Spotlight On Consulting Issues:
 Consulting With CEOs
Steve Gravenkemper, Ph.D.

This Spotlight article explores the topic of consulting with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs).  Four distinguished Society of Consulting Psychology members: Bill Amberg, Dick Peairs, Kevin Somerville and Vicki Vandaveer provide their perspectives and suggestions regarding successfully consulting with these senior executives. Their sharing of best practices in this arena serves as a valuable resource for consulting psychologists. They candidly share their observations on key topics such as the three most important leadership characteristics for CEOs to possess to be effective, the value CEOs see in consulting psychologists, the most common issues that lead CEOs to seek the assistance of consulting psychologists, recommendations for consultants working with CEOs, and more.

New!  Click here for reader responses.

Question 1. Please describe how you approach working with CEOs.

Vicki Vandaveer

  • I approach working with CEOs like everyone else.  I always  work to identify their needs, how I might help, the context in which they operate, and what  my appropriate role and value-add opportunity are.

  • I relate to CEOs in part from  the knowledge I’ve gained by owning and managing  my  own business.  Hands-on experience in dealing with profit and loss and running a business is very helpful in relating effectively to the CEO’s concerns.

Kevin Somerville

  • CEOs have unique needs that I need to understand in depth. I am interested in understanding what separates them from the greatness, I assume, they want for their company.  In the heart of every CEO is the desire to make his/her company outstanding.  It‘s the knowledge of what separates their company from becoming great that becomes important. It is important to create an environment where they can explore possibilities freely.  I seek to create a view of what limits them from reaching their goal.

  • Capitalistic systems create people who want to do the right thing.  That’s because it frees up human nature, which is essentially good. CEOs have people, markets and money to work with. CEOs know most about markets and money. Possessing an expertise in the human dimension is a large part of the solution.

Bill Amberg

  • Very carefully and with respect!  My view is these are the most important people in the world because they influence so many others.  And by the way, I’ve also found them more talented, ethical and service oriented than individuals from public institutions or even charitable and religious organizations.  All are leaders, but they have different styles.  

  • It is terribly important to start with a psychological assessment, formal or informal, to understand their makeup.  It is helpful if this assessment is part of an organization study, to understand the structure, key players, products, services, history, strategy, etc.  My focus tends to be the development and functioning of senior leadership teams and coaching CEOs.

  • Most CEOs are concerned with how they (the CEOs) are viewed by their people.  Are they meeting the expectations of the Senior Leadership Team, Board, etc?  They also want to know what it will take to most effectively work with their direct reports.

  • Early on, I explore what CEOs expect from me.  What role do they want me to play in their organizations?  What are their objectives?  What are they looking for?  One key tool is asking them critical questions.  There is perhaps no other place where they can be totally open.  Everyone else in their lives has some vested interest.  CEOs find it useful to verbalize their thinking in response to adroit questions.

Dick Peairs

  • I firmly believe that optimism serves my clients’ businesses very well, as does the same quality in my assistance to them. The game of business is played more effectively by people adopting and practicing an optimistic view.  Consequently, I’m overjoyed that positive psychology as taken root . . . again.

  • Be flexible. Stay alert to the likelihood that any agenda anticipated when an appointment for a visit was set may change. Frequently, I’ll find myself working on issues that came to the CEO in the hours (or the day) just prior my arrival in his or her office. Relatedly, an agenda may change because of issues the CEO wishes to avoid. One benefit of a long-term relationship with the company is that it equips one with a useful sensitivity to such matters.

  • A number of years ago in an APA panel on consulting, Tim Murphy gave one of the best and most comprehensive definitions of the work we do in corporate psychology. He said, “We deal with the issues that keep CEOs up at night."  I seek to balance three important and active qualities in orienting my work with CEOs: a) optimism; b) idealism; and c) the realism residing in the expression, “It’s only business”. These three qualities need not be in conflict.

Question 2.  What are some of the common themes you experience when consulting with CEOs?  

"Leading an organization is essentially the art of exercising superb judgment..."
Bill Amberg

Kevin Somerville

  • This depends upon the stage of the relationship. At the outset, typically, much skepticism exists that psychologists with softer scientific skills have little to offer.  I don’t have a lot of patience with that view. I try to demonstrate we are business people who happen to be psychologists. CEOs often think in terms markets and money.  Money and markets are event driven, leading to more discreet decisions.  People issues are more process driven.  These issues take more time and are not as discreet.  We sell movement and progress within the context of relationships. 

