Page 59 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

40 • CEO Material: How to Be a Leader in Any Organization

Periodically check to see if things are on track.
Don’t hint or give innuendo in the hope that people will understand
what you want from them. Don’t expect them to read your mind or “know
better.” Tell them what you think and expect from them both early on
and straight out.
Take all the blame; share all the credit. Adopt all failures; share all
victories.

Tell them; make sure they know what their job is. Give them feed-
back. Occasionally do a public execution.

ƒ

When I have some difficult news to give, I give people a clue about
what I’m going to spring on them, give them a few days to get used
to it, and then go ahead.

It’s very liberating to delegate to other people. It’s also scary, because
who can you trust? The following CEOs claimed in the business press to
have “delegated” and ended up in prison.

You have to rely, you have to trust people. You have to believe. You have
to delegate. . . . I signed off on the information based on what was
provided to me and what I was told.
—Richard Scrushy, ex-CEO, HealthSouth
Enron was an enormous corporation. Could I have known everything
going on everywhere in the company?
—Ken Lay, ex-CEO, Enron

Bernie Ebbers did not know about the accounting decisions of Scott
Sullivan to reassign billions of dollars.
—Reid Weingarten, attorney for Bernie Ebbers,
ex-CEO, WorldCom
John Rigas has a right to trust and rely on professionals and his own
staff to get the financials right.
—Peter Fleming, attorney for John Rigas, ex-CEO, Adelphia