What most executives understand intellectually-but often underestimate in practice-is that a brand doesn't live in positioning statements or buzzy marketing campaigns. A brand lives in its people. Great brands have a strong, clear, and consistent core identity and they have leaders at every level who know how to carry that identity with confidence and courage.
I've spent my career straddling the structured discipline of Fortune 500 companies and the entrepreneurial scrappiness of startups. Each side has its strengths. Startups move fast, fueled by creativity and urgency. Corporations scale big, built on systems and predictability. But the future of leadership belongs to those who can bridge the two; leaders who think like founders and lead like CEOs.
The average CEO makes over 280 times what their company's line worker earns. This is more than 10 times the ratio observed in the 1970s. Looking just at the salaries and bonuses of Fortune 500 CEOs, financial executives, top university presidents, and even some directors of the larger non-profit organizations, you would think that these leaders are performing at high levels-at least levels high enough to justify their huge compensation. Unfortunately, that's not often the case.
CEOs are struggling to find their footing these days. Their role seemed clearer during Covid, when many executives rose to the challenge of becoming inspirational figures. They led their businesses while guiding their employees through a challenging shared experience. That was the case as well for many U.S. CEOs in 2020 when George Floyd's murder shocked the nation, and employees looked to their leaders for guidance and assurance.
When you're working on CEO succession, with the clients we serve, there's less of a debate about whether people are qualified. It's much more about: 'Can they scale; can they adapt; can they evolve?' This reflects the fundamental shift in how organizations evaluate leadership potential in uncertain times.