  • Much of the work we do is sold poorly.  We only sell one project at a time.  We need to build a relationship over time to have a major impact.  We offer objectivity, perspective, judgment and if you do the work long enough, wisdom.

Bill Amberg

  • Leading an organization is essentially the art of exercising superb judgment ranging from making strategic decisions, to decisions focusing on a myriad of details.  The best CEOs therefore are those who are more often right than wrong in their judgments.  Most are, privately at least, humble.  They recognize what they don’t know about the organization, that their database is skewed by filtered input from most constituents.  Sometimes they even mutter, “I hope they don’t find out that many times I don’t know what the heck I’m doing.”  I call this the CEO syndrome.

  Dick Peairs

  • Encouraging them to exploit their “invisible cloak of authority”, rather than ignore or avoid it. CEOs can easily overlook the positive effects of their sheer presence, as in ”management by walking about”. It’s valuable to remind them how influential they, can be, especially when they may be apprehensive about simply finding out what’s actually happening in their organization.  They are often “protected” by semi-permeable membranes separating them from where the work is being done.

  • Questions of recognition.  How readily is it delivered by CEOs? Where do they get their recognition?   A useful principle to pursue is that “Everybody wants to be somebody . . .even a CEO.” Sharing my observations on the health of the company is a useful way of providing recognition to the CEO, which sometimes is in short supply. Correspondingly, I spend a fair amount of effort ensuring that while they’re managing the business, they are also providing constructive feedback to their people. I often recommending books to my clients dealing with communication.

  • How does one establish and maintain leadership? Additionally, how to exploit coordinate roles (and opportunities) of being a world class listener while also providing genuine inspiration toward accomplishing the strategy.  

Vicki Vandaveer

  • One common theme is the key role that behavior plays in corporate success.  Whether the CEO is  trying to enhance his or her own or others’ effectiveness, to develop a strong and aligned leadership team, and/or shape or change a culture, behavioral science has a great deal to contribute to success of the enterprise.

  • I work a lot with top teams, helping them become aligned and highly effective.  There are natural forces – political and economic -- in organizations that can cause senior teams to misalign.  For example, one typical source of misalignment is each executive having different financial drivers and metrics for which he or she is accountable. Coaches need to understand the different forces that  impact motivation, behavior and effectiveness.

  • Typically, the most difficult issues for CEOs are  the people issues.  People interrelationships , executive isolation from candid feedback and what is really happening in the organization, and private feelings of insecurity are among the most frequent  problems that I encounter at the executive level. 

Question 3.  Where do you feel that you are most helpful in your consulting with CEOs?

Dick Peairs

  • CEOs have their share of doubts and uncertainties, irrespective of what literature or the theatre might assert about them in their portrayals. Affirmation becomes important, especially when you sense they’re about to do possibly foolish things. Consultants can be helpful in encouraging them to take a step back for another and an objective look at issues.  With no “no axe to grind”, we have a unique role.  Clients have observed to me that “I can’t to talk with anyone else like I can to you”.  We can offer them opportunity speculate (out loud but in private!), to contemplate trial balloons without launching them.  This avoids subordinates marching off in unwanted directions, having decided to act on what are only their boss’s guesses, surmises or conjectures

Bill Amberg

  • First as a sounding board, someone with no agenda other than to assist.

  • The good CEOs want to know how they are doing and what they can do to improve.  They really thirst for this information and they expect comparison to other chief executives as a measuring stick.  They also want to discuss and test their strategic ideas.  They want someone to question their thinking and help them make and clarify decisions.

  Vicki Vandaveer

  • I think I‘m most helpful in assisting them in gaining insight into themselves and others, and the interrelationship dynamics – and helping them identify and achieve the next levels of personal effectiveness in their leadership role.  It really is “lonely at the top”. CEOs become more isolated from what’s happening.  Even the best leaders, because of their position and power, experience difficulty getting candid feedback and accurate information.  People are guarded about what they say. Their managers are focused on being able to handle the problem themselves. I help them get in touch with what’s happening and facilitate their finding effective ways of dealing with it.  I often work with the executive’s Leadership Team as well.  The two common   goals are: 1) identifying their  great talents and finding effective ways to leverage those, helping them reach next levels of effectiveness;  2) helping them  see how they are perceived – and working with them to find effective ways of responding to, reinforcing and/or changing those perceptions;  3) helping to surface underlying assumptions or “mental models," testing their validity/value, and re-assessing their approach, strategy, and or style.

