as the head-hunters and pay consultants. We know the best businesses have talent in depth. It is as if there are always two companies: there is the artificial, external impression with a spotlight on a single hero, and then there is the true picture, where dozens or hundreds of key people do the work that matters. The finest leaders I have dealt with possess three qualities above all else: skill as a listener, skill as a delegator and skill as a motivator. These traits require a degree of modesty scarce among those ambitious enough to clamber to the top. This runs counter to the desire for headlines and simplistic answers and our thirst for personalities. The reality is that a consistent 5 per cent annual growth rate still doubles the size of a company every 14 years and is likely to create a much sounder enterprise than a more frantic display.

Luke Johnson has a point. Some CEOs, like the above mentioned vision and mission statements, are increasingly grandiose, remote and divorced from normal business activity with the result that they no longer serve as useful. It is excellence in execution that is rapidly becoming the business differentiator. There are of course business leaders out there who recognise the importance of execution and it is also true that charismatic leaders will always attract people who will follow them for better or worse. We also need to bear in mind that the modern media are responsible elevating CEOs to the position of Olympian gods and assigning them the powers that go with a seat at Zeus’ table.

Below are a selection of comments taken from the media and HRN Europe by, and about CEO’s on the future they see for their organisations – we leave it to readers to decide which, if any at all, are The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and how blurred the differences might be.

France Telecom: France Telecom’s next group CEO and current head of domestic operations, Stephane Richard, told the Wall Street Journal that he sees his priority as rebuilding the morale of employees who have experienced “trauma, suffering and much worse”. He diplomatically omitted to mention suicide.

Microsoft: With Microsoft profits falling, and unemployment rising in all major economies, Steve Ballmer seems to have taken it on himself to revive the world’s economy single-handed by adding a touch of his own self-confidence; “Look,” he says, leaning forward in preparation for a moment of excitement. “I’m not going to tell you that the next few years are going to be the best in world economic history, but this whole move from one computing device, to cloud computing, to natural computer interfaces using speech and so on, and innovations in commerce and communication. Come on! What’s not to get excited about?” We have it on good authority that when Steve Balmer sends an E-mail it is read and actioned by staff immediately. We are also reliably informed that when the CEO of a major global investment bank does the same the staff treat it as spam and many delete it without even reading it.

Hewlett Packard: Less flamboyant than Carly Fiorina, successor Mark Hurd focused on the need for everyone to work together – values similar to its founders and the time-honoured HP Way. Vision without execution is nothing. “You’ve got to be able to tie it back to strategy; you’ve got to tie accountability to things.”

Kraft Foods: Irene Rosenfeld: I think we’re doing what we said we were going to do. I think we’re showing that we can do it and we’re just going to keep doing much of what we said we were going to do. It’s a difficult climate. Fortunately, our stock has been hit less than many other stocks in the Dow, as well as in the S&P 500 and I am confident that, if we continue to do what we are doing in terms of our investments in our products, in terms of putting our value propositions out for consumers that our stock will follow.

Rio Tinto: Tom Albanese, Rio Tinto chief executive, unveiled his vision of the ‘mine of the future’ in Perth as part of Rio Tinto’s drive to maintain its position as Australia’s leading iron ore producer.   The Group aims to be the leader in integrated and automated mining and transport in the Pilbara iron ore region, leading to greater efficiency, lower production costs and more attractive working conditions that will help Rio Tinto to recruit and retain staff in the highly competitive labour market.

Deutsche Telekom: CEO Rene Obermann expects a completely different revenue breakdown for the operator within five years, according to a message on Deutsche Telekom’s intranet cited by the German press. Obermann unveiled the new strategy of the operator to around 1,000 managers in Munich and said that the company will have to transform from a clear telephony company into a more diverse company, focusing on data services. To reach this goal, a new cost-cutting programme will be introduced, while at the same time a billion euros will be invested. The focus will be on developing new services like mobile applications as well as new data services for the healthcare industry and electricity market.

