Cassette Study: Choosing A Leader
A Cassette Study(TM) is a minimal approach to a case study. We do not know all of the details–and likely no one can–but we know enough to draw some leadership lessons from the facts available.
Cassette Study is a trademark of Great Ridge Group, Inc.
Recently, two large, highly visible organizations in the Twin Cities metro area selected new CEOs. Both organizations are in the same industry, facing the same economic, social, and regulative pressures. The cultures of the two organizations have been remarkably similar over the past several years.
With all of that similarity, the new CEO for each organization, selected by each organization’s board of directors, is very different from the other.
One is a charismatic, people person. The other is an introvert. One is pursuing a flatter organizational structure with higher levels of responsibility spread throughout the organization; the other has increased the hierarchy, even to the point of putting executive offices on a higher level, where they can only be accessed via a highly visible staircase. One is a dynamic, successful leader; the other is an accountant. One generates enthusiasm; one generates fear.
This likely sounds like a “Goofus and Gallant” cartoon from the kid’s magazine our daughter got when she was young. You remember the one: “Goofus cuts his cheese in the living room. Gallant cuts his cheese in the breeze.”
There is no way to tell which of these leaders will be successful, whether they will both succeed, or both fail. What is known is that the boards of these two organizations chose these leaders for very specific reasons, and their choice reflects the values those two boards hold most dear.
It will be interesting to check back on the health of these two organizations in five years or so.
But I think I know what to expect.