  Kevin Somerville

  • My intense interest in metrics hit me later in my career. Metrics are helpful in presenting objective, perspective, wisdom and judgment. However, there is enormous value in experience and CEOs recognize that quickly.

Question 4.  What recommendations do you have for consulting psychologists who are currently working or beginning to work with CEOs?

"Consultants cannot be effective if they are abstract."
Vicki Vandaveer

Bill Amberg

  • The most significant recommendation from a programmatic standpoint would be to emphasize the importance of regular and scheduled (even if infrequent) contact.  If one doesn’t have regular contact with the CEO, focus will inevitably be on problems and negative situations.  Consultants need regularly scheduled meetings that are balanced, (developmental, positive, future) as well as on problems.  We should, whenever possible, be the quarterback among other consultants.  We are better able to deliver a particular message and to interpret data.  Don’t get locked into ad hoc meetings alone or you will always be seen as a problem resource for negative situations over a strategic ally.  Who wants to see someone about problems every time?  Besides our skills are better multiplied when working on opportunities.

Dick Peairs

  • Ask,  “Do you really admire democratic capitalism?”  Effective consultants need to be enthusiastic admirers of the process in which profit is not a dirty word. The ultimate strength of our entire social system rests on a genuine resiliency its economic base. Wise management of people is an essential element in the achievement of that goal. The best consultants, in my opinion, need to possess a sense of mission with respect to such values.

  • Similarly, “Are you turned on by talking business?”  If you aren’t as enthused by the business side of things as you are by the relationship with the CEO, you may be less effective as a consultant. If what attracts you to the business is merely the counseling of individuals, rather than getting your head into the challenges of the business, you are unlikely to find the work as rewarding and you may not be as successful as you might wish to be.

Kevin Somerville

  • Do the work in pairs.  Debrief constantly. Set your goal to learn as much about the business as the CEO knows about the business. Cultivate the old fashioned values: loyalty to your colleagues and clients, integrity, intellectual honesty and commitment to high standards.

Vicki Vandaveer

  • It is important to really work hard to understand their business. Consultants cannot be effective if they are abstract. You need to understand what they are dealing with.  If I don’t understand something about key issues, products and services (e.g. supply chain management, global differences between regions), I’ll have limited usefulness and effectiveness in coaching.    Consultants need to understand the cultures in which they operate and how the business works.  CEOs’ behavior and the impact that they have is context-dependent.

  • Take a “systems perspective” – i.e., always keep perspective on the whole, and be always mindful of your role, recognizing that every interaction that you have with a client organization’s representative is an “intervention”.  Work to maintain objectivity; to be very aware of your own needs and motives, and to manage those well in the best interest of the client organization.

Question 5.  What one thing would you suggest that consulting psychologists not do in consulting with CEOs?

"Be sure you know where your knowledge ends, then respect those limits."
Dick Peairs

Vicki Vandaveer

  • I recommend that consultants not consult with CEOs before they are ready.  I think it’s a natural process.  You are referred higher and higher in the organization if you are regarded as adding significant value.  It’s difficult to just solicit CEOs.  They rely on their people to bring them the best resources – or they identify them themselves by referral or by reading about them.  The way to get recognized is to  be referred by people they respect.  Once at the top, CEOs will refer you to other organizations if you have been helpful to them.

  • It is important to be in a constant learning mode.  The best consultants are the best listeners and learners.

Bill Amberg

  • I recommend avoiding too many “tells” (telling a CEO what to do).  It is wise to remember that every suggestion is a subtle form of criticism.  As a consultant you may have a view in a particular area that is important. Most CEOs will want to hear you out and engage in give and take.  With too many “tells”, you are communicating that you know more about their organization than they do, which is infrequently the case.  I prefer a Socratic method to help them form their opinions.  I will then play off their ideas, perhaps describing how I see it a little bit differently.  Using this approach facilitates increased engagement.  My fundamental approach is always to “lead with questions”.

