Thomas Keil: Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO

Think, breath, and only then act — there is still tons of advice out there that say CEOs need to act decisively from day one or at least within the first hundred days. In most situations, which may be a rather misguided advice that leads to rushed and not well thought out decisions when the new CEO does not yet fully understand the task at hand. Yes, boards, shareholders, and the organization are impatient for results or at least guidance, but you may be nonetheless better advised to take your time to understand the business and organization, especially if you’re coming from outside and build a team vision that can inspire in the long run rather than taking short-term actions that may bind your hands. Like every rule, there are of course exceptions. If you find yourself in the midst of a financial disaster you probably have limited time to act and show results, but those are the exception not the rule.

As a part of our series called ‘Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO’ we had the pleasure of interviewing Thomas Keil.

Thomas is a professor at the University of Zurich Switzerland where he teaches strategy and international management. He is an internationally recognized expert on CEO, leadership, and strategy topics, co-author (with Marianna Zangrillo) of The Next CEO: Board and CEO Perspective for Successful CEO Succession (Routledge), and an advisor to executives, CEOs and boards.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I kind of stumbled into academia. During my studies I wondered if I should go into consulting or the industry. Then I got an opportunity to work at the university where I studied and I truly enjoyed the academic side of things, so I decided to go on with my doctorate. Also, during the doctoral studies, I kept wondering whether to switch into practice but since the topic of my doctorate already allowed me to work with industry leaders, I decided that in academia I might have the opportunity to get the best of both worlds. I am in fact, enjoying the intellectual freedom and stimulation of academia while working really close with companies all the time.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began working in your field?

I have always been a planner. I try to pre-plan and design everything I do. Be over-prepared for meetings, rehearse my presentations again and again. Then a couple of years into my first job after the PhD, I was asked to give a presentation to a large audience on short notice. There was no time to prepare. I simply had to wing it with just some sketchy notes. That must have been the best presentation I ever gave. Yes, I was horrified at that moment, but I learned that too much preparation does not bring the best out of you (or at least, not out of me.) I learnt that some degree of improvisation and going with the flow are better sometimes, as spontaneity can be a powerful device. Sure, I still plan, prepare, and rehearse important activities but I leave some room for changing things on the spot, going off script and simply going with the flow. And nowadays that feels much more natural.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

While I really appreciate diverse cultures and try to be as considerate as possible, early on in my career I learned how easy it is to offend others, without realizing it. Since I am not an English native speaker, I sometimes use expressions in the classroom not realizing that they may come across in the wrong way for native speakers. One day a student approached me and said that my class was nice but the way I spoke was not always appropriate. That helped me realize how easy it is to offend others when we fail to perceive the world through their eyes and ears.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There are so many people that helped me along the way, and it would seem unfair to single anyone out. I have been very lucky to work with well-known professors and exchange ideas with many executives and it is the interplay of these perspectives that I really enjoy.

The one person that really made a difference has probably been my wife who is an executive and who has a strong sense of what ideas can and can’t work in my environment. So, whenever I get a new idea, I run it by her and if it withstands her judgment, it usually holds outside too. It may not always feel good to be told that an idea makes no sense, but it is better to hear that at home than in front of an executive audience.

As you know, the United States is currently facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?

There are probably various reasons, but a couple stand out. If you really harness diversity (and that means putting a lot of thought and energy into designing and running your team) it will lead to discussions and decisions that can really improve things. More importantly, working with diverse teams is more challenging and forces us out of our comfort zone, which is the best place to learn. Those who just like to hear what they already know, will not be well positioned to grow personally and professionally.

As a business professor, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

I think we really need to start at schools teaching our children that differences are not something to be afraid of, but to embrace. If we start with stereotyping and instilling fear in our children, our society is fundamentally doomed. Also at the upper education levels, we have an important role to play in being open, inclusive, and most importantly creating a sense of the value of diversity. I teach classes in international management to undergraduates and trying to make them understand differences in thinking, experience, and behavior that emerge for instance from different cultures is so important to make students open and inclusive. What amazes me is that there are often more than 50% female students in my classes, but for some reasons we do not see them in the same percentage in high level positions. In fact, I think academia has done a better job at making room for women, probably because it allows the flexibility that women like to have to manage both work and private live. Sadly, companies still have a long way to go to truly embracing diversity, and if they do, they seldom really include diverse members of the team. Today everybody has diversity on their flag but all too often what you see is just a fig leaf without any real effort to welcome, include and create value from different perspectives and experiences that different people bring.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?

I think what really distinguishes executives and especially CEOs from other leaders is a couple of things. First, the complexity of the problems they need to solve. Leaders throughout the organization every day solve problems and make decisions but typically these are fairly clearly defined and mostly concern a small part of the organization. Executives and CEOs tend to solve problems that touch and affect all aspects of the company and that makes them much more complex. Then there is fact that they are usually the final arbiter in problems or decisions. Before a problem lands on the desk of the CEO, several people may have tried to solve it but failed to do so, and then it escalated up to the top. The CEO cannot escalate problems up any further. An emerging trend of good CEOs is that they may have to learn to do the opposite, push issues back down and aim for a true group resolution, where more skills are utilized.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

Many of us still have a lot of very outdated stereotypes on what executives or a CEO does or should do. We think of them as superhumans that singlehandedly transform companies, know everything and tell others what to do whilst in the process of making million-dollar decisions on their own. And there surely are still examples of this kind that we read about in the business press. But I would say these are the minority and most of today’s executives and CEOs are very different from that stereotype or at least are becoming very different. Today’s executives spend most of their time engaging stakeholders within and outside of the organization, building and leveraging teams to whom they delegate responsibility and authority and then coaching them to do things that they could not do by themselves. The world and organizations are far too complex for a single individual to know it all and be the sole decision-maker. Being a modern executive or CEO is first and foremost a communication and community building task. Inspiring others to form a movement for a cause because a movement of motivated people is so much stronger and powerful than a single individual trying to push people to do something they don’t care for or want to do.

