When it comes to hard decisions, people tend to pass the buck. It eventually stops at the top of an organization, where the leader must make a choice, right? Maybe not. Successful CEOs actually tend to embrace contradictions in their strategies, says a new study by professors from the Harvard Business School, Chalmers University of Technology, and the TruePoint Center for High Commitment and Performance. In Embracing Commitment and Performance: CEOs and Practices Used to Manage Paradox, the researchers analyze the results of conversations with 26 CEOs representing a wide range of successful companies, such as IKEA, Campbell Soup, and Nokia.
When it comes to choosing between business strategies that focus on short-term performance and those that look at the long term, the CEOs responded that they do both simultaneously. A good CEO is one who creates a community of trust at the company that allows short-term successes to add up to achievement of long-term goals, the January working paper argues.
