flâneur

Dhvani Patel

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on the atlas — 2

highlights — 9

  • CEOs make acceleration decisions when they can, braking decisions when they must, retargeting decisions after successes, but steering decisions only when the alternative is losing the job (and the company) no matter what they do. And generally they lose the job anyway.
    CEOs Don’t Steer
  • the high-pivot pre-product-market-fit phase, where the CEOs are auditioning to be real CEOs the way their companies are auditioning to be real companies
    CEOs Don’t Steer
  • As the orientation lock, the CEO becomes the human locus where momentum compounds; the psychological platform others build on. They are the steward of whatever snowballing network effect or unleashed natural wealth-creating dynamic is the company’s raison d’être. Their primary job, and ideally their only one, is to protect and feed that dynamic, and get everything else out of the way.
    CEOs Don’t Steer
  • They end up in the jobs they do because they counterbalance an organization’s natural tendency towards distraction, ADD and momentum dissipation.
    CEOs Don’t Steer
  • Nor does it mean that CEOs can’t steer. Most CEOs get to their jobs via some good, but not exceptional steering performances along the way.
    CEOs Don’t Steer
  • You want a grinding, relentless, tank-like drive in a seemingly unshakeable direction that builds shareholder value. If you’re in the way, you get crushed. If you’re off to one side, you are ignored. You’re looking for a resistance is futile affect. Terminator, not Tarantino. Force of Nature, not Beautiful Mind.
    CEOs Don’t Steer
  • Other kinds of leaders are generally playing a higher-dimensional kind of chess than the people they are leading or influencing. CEOs are playing a lower-dimensional chess.
    CEOs Don’t Steer
  • When I read or listen to exemplars of other categories of leaders, I am often impressed by the subtlety, nuance, agility, and complexity of their thinking. This is not true of most things CEOs say or write.
    CEOs Don’t Steer
  • “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
    Using the MAYA Principle for Effective Communication | Seer Interactive