Kevin Somerville

  • Avoid competing with the CEO or your colleague.  In the desire to demonstrate we know as much as he or she does, we can present ourselves as general business consultants.  We don’t have all the information we need to be general business consultants. Maintain humility. Humility is truth.

Dick Peairs

  • Fail to establish and maintain a trustful, truthful bonding. Being candid and direct, with more than a dollop of compassion, is critical to a productive relationship.  Be sure you know where your knowledge ends, then respect those limits.

Question 6.  Would you categorize “coaching” and “consulting” with CEOs to be one and the same thing?  How are they similar and how do they differ?

"Consulting is an effort to synthesize information about three areas: the individual, 
status of the company and critical information about the topic at hand"
Kevin Somerville

Bill Amberg

  • I know a number of professional coaches, who have been through formal training.  Their coaching and my consulting would often be significantly different in that the consultant is more likely to bring some form of technical expertise that a coach may not have.  In my experience coaches tend to focus more on goal setting, individual development and self-discipline.  Consultants more likely have some specific expertise (e.g. a psychologist, process expert, change management specialist, etc.).

Vicki Vandaveer

  • It all depends on how you define each one.  If coaching is defined as one method of executive development then it could be different from consulting on different, specific issues.  If you take the perspective that coaching relates to learning and broaden its definition then it could be one and the same.

  • Executive coaching is very popular in the context of executive development.  Yet some executives need the resources, but are turned off by the term, “coaching”.  In these situations, it becomes important to provide the assistance  that they need, but not to label the  work as “coaching.”

Dick Peairs

  • To me consulting implies dealing with a much broader scope of managerial and executive issues, well beyond performance enhancement.  As a consequence, I haven’t paid much attention to coaching.  When I attend seminars in which coaching is on the agenda, it often appears to be “consultation” in a different costume.

  • It is not clear to me what was intended in translating the concept of coaching.  I see the traditional focus of a coach as improving individuals’ abilities, not to invent a new field that would have different qualifications for entry.

Kevin Somerville

  • Coaching is a garbage term.  It has become a commodity.  People have different understandings of the term.

  • Consulting is an effort to synthesize information about three areas: the individual, status of the company and critical information about the topic at hand (e.g. succession planning).  We work with the CEO to move toward enlightenment or a decision. Truth comes from the synthesis that CEOs can’t do alone.

Question 7.  What do CEOs tell you that they value most in your consulting work with them?  

"We offer models, experience, clarity, and challenge, all qualities hard to obtain internally for a senior executive."
Kevin Somerville

Kevin Somerville

  • We provide enough distance to generate a creative option for the CEO to think about.  (e.g. succession planning, deployment of people).  In the middle-ages, kings sought Grand Viziers to help they decide courses of action. Not much has changed in terms of what top people value.

  • The ability to air issues to a knowledgeable person who is not an employee. We offer models, experience, clarity and challenge, all qualities hard to obtain internally for a senior executive. Consequently, we have a lot more work for our senior people than our junior people.   Thirty years ago, the value of “people” was very spotty. Today, the value attached to the human dimension is pervasive in organizations.  In part this is because we are dealing with economically high value people, (knowledge workers) as opposed to large unionized organizations. Senior consultants who can help senior managers move toward wisdom and judgment in dealing with these high value employees are valued. 

Vicki Vandaveer

  • Being there and adding value.  The  most gratifying feedback is , “I don’t know what I (we) would have done without you.

  • They value my honesty and candidness.

  • They value my independence.  I’ve seen consultants go down a path of nonsuccess.  One mistake that consultants make is that they figure out who has the most power and align themselves with them.  It is important that you are remain  objective and have a systems perspective.  It is extremely important  not to align with one person to the detriment of the whole.  Aligning with one person is usually divisive.  If you are playing a political game inside the client organization, it will always end badly for the client – and for you.  If the CEO has conflict with anyone, it’s our job to help him or her to find effective ways of resolving the conflict.  It’s important to do what’s best for the system and each individual in it.  The consultant needs to help bring the organization together.  His or her behaviors must not drive a wedge between members of the organization.

