Originally Posted by
subject2load
And is he totally safe, I wonder, to rely on his lieutenants ?
Over the years, many leaders - both in industry and politics - have found out the hard way (and often too late) that they have been fed the sort of messages which their 'lieutenants' believe they want to hear, rather than what they should hear.
I'm reminded of CEO's who shy away from allocating even a very limited part of their time to read customer complaints, because they feel they always have more important/interesting things to do.
I totally agree. I recall another airline which I used to fly with a great deal, who have had a succession of CEOs over the years, some better, some less good, and some downright hopeless. At one point they had a really excellent CEO, and the company ran really well. Both financially and for customers. I remember two things though: One was when one of the ground staff told me that the CEO "spends too much time dealing with customer relations so he can't be running the company well". The other time was when I was sitting in their lounge waiting for my flight when I noticed someone wandering from passenger to passenger and talking a little with them. When he reached me he introduced himself as the CEO and he would like to know if there was anything I thought needed to be done to improve the customer experience! I was totally stunned. I didn't even have any real status with them either (besides, I didn't wear a name tag so he couldn't know who I was anyway). Unfortunately, he was made to resign a few months later because the press made a fuss about something he said which was not politically correct ...