The Great Incompetence Trickle-Down

This is the energy that truly drives most workplaces.

Cool story here on “what CEOs are afraid of,” based on data from 116 CEOs and other executives (including 27 in-depth interviews afterwards). 116 isn’t a lot of people by any means — there are over 2 million CEOs/top executives in the United States alone — but nonetheless, it’s interesting. Getting “an in-depth interview” with a CEO is a pseudo-big deal in the sense that they often are very pressed for time, and they don’t often sit down and really talk about their fears and emotions. (Sidebar: I have this theory about that. A couple of months ago I went to an F1 race and got to sit in a box with a bunch of CEOs. These are guys that wouldn’t give me the time of day if I tried to get a business meeting with them. But in that box, they seemed to really like me and we were shooting the shit and talking about life and drinking. Why? I think it’s because they spend so much of their week getting approached by people who need something from them or need an immediate answer or whatever … that the ability to sit down and really just talk about actual stuff is kind of refreshing.)

Anyway, what did we learn from the CEO interviews/survey/in-depth discussions?

• The biggest fear among CEOs and top executives was incompetence, or being seen as an imposter.