Dick Peairs

  • Perspective.  If you’re a willing and acute listener and can buttress that skill with focused and searching queries, such questions become the source of new and key perspectives for the CEO. CEO’s can become heavily engaged in producing their company’s products and delivering their company’s services.  I can encourage them to stop, put their head well above those horizons and take a careful look.

  • At the same time, if we’re truthful, we learn as much from our clients as they do from us.  

Bill Amberg

  • It varies all over the map, but first and foremost they want an objective sounding board for decision-making.

  • “How am I doing?”  “How can I improve?”  “How is my team working, its individuals performing?”  Usually the best executives survive and get promoted.  The best want constantly to improve.  They realize that their performance, far more than any other, will determine the success of the enterprise.  “Green and growing” is critical at the top and a development model for the entire organization.

Question 8.  If you had it to do over again, what do you wish you might have done differently or earlier in your consulting with CEOs?

"CEOs as a group are an extremely talented group who deserve my best."  
Bill Amberg

Dick Peairs

  • I wish, simply, I had known “more” when I started.  And, I wish I had started my consulting career earlier. That may be an irresolvable dilemma. I really question whether one can be a consultant without a body of real experience from which to learn and act and move into new arenas.  I certainly wish I had known much earlier in my life how smart and compassionate business people really are. 

Vicki Vandaveer

  • I can’t think of anything in general.  I’m sure there are things I would do differently, but would be more specific to individuals and specific situations.

Bill Amberg

  • I have been consulting with CEOs for nearly 30 years.  There is no greater challenge or satisfaction.  CEOs as a group are an extremely talented group who deserve my best.  This means adequate self-care and balance to serve them optimally.  Staying balanced, therefore, is the key.

Kevin Somerville

  • I didn’t realize it took so long to master the work.  I’m not sure there is a short cut to it. The metrics we’ve developed have helped.  The core work takes three – five years to master. It requires a lot of mentoring. I might have sought mentoring more emphatically and intensively.

Question 9.  Please describe three characteristics that you believe are critical for CEOs to be successful in the top slot in organizations?

"CEOs need to be thinkers as well as doers, leaders as well as managers."
Dick Peairs

Kevin Somerville

  • The ability to do root cause analysis.

  • Rendering consistently accurate judgment about how much to trust and delegate to others.

  • The capacity to effectively communicate his/her idea of what a great company looks like.

Vicki Vandaveer

  • Honesty, integrity.

  • Cognitive ability and agility.

  • Emotional intelligence.

Bill Amberg

  • Leadership!  Leadership!  Leadership!

  • Beyond those three, first and most specifically at the top of the organization the data is clear, that cognitive ability is critical.  Second, interpersonal skills, more commonly labeled these days, emotional intelligence, is more important than technical expertise.  Third, Socratic and listening skills are very important.

  • Finally, balance:  It is important that they are fairly well rounded, balanced in terms of workload, community service, family, social and recreation.  From a position of balance they are better able to exercise excellence in judgment.

Dick Peairs

  • The ability to inspire.  The great ones think and then inspire.

  • It is essential to be both reflective and decisive: Know the difference and when each needs to be to employed, and in what measure. CEOs need to be thinkers as well as doers, leaders as well as managers.

  • CEOs have to have a superlative sense of what talent is and how to develop it.  If they are always to depend on somebody else to identify and develop talent, they will fail, in my opinion, to become as effective as they should be.

  • It is crucial that they genuinely understand the social structure within which the company operates.

Question 10.  What issues are CEOs most likely to ask you to help them with? Asked another way, what might be the presenting or initial problem that CEOs call to ask for your help?

Vicky Vandaveer

  • To help them get to “the peak of their game” – i.e., to get to the next levels of personal effectiveness in their leadership role.

  • Helping build a strong and aligned executive leadership team.

  • Helping build interrelationship mastery among the leadership team – and throughout the organization.

  • Helping the leadership team resolve conflict.

  • Helping with corporate culture change, or integration (merger).

Dick Peairs

  • Questions of executive succession and the developing of the company’s portfolio of talent in the company are regularly encountered themes.

Bill Amberg

  • Verification or discussion about the competence of a team and team members is a frequent request.

  • If a Board exists, I may be asked to assist the CEO with his relationship with the Board. Providing board members appropriate information, developing board agendas, designing and implementing retreats are all opportunities.  So too, is the invitation to attend management meetings to observe and provide counsel on conducting effective meetings.

