The CEO Syndrome

by: Steven Bowman
Copyright 2008 by Conscious Governance.
All rights reserved. You may forward this in its entirety to anyone you wish.         

One of the greatest threats facing leaders today is making decisions based on information that is incomplete, partially hidden or compromised in some way.

Many CEOs have told us that they so often sense that they are not getting the truth. They cannot name or define what their sense of unease or apprehension regarding the information they have received is about, because they know that no one is actually lying to them.

In most cases, they know that these people are not actually dishonest or untrustworthy, but neither are they telling the CEO or Board everything they need to know. They can sense that something is not quite right.

How do you know that the information you receive as staff leader or a Board member is objective and unbiased? What creates the environment where information is regularly filtered, biased or withheld? What can you do to ensure that information you receive is reflective of the actual situation and possibilities, and not created from someone's bias?

This is what we have termed the CEO Syndrome.

The controversy surrounding the CEO Syndrome is that we believe that you, as the person receiving or relying on information, actively create this syndrome for yourself.

The type of information that staff and others provide you is a direct result of how you have chosen to receive information in the past, what questions you have asked, and whether you have any fixed points of view.

Every fixed point of view that you have about anything creates the limitations and parameters from which you receive it. Leaders with a fixed point of view often say phrases such as "Oh no, that's not the way it is" and they often focus their attention on the ‘why something can't be done'. Attachment to your own point of view blinds you to other possibilities. You can't see anything that doesn't match your point of view. You tend to be very attached to past reference points, and are not willing to take risks. You fail to invite the truth.

The CEO Syndrome causes you to operate with a distorted sense of reality and creates an insulated culture that systematically excludes any information that does not fit or contradicts your point of view.

On the other hand, if you have shown that you are willing to receive all, without judgement, then you will receive all facets of information from many different points of view, as staff will not be worried or concerned about how you will receive it, or the effect this delivery of information will have on them. You have chosen to be conscious and aware.

Three tools to combat the CEO Syndrome

So how do you turn this situation around so that you are receiving all relevant information, without filtering, camouflage or omission? There are three main tools that will assist in combating the CEO Syndrome.

Tool 1: Receiving without judgement

Receiving involves ‘no resistance'. It is about remaining constantly open, vulnerable and unresisting to any point of view put to you by staff, other leaders or stakeholders.

Willingness to receive everything without judgement does not mean you have to allow others to control you or have power over you. Every time you let go of the feeling of unwillingness to receive, you have more power with less exertion and greater emotional sovereignty and resilience.

Judgment creates resistance which allows no choice. However, if you can remain calm and be willing to receive the undesired event without resisting or reacting, you will keep expanding your awareness and providing permission for staff to do likewise.

For example, if you are unwilling to receive being judged by other people, you may become overly concerned with other people's points of view. You may become overly concerned with what people think of you.

A key step for cultivating the quality of willingness to receive everything without judgment is the willingness to claim and own the capacity to receive. Stop resisting and reacting to any interaction of anything or anyone.

When you catch yourself resisting and reacting, ask the question "What am I unwilling to receive here?", "What do I create meaningful for me that is stopping me from receiving?", "What would it be like to receive from everybody without judgment or without any point of view?"

Tool 2: Living as the question

Living as the question means using questions to bypass the limited answers that your mind provides. A question creates the possibilities of things, not the limitations. A question allows you to see beyond conventional concepts.

Questions are powerful magic. A question empowers, whereas an answer most often disempowers and limits. Living as the question allows the conscious you to bypass your mental control, and remove judgment, rationalisation and justification. However, if you state the answer is "..........." instead of asking the question, you will instantly limit the possibilities and stop the unlimited answers from manifesting.

If you are able to function in the question, the information you receive, and the quality of the work that your staff provide, will improve beyond measure.

Here are examples of what people often say to themselves when they deal with business issues and concerns: "This is so complicated I don't event know where to start. I can't get my head around the details!! I don't know how to deal with this situation!! I don't know what to do about this problem!! I am so worried, I can't possibly do this!! etc".

If your staff think "I can't do this", are they ever going to be able to do it? Instead of having these unproductive thoughts and being overwhelmed by problems, you can choose to ask the more conscious questions such as "What is it I'm not getting about this? What am I pretending not to know or denying I know about this? What are the infinite possibilities that this will work out much better than we could ever imagine?". "What is the question I should ask here?".

When you ask these types of questions, things start to show up for you in a different way. The more you ask the question, the more aware you become of the options and possibilities you have.

The questions must be asked with genuine wonder, not with attitude and certain expected outcomes. Stop seeking answers; instead put the focus on the questions themselves. Transformation can happen through sincere questioning, because you shift from the zone of lack and limitation and scarcity to the zone of infinite possibilities.

Tool 3: Interesting point of view

Every point of view that you have created about anything creates the limitations and parameters from which you are able to receive information about it. Cultivating a frame of mind of "everything is an interesting point of view" will allow you to perceive beyond a fixed and limited view of reality, knowing outside the content of thought.

Unconscious leaders who function based on a ‘fixed point of view' are conformist and predictable. These leaders have fixed ideas and quite often they don't know that they can change their point of view.

The regularity of the refrains "You can't do that" and "This is not the way we do things around here", is indicative of unconscious leaders operating with a fixed point of view.

Fixed points of view box you in and limit the potential of your business. You cannot see anything that does not match your point of view. Others will also see this, and will only provide information they know you are willing to receive.

A fixed point of view often gives rise to a fixation with proving that you are right by confirming others to be wrong. Whenever you have an attachment to being right, you are usually inflicted with intolerance, antagonism and narrow-mindedness. Each time you identify with your point of view, you have to make it right and you automatically and unconsciously try to defend it against others.

The degree to which you are functioning from a fixed point of view is in direct proportion to your inability to innovate.

Letting go of the fixed point of view

One way to approach the process of letting go of a fixed point of view is by choosing to destroy and uncreate that fixed point view.

1. Identify your limiting beliefs and your fixed points of view. Once you've identified what your fixed points of view are, you need to catch yourself in the act of having those fixed points of view and recognise them for what they are. You can repeat to yourself "Interesting point of view that I have this point of view". This will take out the attachment energy you have on the point of view and free you from it.

2. Identify when staff are functioning from a fixed point of view, and raise their awareness by questioning about other possibilities. If they strongly resist and react, then they are still functioning from a fixed point of view, which can be dangerous for the business through denying other possibilities. Receive without judgement, live as the question, and treat it as just an interesting point of view. Do not buy their reality.

Summary

The CEO Syndrome is pervasive in many businesses, and has been a major cause of many corporate collapses, including some of the most recent. The environment that creates the CEO Syndrome is a choice made by the organisational leaders about whether they choose to be conscious, unconscious or anticonscious. You have that choice also.

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About the author: Steven Bowman is an international speaker, best-selling author and global leader in providing practical frameworks and comprehensive approaches to assist Boards and Senior Executive Teams to reach higher levels of conscious awareness in governance, leadership, strategy and risk. Authors of Conscious Leadership-the Key to Success, and Leading Yourself to Money with Consciousness.

Steven Bowman can be contaced by E-mail: steven@the2bowmans.com
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