{"id":7408,"date":"2020-09-18T15:23:13","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T13:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greatpeopleinside.com\/?p=7408"},"modified":"2020-09-18T15:23:16","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T13:23:16","slug":"has-the-ceo-position-evolved-to-a-two-person-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatpeopleinside.com\/fi\/has-the-ceo-position-evolved-to-a-two-person-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Has the CEO Position Evolved to a Two-Person Job?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Netflix announced this summer that it was elevating Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos to co-CEO, sharing the title with founder Reed Hastings, the\u00a0move\u00a0cut against conventional wisdom. Salesforce.com, SAP,\u00a0and Oracle all had abandoned co-CEO structures within the last year, leading\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0to ask:\u00a0\u201cCo-CEOs Are Out of Style. Why Is Netflix Resurrecting the Management Model?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the hierarchies of corporate America, there\u2019s nothing ambiguous about the position of \u201cchief executive officer.\u201d Whoever holds the CEO title sits at the tip-top of\u00a0the org chart; it\u2019s right there in the capital C. But what happens when that designation\u2014and the power it implies\u2014is shared?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the unusual experiment that several companies have undertaken in the past few months, splitting the role of CEO between two executives. In September, WeWork\u2019s parent named two interim CEOs, Sebastian Gunningham and Artie Minson, to replace founder and spiritual guru Adam Neumann, who stepped down as the embattled shared-office giant postponed its IPO. (The pair will be replaced in February by a single new CEO, Sandeep Mathrani.) Software giant SAP in October named Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein co-CEOs\u2014the third time the German company has opted for the dual-leader arrangement. And in January, luggage startup Away wound up with two CEOs after former chief Steph Korey returned to cohead the company just weeks after reports of toxic work behaviour prompted her to step down. She\u2019s now splitting the position with Stuart Haselden, the former Lululemon executive whom Away had initially tapped as Korey\u2019s lone replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is the archetype of the omnipotent CEO \u2014 the lone commander\natop the corporate pyramid \u2014 is increasingly a relic of 20th<\/sup> century\nmanagement thinking. There are some notable exceptions: Founders like Jeff\nBezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg still command and control. But in\nour research with the American Psychological Association, we\u2019ve found that\nfor most mere mortals, it\u2019s simply too hard to go it alone. The modern business\nlandscape is too fast-moving and the demands on a CEO have become too\ninnumerable for a single person to set an organization\u2019s strategic direction\nand oversee a multitude of internal decisions, all while acting as its public\nface to stakeholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tellingly, while\u202fexecutive teams have doubled in size over the last three decades\u00a0as different corporate functions have gained importance (human resources) or have come into existence (digital strategy and data security),\u00a0the top job has largely remained a solitary grind. As entrepreneur\u202fJoe Procopio has observed,\u00a0\u201cThe math on giving 110% usually breaks down to giving 10% across 11 different priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the expectations of modern leadership have evolved.\u00a0Organisations\u00a0are\u00a0more agile,\u00a0less hierarchical, and must\u00a0adapt quickly to\u00a0the sudden dislocations we have today. Generational shifts in the workforce and society bring rising social consciousness of inequalities\u00a0and a mandate for including\u00a0others with different experiences\u00a0into decision-making.\u00a0These\u00a0exigencies have made\u00a0non-traditional soft skills essential additives to leadership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are four basic rules on how to 2 CEOs should cooperate when they both are running the company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Pick the right partner. <\/strong>Co-CEOs are in a very real\nsense professionally married. The foundational qualities of such an enduring\npersonal relationship also apply in a shared C-suite: a common vision, clear\ncommunication, and most important, deep trust. This sustains the\npartnership when, inevitably, there is a disagreement. Each must remember\nthe other\u2019s talents and make decisions knowing it\u2019s still one P&L both must\nown. You cannot go into this arrangement without believing in the\ncharacter of the other and vice-versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Set expectations.