What do you think is the most striking difference between a CEO’s actual job and how they thought the job would be?

I think very few CEOs are prepared for the level of public scrutiny that the CEO job involves. Many CEOs still think that running the company means making business decisions. But today’s CEOs are public figureheads for their organizations and their every remark and more importantly every action are being scrutinized by stakeholders inside and outside the company. Being such a public persona means that CEOs need to constantly control what they say and do. That works in the long run only if what you say and do are in line with your values. Otherwise, sooner or later the public role breaks down and people notice inconsistencies.

Do you think everyone is cut out to be an executive? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?

Not everyone is suitable for executive roles. It is clear that it is a high-pressure role that not everyone wants to have or is cut out to withstand. It needs a fair bit of perseverance to be on stage basically 24/7.

In addition to perseverance, more recent trends suggest that the ideal executive combines being ambitious and competitive with being humble and learning oriented. Executives will have to be smart and analytical but more importantly need to possess emotional intelligence, empathy and a genuine interest in people.

We cannot miss that there are a fair number of narcissists among executives that mostly care about themselves and their own status and may have been cut for executive roles in the past but no longer are. They can become a real catastrophe for the organizations they lead. Luckily, we observe more and more executives of this type being removed by their boards, as organizations get associated with their most visible leaders and the values they display.

What advice would you give to business leaders to help create a fantastic work culture? Can you share a story or an example?

The best work cultures are built around trust, openness, and transparency with the fundamental belief that people are willing to go the extra mile if you believe in them and give them a meaningful task. I recently had a conversation with a CEO about trusting your employees. While many executives still feel they need to implement a culture of control, he said, he does not mind if people working at home do side-gigs or take care of other tasks. All that matters is that the job gets done. The clear message that management believe that the employees are honest and will get things done, will make the employees both content and productive. If there isn’t trust, the employees will feel it, and the only possible outcome will be talent leakage.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I am in the lucky position that in my main job as a professor, I have the privilege to pass on everything to students that I have learned from interacting with senior leaders and studying organizations in general. I hope that in the process I can instill some of my enthusiasm and ideas of what is right and wrong and what makes organizations better places to work, stronger performers and contributors to society, to the next generation of leaders.

Fantastic. Here is the primary question of our interview. What are your “5 Things you think a CEO should have known before they Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

I think there are really only three key things:

Be aware of the size of the step — The CEO job may well be the steepest learning curve in your career — most people who rise to CEO have had long and successful careers, often with various career transitions. Nonetheless, in many conversations, CEOs have told me that becoming CEO has been the single most difficult career step they have ever taken and has required the steepest learning curve. If you get promoted within your organization, it is easy to think that you already know everything you need to know. But no other role has the same breath of responsibilities and the same public pressure and as a result every new CEO will have to master a variety of new skills with little room for error. If you come from outside, it gets even more difficult, as you need to start orchestrating an organization or even a business, you’re not familiar with, by on-the-fly learning.

Think, breath, and only then act — there is still tons of advice out there that say CEOs need to act decisively from day one or at least within the first hundred days. In most situations, which may be a rather misguided advice that leads to rushed and not well thought out decisions when the new CEO does not yet fully understand the task at hand. Yes, boards, shareholders, and the organization are impatient for results or at least guidance, but you may be nonetheless better advised to take your time to understand the business and organization, especially if you’re coming from outside and build a team vision that can inspire in the long run rather than taking short-term actions that may bind your hands. Like every rule, there are of course exceptions. If you find yourself in the midst of a financial disaster you probably have limited time to act and show results, but those are the exception not the rule.

The foundations are more important than the roof — to really get things done in an organization, you need to build a strong platform that you can leverage to drive change. The core team is certainly important, but CEOs also need to build a network that is wide and deep in the organization and with external stakeholders. All too often we hear CEOs saying that they don’ t has time to engage employees and stakeholders. The important decisions need to be made and require all their attention and at best they interact with their direct reports. But when CEOs are disconnected from the organization these decisions are then made without the right information and all too often are never implemented.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I would like companies to take the importance of giving back to society more seriously and help address the big challenges of our generation such as climate change, education, opportunity inequality, poverty, and diversity and inclusion. If there is one mechanism that really can make a difference, I believe it is the entrepreneurial spirit and innovativeness of people in companies. Companies can be the greatest force for good, if we just set the right boundaries and incentives.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Persistence can get you a long way. I have always been surrounded by people that are smarter than me, better connected, better positioned. But by focusing on the lessons, I could take from those people and persisting often against the odds, I have been able to achieve many things I thought initially would never be possible.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I have always been impressed by people that have accomplished great careers and great results against the odds despite relatively humble beginnings. Satya Nadella, who is currently leading Microsoft, is such an individual and a person who I greatly admire for how he has led the transformation at Microsoft and who I certainly would enjoy learning from.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.