Kevin Somerville

  • “Lumpiness.”   “My team is lumpy”.  There are some people, districts, or subsidiaries that are doing well, others are not. There is significant uneven performance among teams or regions.  It is maddening or frustrating to the CEO. The perception of lumpiness and the appeal of becoming great are the two most powerful motivators of executive action. Ordinarily, what’s not going well relates to the human dimension. 

Question 11.  What other comments might you have regarding working “at the top” in organizations?  

"Consultants need to have a keen understanding of their own needs and motivations, and of their own impact in the intervention – and must be very skilled in managing this dynamic well."
Vicki Vandaveer

Bill Amberg

  • Again, I would emphasize the importance of regular contact.  Part of that may be having “standing agenda” items.  Frequently there are regular topics to discuss.  These might include:  organization morale, productivity against plan, teamwork of the senior team and updates on particular executives.
  • It is important that one gets to know CEOs as completely as possible from both a work and personal perspective.
  • I believe we are at such an advantage (as psychologists) because we understand individual differences.  We are able to tailor our work to the psychological makeup of the executive.

Kevin Somerville

  • Psychology is going to be less an influential player in the world in which we work compared to other professions.  (e.g. strategy consultants).  These problems (selection and development of people) are so pervasive and critical that they are going to be addressed and probably solved.  We would be well-advised to learn from others and develop new and important ways to develop and deliver the service.  We have a lot to learn from business people and strategy firms.  The best firms will deliver services provided by a diverse expertise, (e.g. business acumen, strategic acumen, marketing acumen, statistical acumen).  I believe that using metrics is a wave of the future. 
  • I continue to believe that there is nothing more gratifying for a professional than doing this work. I never stop learning.

Dick Peairs

  • It is important for consultants to read what CEOs read.  I often recommend readings for clients.  Thin books, not at all incidentally, are preferred! There are two ways organizations can most readily change: a) the reading of written ideas and b) an exchange of persons.  The latter (e.g. a new boss arrives on the scene) is the more dramatic, but less “available”. The business section in bookstores has become the most exciting aisle on the premises.  The books are getting thinner and the ideas are getting more provocative and we all can benefit. From “emotional intelligence” to “social capital” to “positive psychology," the business library is an essential fund of effective change-inducers.
  • To sum, and to repeat, you must be really enthused by business.  You ought to be enthused by capitalism. Your clients are! The strength of the culture flows directly from the strength of its economics.  We are privileged to work in a key position with key people in the equation. It’s hard not to be energized by such possibilities.

Vicki Vandaveer

  • Every interaction is an intervention with the CEO.  The psychologist is very much a part of the dynamic there.  Understanding oneself is critical.  Working with CEOs is often seen by others as sexy and alluring.  What may not be seen is the intensive work that is required to be effective – not only with the client organization, but also with oneself.  Consultants need to have a keen understanding of their own needs and motivations, and of their own impact in the intervention – and must be very skilled in managing this dynamic well.    As an example:  Consider the  fact that so many consultants are  interested in working at the top.  We need to understand why we want to do this.  We need to understand ourselves as  instruments for change, and we need to continually hone the instrument.    Every coaching  relationship is unique . . .  like a dance.  Each has its own rhythm, level of intensity, degree of structure, length of duration, etc.  The psychologist must fairly  quickly assess their client partner  follow their lead, and know when and how to occasionally  take the lead.  You have to be sensitive to the pace, intensity, and the level of engagement – know when to engage, when to challenge, when to back off, when to be direct, and when and how to finesse and help the client in discovery for him- or herself.  In many ways we’re artists.  In dealing with CEOs, you are limited if you simply use the tools you possess in the same way for every client. Much of what we do is to apply our science in new and different ways that are artful.

    Bill Amberg, Ph.D. is the President of Management & Organizational Psychologists, Inc. based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

    Dick Peairs, Ph.D. is the Principal of RHP Consulting in the San Francisco Bay Area.

    Kevin Somerville, Ph.D. is with Somerville & Partners based in Denver, Colorado.

    Vicki Vandaveer, Ph.D. is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Vandaveer Group based in Houston, Texas.

