CEOs doubt themselves

Many CEOs and business owners would have some private time with me to discuss issues. Most of these talks concern business issues, and others a little bit more personal. This is why they make good leaders because they want to get opinions and get as many ideas as possible.

Contrary to popular beliefs and dumb clichés, it is good that they doubt themselves. They know they are not invincible. They would ask questions and try to get my opinions not because they do not know the answers and not because I know more, but because they are smart and they would like to check and get the pulse of what they are about to do.

Many consultants do not understand this. I was once with a consultant in conversation with the owner of a huge enterprise and when this owner asked a question, this consultant could not stop his mouth blabbering about the “solutions” the owner should do. I guess he was trying to impress the owner with his knowledge and competence hoping to win the account. While I quietly observed the dynamics, I was taken aback when the owner; visibly irritated turned his head away from him, practically ignored him and cut him out of the conversation and discussed the matter with me to the consternation of the consultant. What many consultants do not know is when they are asked for advice, it is not that these leaders do not know the answers. They may just be testing the consultant’s knowledge and competence, or they just wanted some validations on what they are about to do. These leaders are not recklessly confident. They are cautiously smart. And there is a reason why.

The bigger their businesses, the more famous these CEOs are, the higher are their stakes. The old adage, “The higher you rise the harder you fall.” is of course true with high flying CEOs. They also have insecurities. This is why many of them bring in personal coaches or mentors to help them through the process. Others slug it out and refuse to give up. They have failures and multiple success stories. And when they succeed, they get to be interviewed in TV talk shows, magazines and business news media, and inspire the great masses of people with their stories of victories. And when they fail, they are victimized by business commentators, book authors who would vilify them in public. It can be lonely at the top.

Others are quiet. You don’t get to hear their stories. They do not talk about it. In terms of self-doubt, they do not get personal coaches to inspire them or build the tenacity to overcome their weakness either perceived or otherwise, they do. They know their areas of weaknesses but they know they are not compelled to grant interviews or to state their opinions in public. What they do is they give up their CEO jobs to others who are able to handle the challenges and complexities of running a growing company and the job is at the hands of those who are qualified and can do better. Then they revert back to their core competence and concentrate on what they do best. Providing vision and guidance for the organization’s directions, cultivating a deeper relationship with the company’s top 20 percent clientele and this is why these CEOs and business owners are smart because they exhibit humility. They know their own limitations. Rather than using their resources trying to “Work on their weaknesses,” they instead “outsource” their weaknesses to others who are capable and competent to do their jobs. Then they highlight their strength and “strengthen” their strength even more so they can achieve better and greater things.

This is so much in contrast to many young “start-up” leaders who strut all over the place like an over-dressed peacock projecting an image of being a successful, capable, established CEO of a successful, capable established business. They love the title. They love the limelight. They love to be “CEOs.” They want to impress people that they have “arrived” and gotten to the top of the totem pole. The only problem here is that it is what it is. An image, a mirage, an illusion full of noise but carried no depth nor substance. The real leaders know how to say, “Hey, take my job. You lead my company because you can do it many times better than I can ever do.”

The real leaders I know have a great sense of self-worth and respect. And this is why they know how to doubt themselves without losing confidence. Meanwhile the amateurs and the inexperienced would chant: “Believe in yourself!” and “Fake it till you make it!”

These CEOs and business owners doubt themselves. And that is a good thing. They do not seek for the title and respect, these are given to them. They do not seek the limelight and the spotlight because they know that running a successful business is what matters and profitability ratings would be more important than popularity ratings.

And strangely, or perhaps not so strange at all, these quiet leaders would always emerge more popular and longer lasting than those who are noisy and loud. Self-doubt in this case is not a bad thing after all.

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