Proctor & Gamble: “At the end of 2009 new Procter & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald explained the financial implications of their new focus. It’s simple arithmetic. If 7 billion consumers currently spend an average of $14 a year on P&G products, then finding ways to meet their needs that would increase that spending over 5 years by $2 a year (an affordable target), would create a growth spurt for the business’. P&G invests heavily in innovation, outspends the competition in R&D, and targets emerging markets with growth potential. “To execute, P&G is redoubling emphasis on its culture and values.”

Unilever: P&G’s competitor Unilever believes in “Creating a better future every day”. Apparently before Christmas +300 senior execs from Unilever met in London with the CEO and were tasked with communicating the CEO’s vision. According to Ad Age “Paul Polman came in to do a job – to slim it down, make it more aggressive and commercial and get the share price up.” In short here are some of the points. 1. Build on History 2. Double the business/revenue in next 10 years 3. Reduce Unilever’s environmental footprint. This is ambitious stuff – watch out for mergers and acquisitions and all the work that brings to HR.

SAP: Léo Apotheker, SAP’s chief executive, “resigned” recently in a management reshuffle at the world’s largest business software maker. The German group said: “The supervisory board has come to a mutual agreement with the spokesman of the management board, Léo Apotheker, not to extend his contract as an executive board member. “Léo Apotheker has laid down his post as member of the management board with immediate effect.” SAP did not provide a reason for the departure but a senior company executive said the supervisory board did not think Mr Apotheker would be the right person to repair morale at the company after an employee survey last September revealed a dramatic loss of confidence in SAP’s senior management. “The new structure at the top of the company is meant to bring the product innovations closer together with customers’ requirements.

Reckitt Benckiser: The best-paid FTSE 100 boss has told The Times that he is worth his £36.8 million pay packet. Bart Becht, chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser, said that his company’s shareholder returns justified his pay. He said: “We pay for performance. It’s very straightforward. There’s a very clear link between stock awarded and shareholder value.” The maker of Cillit Bang and Vanish has delivered higher total shareholder returns than any other FTSE 100 company apart from British American Tobacco in the past decade. The compensation system is inherited from Benckiser, which Mr Becht led before the merger. He said: “There are three pillars of pay at Reckitt Benckiser: base salary, annual cash bonus and long term incentives. Our base salary is, at best, medium. For the cash bonus we need revenue growth and profit growth. Long-term incentives are all performance-based using restricted stock options. Sales have been strong throughout the downturn, as the company focussed on more promotional sales, and and it upgraded revenue growth forecasts twice in 2009.

SAS: You have to love the idea of a company led by someone called Dr. Goodnight. This is no fictional character dreamt by Hollywood but the real life CEO of SAS, a US software solutions company that is also one of the best employers. The secret behind their success at attracting and retaining talent is more than just the fact the company has seen revenue grow every single year since it was founded in 1976. It is because the CEO believes his people are key: “Innovation is the key to success in this business, and creativity fuels innovation,” Goodnight said. “Creativity is especially important to SAS because software is a product of the mind. As such, 95 percent of my assets drive out the gate every evening. It’s my job to maintain a work environment that keeps those people coming back every morning. The creativity they bring to SAS is a competitive advantage for us.”

What will super-performance organisations and super-performing CEOs look like over the next 10 years? If it’s half the success of the The Good, the Bad & the Ugly and it’s lead character they’ll be doing well … but why settle for half!

Finally, by way of addendum a few words from a super-performing company with a CEO to match:

Apple: Steve Jobs in his own words. “We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life. We could be sitting in a monastery somewhere in Japan. We could be out sailing. Some of the [executive team] could be playing golf. They could be running other companies. And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it. And we think it is.” …. “My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better. My job is to pull things together from different parts of the company and clear the ways and get the resources for the key projects. And to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better, coming up with more aggressive visions of how it could be.”