<\/strong>\u202fCritics of dual CEOs argue that shared\naccountability amounts to no accountability at all \u2014 if two are in charge, no\none is. But properly managed, the opposite is true. The idea of joint\naccountability means setting performance standards that put each partner in the\nposition of having to live up to the other. Ideally, this creates a\nhealthy competition. Would-be CEOs are typically high-performing individuals,\nso clear lanes help each partner drive improvements in the other. Indeed, a\n2011 paper published in Financial Review found that co-CEOs\u2019 mutual\nmonitoring can generate enough accountability to substitute for board\nsupervision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Define roles and responsibilities. <\/strong>The organization\nmust understand who is in charge of which aspects of the company and where\ndecision-making authority lies. We have a highly decentralized\nworkforce \u2014 the two of us live in different cities \u2014 yet our managers intersect\nwith us with a clear understanding of what types of decisions we are each\nresponsible for. This is liberating in that it takes some daily\nresponsibilities off each CEO\u2019s plate. It also frees up time for skill-building\naround one\u2019s dedicated areas, yielding more focused mentorship. And one leader\ncan come into another\u2019s problem from a fresh outside perspective. Clearly\ndelineating areas of responsibility also mitigates another common criticism \u2014 that\nco-CEOs are a bottleneck. In fact, the structure often facilitates a quicker\nresponse because one individual has authority to make a decision from a greater\ndepth of experience and knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Distribute authority but not responsibility.\u00a0<\/strong>While each partner has individual duties, both must fundamentally remain a leadership unit, one in which successes and setbacks alike are owned together.\u00a0These successes and setbacks should be reflected in\u00a0short- and long-term compensation. They must be prepared to be rewarded or penalized as a unit and accept the consequences. With the right chemistry and trust, it incentivizes both healthy competition and having each other\u2019s back. Another benefit of this conjoined career planning is that it can both temporary\u00a0or\u00a0long term. Some companies may see\u00a0a co-CEO arrangement as a grooming opportunity for a junior leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s be honest: The modern CEO is\u00a0often overwhelmed by unrealistic\u00a0demands.\u00a0Netflix\u2019s move to co-CEOs\u00a0says less about the\u00a0limitations\u00a0of individual leaders than about a system that sets them up to fail. We believe business pyramids are stifling innovation, when a division of authority can unleash it. In unprecedented times like these, more companies\u00a0should\u00a0rethink their structures and embrace co-CEOs, putting their leaders in positions to succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given our current situation knowing that your colleagues or employees are best suited for this new scenario we find ourselves in. Finding the right talent, the best fit for the job and your organisation can be a very challenging task. It is now important to find out whether your managers or your team is well-equipped of working together from various locations. It requires deep knowledge of their personalities, strengths, weaknesses, interests, work style and other characteristics. Our technology and solutions will do the work for you, helping you discover if your people are resilient during times of hardship, if they are autonomous, if they are team players, without actual human contact. Given that our platform is cloud-based, everyone can use it from home as well. Humanity finds itself at a crossroad for various reasons now, why not help people discover and develop themselves from the comfort of their own homes? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Request a\u00a0free demo: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"B_txt_14\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sources: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/hbr.org\/2020\/09\/is-ceo-a-two-person-job?ab=hero-main-text
https:\/\/marker.medium.com\/heres-when-it-actually-makes-sense-to-have-2ceos-64827d0ddb5c
https:\/\/fortune.com\/2020\/02\/17\/co-ceos-model-companies\/ <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Netflix announced this summer that it was elevating Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos to co-CEO, sharing the title with founder Reed Hastings, the\u00a0move\u00a0cut against conventional wisdom. Salesforce.com, SAP,\u00a0and Oracle all had abandoned co-CEO structures within the last year, leading\u00a0The Wall Street Journal\u00a0to ask:\u00a0\u201cCo-CEOs Are Out of Style. Why Is Netflix Resurrecting the Management Model?\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37],"tags":[273,89,94,191,95,64,268,106,80,82],"yoast_head":"\nHas the CEO Position Evolved to a Two-Person Job? - Great People Inside Finland<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the hierarchies of corporate America, there\u2019s nothing ambiguous about the position of \u201cchief executive officer" or CEO as they are better known.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/greatpeopleinside.com\/has-the-ceo-position-evolved-to-a-two-person-job\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Has the CEO Position Evolved to a Two-Person Job? 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