    Back to The Consulting Psychologist™

    Readers Respond

    An “outside the US” perspective on consulting with CEOs
    Michael Greenspan, Ph.D.
    Kiddy & Partners
    London, The United Kingdom      

    Question 1: Please describe how you approach working with CEOs.

    I believe that Vicki Vandaveer’s initial response, Kevin Somerville’s second bullet point and Dick Peairs’ second bullet point are spot on. I’m generalising here but in our experience European CEOs are fairly skeptical and even cynical about consultants.  Their feeling is “Why would they possibly be meeting with a psychologist?” Most would question the assertion that we have no vested interest (though few would say anything).  Our experience is that it is rare for a CEO (of a FTSE 100 company) to be interested at least initially in meeting with a business psychologist. We are almost always brought in as OD consultants dealing with issues like change management, restructuring, talent development, succession management. There are two exceptions: working to develop the effectiveness of the top team as a team and/or coaching a ‘problematic’ member of his/her team.  At the Divisional or Country CEO/MD level it is a bit more common.

    Question 2: What are some of the common themes you experience when consulting with CEOs?

    Common projects tend to be developing senior managers/high flyers, helping with the people side of acquisitions or restructuring, building the top team, large change initiatives based on a new strategy, technology, desired culture.

    Question 3: Where do you feel that you are most helpful in your consulting with CEOs?

    Delivering the results that they are seeking, e.g. change in their organisations, an effective but user friendly talent management process, alignment amongst the top team, especially regarding implications and risks inherent in the new strategy.  An impartial sounding board re: people and organisational issues.

    Question 4: What recommendation do you have for consulting psychologists who are currently or beginning to work with CEOs…. OUTSIDE THE US?

    I’m not an expert in this area but we try to understand the ‘local’ culture(s) as much as possible beforehand. We often find a national-company interaction. In our experience American Express and Goldman Sachs in London are awfully similar to their New York offices. When you get to Paris, Frankfurt, Zurich etc they still look similar but a bit more ‘local’. In other companies the company culture isn’t nearly as strong and you need to know much more about how the local managers and staff think, behave and will expect you to behave etc. It’s usually OK to start by simply asking the person who’s introducing you. When I asked a British CEO who’d just taken over a Dutch company if there were any ‘cultural things’ I needed to know before introducing myself to his newly acquired top team he told me “nothing really, but do tell them about your wife and kids, to not do so would seem rude”. In the UK one would never be that personal.

    Recognise that in many countries stereotypes (some flattering, some less so) about Americans are widespread. Assuming the worst probably isn’t a bad way to start. Most of us can learn a lot from the old ‘we’re here from HQ and we’re here to help you’ anecdote!

    If you’re reasonably sensitive to local cultural norms and diversity (and process it internally but don’t talk about it-trust me, one of those stereotypes of Americans!) you’ll probably do OK. I recently ran a conference for a client’s senior managers from across Asia (about 30 in total). I consulted extensively with the Regional President and even consulted a few academics who briefed me to expect limited interaction. But when I got there and met informally all the Country MDs (Presidents) and their teams I found all of them to be remarkably ‘westernised’, informal and non-hierarchical and some (the Hong Kong and Taiwan teams) to be absolutely irreverent, so I thought I’d facilitate some discussion in the opening large-group session. Big mistake. In front of people from the other markets literally nobody (except the few Aussies, of course-sorry, now I’m doing it), including the Country Presidents spoke unless forced to. Back in their country teams they were back to the informal ways of interacting.

    Question 5: What one thing would you suggest that consulting psychologists not do in consulting with CEOs ….OUTSIDE THE US?

    Call themselves ‘Consulting Psychologists’.  I also think what Vicki Vandaveer, Kevin Somerville, Bill Amberg and Dick Peairs suggested applies to our clients.

    Question 6: Would you categorise “coaching” and “consulting with” CEOs to be one and the same thing? How are they similar and how do they differ?

    At least in most of Europe coaching and consulting mean different things. Coaching is usually 1:1 for their development or as a sounding board type of service. Consulting usually refers to working with a team or organisation on a project with more specific business objectives, not personal-related outcomes.

    Question 7: What do CEOs tell you that they value most in your consulting work with them?

    Delivering results and in some instances acting as an impartial sounding board.

    Question 8: If you had it to do over again, what do you wish you might have done differently or earlier in your consulting with CEOs?

