CEOs hate surprises. And yet many have found themselves, at some point in their career, overtaken by events that they should have seen coming. Such events cause paralysis, halt critical momentum, and ensure that the length of their tenure is spent stuck in the business while their mandate for working on the business is continually diverted.
Tom Biesinger and Ross Wall divide these key moments into Four Dilemmas--these are consistent across all industries and across all organizations of notable size, regardless of geography. The book outlines the common challenges that every CEO will face during their tenure and when to expect them. Once these dilemmas and their causes are understood, action can be taken to overcome them; executives will be able to break through the self-imposed glass ceilings that cause CEOs to lose momentum and be thrown off course.
The Four Dilemmas are:
1. You're in charge of everything, but cannot completely trust anything.
2. You know that today's executive cannot deliver tomorrow's results.
3. How do you engage the full capability of your executive working on the business when they are at capacity working in the business?
4. At what point does the price of remaining personally relevant outweigh your other options?
In the first book to focus on these four issues collectively, the authors draw on their 20-plus years of experience as trusted advisers across a range of industries, where they have helped to bolster and redirect individual careers, and to influence the growth of the organizations they lead.