Who Would Want to be a CEO?
“It’s frankly a horrible job — I wouldn’t want it.”
That’s Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom, talking about the CEO role. He’s quoted in a NewYork Times earlier this week titled “Who Would Want to Be a CEO?”
The premise of Ravi Mattu’s article is that the CEO in 2023 faces inordinate pressure from all sides, more than ever before. That makes the CEO’s high-wire act harder than ever, to the point that most wouldn’t even want the job.
Let’s look at the issues cited in the article and see what we can glean about the modern CEO’s predicament.
Issue 1: “Being a CEO of a big company is a hundred-hour-a-week job. It consumes your life.”
Yes, sometimes the CEO job is does demand 100 hours a week—but it’s also usually a sign you’re not doing the job well. Most CEOs don’t have a systematic way to think about their responsibilities, so they take the old Whac-A-Mole approach.
There’s always some new problem you can get tied up in. However, if you’re doing the job correctly and prioritizing your core re…
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