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Avoid Abusing Power and Authority An executive in service may be said to borrow his CEO's authority, be lent such authority, or steal it. For instance, when a young executive holds an important office, he may be embarrassed by social customs or the current fashion and have to carry out his duties by relying upon his CEO's authority. He thus borrows his authority by deferring to his CEO's name. If with its assistance he carries out his CEO's intentions and benefits the people, he will have used it rightly in doing his duty with proper circumspection. But if, when he finds his comrades and outsiders treating him with respect and addressing him as “Mr.” and other signs of power, he becomes greedy of dignity and loath to part with it, then he may abuse such power and be described as one who steals it. Then there is the situation when the CEO is found lending his authority and giving his prestige to executives for temporary situations such as when the CEO is away, or for special projects. Although the executives are required to give back this authority when the task is finished, sometimes from an easygoing nature the CEO allows them to keep it for some time. But when some incident arises that requires it be given back, the recipients make it difficult and costly. Here the executive certainly robs his CEO of his authority. This is not only a great disgrace to a CEO but causes him great damage. If any one executive gets too much power, that of the CEO is thereby decreased. And if people come to think they can get what they want by honoring the executive because he controls all access to the CEO, they will think only of getting into his good graces and regard the CEO as of secondary importance. Thus, the benevolent relations of CEO and executive disappear, and loyal executives will become conspicuous by their absence. Should some emergency arise, there will be no good men left to deal with it. Moreover, not only outside executives but those in the central office will be oppressed by the authority of such a person. This will cause them to shrink in on themselves, and this also is not good for their CEO. For they will say nothing about things they ought to notice but only regret it in their hearts and grumble privately to their friends, without anybody standing up and reporting it to their CEO. The arbitrary conduct and partiality of the offender, and the extent of his honor and glory, remain unknown to his CEO, who only thinks well of all he does and thus by negligence brings about great misfortune. And the incapacity to know who people are is generally condemned as unfitting for a chief executive. Moreover, a man of this sort who cares nothing what his CEO thinks is not likely to be sensitive to the opinion of his comrades. He will favor the little officials and give those who are his friends and acquaintances fees and bribes from corporate property, while taking their return presents for himself. When he entertains his guests, he has the meals, liquor, and desserts bought from his company credit card. So acting on the principle that what is my CEO's is mine and what is mine is my own, he weakens his CEO's estate and causes him great loss. Think over all this very deeply therefore and remember always to be humble and suppress all pretensions when granted any privilege by your CEO, so that nothing may dim the brightness of the company. As the ancient saying has it, the loyal retainer does not realize his own existence but only that of his lord.
DAILY LIFE:
Applying the Code in Your Daily Life ACCOUNTABILITY: Maintaining Integrity Around Results Excerpt from the Best-Selling book The Code of the Executive by Don Schmincke |