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Thompson, chairman of the Chief Executive Alliance and previously ranked as the world\u2019s top CEO coach, and Loflin, Nasdaq\u2019s Global Head of Board Advisory, joined forces to provide a 360-view of this loaded moment for leadership, from the C-suite and board perspectives, respectively. In a wide-ranging conversation with Fortune<\/em>, they talked about the Shakespearean themes of leadership and turmoil and the feeling that \u201cheavy is the head that wears the crown.\u201d<\/p>\n For those aspiring to reach the top, Thompson shared the conventional wisdom he\u2019d learned from his mentor, Marshall Goldsmith: \u201cWhat got you here got you halfway there.\u201d (Goldsmith had a New York Times bestseller in 2007 with What Got You Here Won\u2019t Get You There<\/em>.)<\/p>\n The transition from being a high-performing executive in a \u201cswim lane\u201d to having the \u201caperture of having a full enterprise\u201d requires substantial new learning and skill development, Thompson argued, because no matter how great an executive you are or how prepared you think you might be, the stakes are existentially high. The risk that a CEO might \u201close his or her head within the next year or so\u201d is \u201ceasily like 20% or at the big brands It feels like it\u2019s twice that,\u201d said Thompson, who recently penned an essay on the subject of CEO \u201cdecapitation\u201d for Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n Adding to this pressure, Thompson and Loflin added, is the radical shift in board member expectations. Board members, who once might have been \u201cgolf buddies,\u201d are now \u201creally under the gun to perform.\u201d They are \u201cless patient\u201d and expected to \u201cactually deliver,\u201d based on their subject matter expertise.<\/p>\n This environment demands nearly every candidate be ready to serve as a \u201cpeacetime in a wartime CEO,\u201d Thompson said, capable of harvesting the best aspects of the company culture while also being \u201cdisrupting and breaking new ground.\u201d An executive promoted from a functional role, such as a CFO, may possess the \u201cgravitas of understanding the street and the shareholders,\u201d but often lacks the breadth to \u201clight hearts and minds\u201d across the workforce, or do \u201cride-alongs with customers.\u201d<\/p>\n Fortune<\/em> has been tracking this tenuous moment for leaders throughout 2025. Top recruitment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found 1,235 CEOs had left (or lost) their jobs through the first half of 2025, a stunning 12% increase from 2024 and the highest year-to-date total since Challenger began tracking CEO turnover in 2002. <\/p>\n Jim Rossman, Barclays\u2019 global head of shareholder advisory, who\u2019s been closely tracking shareholder activism for decades, similarly found record activist-linked turnover at the top for 2025. \u201cIt feels like what activists have done is basically [to hold] public companies to the standards of private equity,\u201d Rossman told Fortune<\/em> in a previous interview, as they have come to view the CEO \u201cmore as an operator, not somebody who\u2019s risen through the ranks.\u201d In other words: Results matter.<\/p>\n The intense environment contributes to feelings of isolation. As CEOs often note, being the boss is a lonely job where leaders are caught in the middle, with information they cannot share with reports but must share with the board, creating a huge information asymmetry, as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella previously told McKinsey. <\/p>\n Carolyn Dewar, the co-leader and founder of McKinsey\u2019s CEO Practice, previously told Fortune<\/em> that \u201cNo one else in your organization or above you, like your board or your investors, see all the pieces you see.\u201d She advocated for leaders to surround themselves with trusted advisors\u2014\u201ca kitchen cabinet\u201d of sorts.<\/p>\n Similarly, Loflin told Fortune<\/em> he\u2019s fond of the concept of \u201crelationology,\u201d which he describes as \u201csort of a study of relationships.\u201d He suggested leaders must develop a \u201cportfolio of relationships of intimacy\u201d that are \u201cvery context-relevant.\u201d A leader\u2019s effectiveness hinges on having fluency, for instance, when speaking to a CFO about analyst days, or working with a compliance team to keep the business safe or connecting authentically with union executives. Loflin said he\u2019s often seen it being a \u201cbig surprise\u201d to accomplished leaders that they have, say, seven different groups they need to engage and maybe as many as six new skills to really flesh out before they\u2019re ready to take the enterprise\u00a0to the next level.<\/p>\n This need for deep, context-aware connection also applies to personal life, Loflin added. The idea that a personal life and professional life can be entirely separate \u201cundermines leadership and undermines the fabric of a company.\u201d Critically, Loflin said, the chair must really know his CEO \u201cat a deep level, like a Shakespearean level,\u201d requiring a transparency that ensures appropriate accountability. After all, Loflin noted as one example, boards have to be mindful that a personal relationship that violates company policy can jeopardize corporate governance at the drop of a hat. The board really needs to know who their CEO is, maybe better than the CEO knows themselves.<\/p>\n Loflin, who admitted to Fortune<\/em> that he\u2019s a bit of a Shakespeare nerd, noted the difference between a tragedy and a comedy is determined by \u201cthe vulnerability and the self-awareness of the protagonist,\u201d and a tragic outcome results from a feeling he likened to \u201cnever recognizing whether I needed to grow or change.\u201d<\/p>\n Thompson added that surviving as a CEO requires an \u201codd combination\u201d of traits you might read in a Greek tragedy: hubris and humility. <\/p>\n The CEO must possess the hubris, or excessive pride, to believe they can be the best in their field, but also the profound humility that acknowledges they can\u2019t do it alone. <\/p>\n The professional mandate is relentless, Thompson added, citing a key interview for the book from Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon: if you were the \u201csame guy you were a year ago, you don\u2019t deserve to be promoted.\u201d Thompson said he thinks of hubris of being at \u201cthe edge of your competence, so rather than retreating, you actually should lean into that\u201d to acquire the skills and help you need to keep growing as a professional.<\/p>\n For top leaders, Thompson said, the top job is not a prize to be won, but a \u201cprivilege to do this role.\u201d Just as Olympic athletes must constantly improve, he added, leaders must recognize that breaking a record only attracts more competition.<\/p>\n Loflin urged boards and executives alike to move beyond a Wolf of Wall Street<\/em> mindset and into \u201cwhat it means to authentically care for and build the confidence and foster appropriate accountability.\u201d He said that for many executives, admitting you have areas to improve on and get better at is a \u201cspecial vulnerability.\u201d He argued boards need more genuine, interpersonal affection\u2014sometimes of the tough love variety\u2014is needed to prevent a truly Shakespearean tragedy on their watch.<\/p>\n Loflin said he\u2019d just had breakfast with a board director for a $30 billion company and the subject of love arose: \u201cDo you love your management team?\u201d The director said yes, definitely, almost like relatives. After all, they had been with the company over a decade and come to have deep relationships with other directors and their C-suite. Loflin argued that over decades of advising boards on corporate governance, he wishes more would adopt this sort of attitude. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to hurt anything in business because a good father has to talk to a troubled son, hopefully he\u2019s mentoring when [the son is] getting himself in trouble.\u201d After all, Loflin continued, \u201cbad stuff happens, and I think some of these metaphors are important.\u201d In other words, it shouldn\u2019t be the Wolf of Wall Street<\/em>, but the wolf\u2014or the activist\u2014is always at the door.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Fortune #CEO #pressure #cooker #Surviving #harder #requires #odd #combination<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thompson, chairman of the Chie… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[1311,529,624,1318,1313,1312,133,1315,1055,1317,523,1316,1314],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The loneliness of the tower, and \u2018relationology\u2019<\/h2>\n
The power and the privilege, the hubris and the humility<\/h2>\n