This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
From CEO to DEO
Ask a recruiter to describe the characteristics of a traditional CEO.
She’ll first mention the need for an MBA and the disciplined financial perspective that degree implies. Nearly 40 percent of current CEOs add “MBA” to their collection of capitalized initials.4 Next, she’ll list traits associated with military commanders: authoritative, strategic, able to delegate, decisive, prepared to lead, equipped with a big-picture perspective. Finally, she’ll suggest that the ideal CEO has some humanistic touches as well: personable, charismatic, perhaps a dash of compassion.
These traits have served companies well over the past century. When assembly lines traversed the Midwest and shift workers numbered in the tens of millions, CEOs made decisions and met deadlines. When most employees were low skilled or “cogs in a wheel,” companies needed a commander at the top. They implemented order and ensured conformity.
And then the world changed.
We leaped out of the Industrial Age and buried our noses in the Information Age. By the time we looked up from our screens, we were advancing on the Conceptual Age and the business leadership traits we previously praised had started to weaken. They’d become a little creaky. They strained to be relevant.
If we could borrow Harry Potter’s invisibility cape, we’d use it to visit an executive board meeting chaired by a traditional CEO. We’d see that he follows an agenda set months before. He points to data from the past quarter. He calls on each department to report on prescribed topics. Cloaked in invisibility, we’d slip outside and wander down the hall. In a cubicle, we’d find a young manager surreptitiously checking his social networks, future stock prices, competitors’ posts, and more appealing job openings—all updated instantly in the palm of his hand.
This scenario is repeated all around the world where the gap between who the CEO is equipped to manage and who actually works for him or her grows wider by the day. Employees are increasingly higher skilled. They seek challenge and growth over security and predictability. They’re networked both inside and outside their companies. Many have direct contact with customers. They’ve grown up collaborating and iterating in school and in personal relationships. They expect leadership that understands and embraces all this.
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Putting a traditional CEO at the front of a modern workforce is anachronistic. He or she is the outdated, boxy TV in an era of flat screens, the heavy-hulled yacht struggling to keep up in the America’s Cup.
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How do we fill this gap? Do we put traditional CEOs on steroids or add bionic components? Do we decide that women are better suited to the job or minorities or recent immigrants? Do we declare the job irrelevant and banish it altogether?
We suggest a simpler solution. Just as we took our cues from MBAs and the military in casting the ideal CEO of the 20th century, we can look to designers—in that term’s broadest definition—to model our future leader, the DEO.
Proposing design-inspired leadership as the answer may sound delusional to some, like a zealous art teacher attacking poverty with a new color palette. But that’s a knee-jerk reaction, based largely on associations of design with discretion, luxury, and logos. A more realistic assessment confirms that design leaders usually possess characteristics, behaviors, and mindsets that enable them to excel in unpredictable, fast-moving, and value-charged conditions.
With these traits, DEOs attract and coalesce stakeholders who share their vision, goals, and values. They build corporate cultures that nurture and retain talented employees. They lead teams who learn from one another and collaborate easily and effectively. With these traits, DEOs create resilient organizations that value expertise but make room for failure—organizations able to iterate and evolve with the changes taking place all around them.
For years, business acumen and creative ability have been siloed, united only at office parties and the occasional brainstorming session. But we live in a time that requires new leadership. We live in a time that requires people who look at every business challenge as a design problem solvable with the right mix of imagination and metrics.