By Catherine Blondel
We know the song:“I’ve got it” . It is exactly what any newly appointed executive wants to say. Finally, after years of hard work: I am, I exist, I made it!
But reality soon dispels the fiction. Nothing seems really new. Since the times of Plato, we know that power corrupts, and we are just beginning to understand what that means for large corporations.
The current crisis has shed light on the legal transgressions of a few corporate leaders. Every leader is beginning to understand that everyone has been tarred by the same brush. Power may corrupt but also corrode those who try to exercise it.
To the loneliness of today’s executive, we can also add the loss of the authority. Leaders can no more claim the legacy of experience and legitimacy based on skills. Their authority is continually questioned by the shareholders, customers, employees and suppliers.
Becoming a leader and remaining one, while the magnitude and duration of the economic crisis are still being debated, will require exectuives to endure the loss of different aspects.
- The first aspect, less prominent in the United States than it is in Europe or Asia, is the loss of statutory elements such as the attended business schools or the number of secretaries.
- The second aspect is the loss of competence (Yes, you read correctly). The crisis, beyond displaying the golden parachutes and the bonuses, has also highlighted the lack of common sense, the silliness, the incompetence and the powerlessness of a few executives.
- The combination of the two clearly has deleterious effects on everyone including the competent leaders. The third aspect, finally, is the loss of self-confidence, which is certainly the most corrosive.
Of course, those loss of orientation or loss of competence would deserve more developments about understanding whether they are simply the expansion of the democratic principles to the corporate world. Companies have for a long time escaped to the democracy focusing almost only on their shareholders.
The current global crisis has acted as a particle accelerator, revealing that “the Emperor is naked” and eroding confidence in executives. Each executive might first acknowledge those losses as he would acknowledge a loss on his company financial statement. He can also “sing the blues” and manage what makes every transaction possible: trust.
Its loss is not forever. Executives can patiently rebuild reputations and stakeholder confidence. You may have lost it temporarily but you can find it again in all ages!
Catherine Blondel is an Executive Coach, a psychoanalyst, and essayist. She has published several books including Quand le travail fait symptôme in January 2009.
