Early in my career, I worked on Capitol Hill as a speechwriter for then-Senate majority leader Harry Reid. My colleagues and I would marvel at Reid’s stubborn insistence on zigging when others zagged.
Countless times, when the right decision seemed obvious to us, he would do precisely the opposite. On one infamous occasion, I huddled with him in the Senate barbershop before he was slated to give a speech at a ceremony to open the new Capitol Visitors’ Center. While he was getting a haircut, I walked him through the (probably boring) remarks I had drafted for him. He let me finish my briefing and then told me, “I think I’m going to talk about how smelly the tourists get in the summer.”
I pleaded with him not to do it. I brought in our communications director and chief of staff, who each admonished him not to do it. The more we prodded him, the more he dug in. And, infamously, he got up to the podium and said it.
The risk of developing a tin ear
I was perplexed by Reid's determination to ignore the advice he was paying us to give him until I thought about how many staffers like me came and left his team during his decades-long political career. Thousands of people worked for him over those years, and each one of them eventually moved on to other jobs.
Like Hank Hill in the opening to King of the Hill, the world moved on around him, and the only thing permanent was himself.
Looking back on that realization, I think it goes a long way toward explaining why it was so gut-wrenching for President Joe Biden to accept what seemed obvious to everyone else. Biden was first elected to public office in 1970. He has had no job to speak of other than serving as a legislator, vice president, and now president.
Just as I witnessed firsthand with Reid, the only consistent presence for Biden through those years has been himself. He is his own top advisor and strategist, and each success he’s had over the years only reinforces his sense of his own instincts. He’s used to people telling him no—he can’t win, he shouldn’t run, he’s on the wrong side of an issue. And more times than not, he’s proved the doubters wrong. That makes you trust your instincts.
I frequently see the same mentality as an advisor to CEOs. The very qualities that make great leaders—vision, confidence, and determination—can put blinders on even the most well-intentioned ones. They are used to being the smartest person in the room, which can lead them to overvalue their own instincts and undervalue the instincts of those around them.
Combating this risk of developing a tin ear goes against the instincts of many CEOs, but it can prevent them from making bad decisions or potentially overstaying their welcome. Here are some actions that can mitigate that risk:
Listen to people who aren’t on your payroll. Every CEO needs a kitchen cabinet. You need someone to call on Sunday night before the Monday morning staff meeting. CEOs typically don’t feel comfortable being vulnerable and indecisive with the people who work for them, so it’s essential to build a cadre of peers and mentors who you trust. It’s equally important to signal to this group that you listen to them so that over the years they build the muscle memory of speaking truthfully to you, and you build the muscle memory of carefully considering their points of view. If you find yourself always disagreeing with someone in your kitchen cabinet, it’s time to find someone new. When you find yourself facing a tough decision or crisis, talk it through with the people you trust and respect. Stress-test your assumptions with them. There’s an excellent chance that by the end of those conversations, you’ll know the right answer.
Don’t make yourself the bottleneck. If every big decision inside your company has to be run through you, it will be hard to ever think the place can function without you. Build a team who can make and own decisions and then empower them to do so. Sometimes, their choice will be different than yours would have been. Sometimes they’ll be wrong, and you’ll need to show them the confidence to see their decisions through. Letting someone do something differently than you would is one of the toughest challenges of leadership—and one of the most essential.
Define what ‘enough’ looks like. Much of what makes CEOs successful is in the tireless quest for more—more potential, more growth, more profit. But this drive for more can make it hard to find lasting satisfaction. Take stock of what you have achieved and what you still want to pursue. Make a realistic plan for the outstanding goals that matter most to you. And when you achieve them, resist the urge to move the goalposts. Embrace the idea that no matter how long you’re in the role, your job is to leave the company in good shape for the CEO who replaces you.
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