    Lived in different countries. Most of our clients have international responsibilities and I consult from a very narrow experience base in that regard. Reading and traveling are helpful but not the same.

    Learned another language in school. The flexibility, opportunities and credibility it would lend would be fantastic.

    Question 9: Please describe three characteristics that you believe are critical for CEOs to be successful in the top slot in organisations.

    Top notch abilities in dealing with the investment community, capital markets, corporate finance etc.  Solid leadership capabilities.  The ability to maintain a strategic-operational balance. 

    Question 10: What issues are CEOs most likely to ask you to help with? Asked another way, what might be the presenting or initial problem that CEOs call to ask for your help?

    The need to develop their senior managers to deal with changing market conditions/strategy.  The need to ensure there is ‘buy-in’ to a new direction.  The need to ensure they have the talent pipeline they need.  The need to integrate effectively post M&A.  The desire to help build a new top team.
     

    Consulting with Startup CEOs
    Carl Robinson, Ph.D.
    Advanced Leadership Consulting
    Seattle, Washington

    I thought I’d simply talk about what I consider from my experience are some of the key factors in consulting successfully with startup CEOs vs. mainstream CEOs.  Vicki, Bill, Dick and Kevin did an excellent job with the broader group of CEOs and I have nothing substantive to add.  I’m sure that Kevin could easily give some insights into the startup group too.

    Startup CEOs for the most part think and move very quickly and see themselves as a different breed.  The people who fund the companies they run (Venture Capitalists and Angel investors) also think that startup CEOs are cut from a different cloth than mainstream executives.   Both groups want the consultant to recognize those “differences,” and to relate to them accordingly.   They expect you to understand how different it is working in a startup environment from that of a more mature organization.  Especially, they want you to understand how they are funded and the unique demands that are placed on early stage companies.  Probably the most important demand is that of perpetual fund raising, especially in today’s tough funding environment.  These CEOs not only have to manage their organizations well, they must constantly be looking for new sources of funding to keep the company afloat until they either start making money, sell/merge it or the company goes public through an initial public offering (IPO) and CEO, nine times out of ten, moves on to his/her next gig.

    One of the most common issues startup CEOs discuss is their relationship with their Board of Directors.  They want advice about how to manage their board which will be dominated by investors (usually venture capitalists) who expect a 10X + return on their investment in a very short period of time?   One of the most helpful things I think I provide to these CEOs is an objective and sympathetic ear to ventilate about Board interactions.   More importantly, since most of the startup CEOs with whom I have worked are technology folks with little training in interpersonal issues, they want to tap into our psychological insight about human behavior/motivations, This is  especially important to them when discussing how to manage and motivate their Board and employees.   These folks are very pragmatic and ask questions such as, “What do you do with x?”   As one startup CEO who likes the Myers Briggs said, “We’re mostly NTs here, results oriented, intuitives.”

    One of the key things I’ve learned from trial and error is to be willing to lay my opinions on a subject out as a “hypothesis” open for discussion.  These CEOs expect consultants to have opinions but to be open to input and revision as the situation warrants.  Startup CEOs are risk takers to the nth degree and the best are quick to admit when they made a wrong turn.  They expect the same from a consultant. 

    Key Success factors for a startup CEO:

    • Decisiveness, especially regarding personnel issues. 
    • Excellent ability at recruiting and selecting key executives – picking and empowering executives and then getting out of their way.  They can’t afford to make too many errors in the selection of key employees.
    • Vision.  They must have the ability to create a compelling vision that motivates people to take huge risks. 
    • They usually love deal making and selling.  These folks are usually phenomenal sales people.  It’s my opinion that extroverts have an edge here because top startup CEOs have to spend so much time pitching their company and meeting people that they better really love interacting with people or they will get burned out real fast.
    • They have the capacity to admit their mistakes and to make corrections fast.

    Key success factors for consultants who work with startup CEOs:

    • Attunement to the CEO’s agenda – what they want, not what you think they should have.
    • Humility with a healthy dose of Chutzpah – not a contradiction
    • Knowledge of the intricacies of Board/CEO relationships in startup environments
    • Business acumen
    • Acknowledging that as consultants we are entrepreneurs too and bringing our personal experience as entrepreneurs to the table
    • Some gray hair
    • Flexibility – they are nimble and you must be too