Lonely at the top - the CEO tales

Only a CEO understands what it is like being at the top and feeling lonely. Yes this is true but difficult to stomach.

Speaking is important, effective communication is critical

Ask any CEO and she will tell you that she receives 'valuable input' or 'valuable advise' and that helps her decide on the course of action. Nothing could be further from the truth. Input and advise are rarely unconditional. A CEO has to distinguish between genuine input and tainted input. Tainted input stems from various types of motivations, some obvious others not so obvious. It's finally left to one human to take the call that will affect the today and the tomorrow of many (sometimes thousands) of professional colleagues (read dependents).

The loneliness manifests because no matter what decision the CEO takes, someone will be unhappy, someone will be frustrated, someone will be promoted and someone might lose their job. A CEO has to balance between common good and the future of the company. Shareholders are another section that has to be appeased at all times. Business schools teach about increasing shareholder value as the core of all CEO functions. Little is ever discussed about the human impact. Remember, and I have shouted this out from the rooftops, human impact is ONLY important as long as it doesn't hurt the bottomline of the company. Every single CEO without exception has been told to watch the bottomline always, very fewer are instructed to care enough for their employees.

A recent notification has corrected a wrong that was going on for decades. The judgement restricted the amount an employer could classify as "Special Incentive", "Ad hoc payment", "Special Allowance" and the type. Employees didn't know that this was a tactic to reduce corporate liability on Gratuity payments. The amounts were taxed just like regular income, but exempted when emoluments were calculated to arrive at Gratuity payable when the employee retired.

In my role as a CEO I tried to correct this anomaly but was met with stiff resistance. HR heads not located in India refused to understand how it affected negatively at the grass-root level. I think now when it is government mandated, they will be forced to understand. There were my immediate management team that debated this idea with me. They were more inclined that I abandoned it than contested it with the Board of Directors.

There were similar issues such as maternity leave that could be given up to a year, partially without pay or reduced pay. The biggest resistance came from a section of the Senior Management Teams since they had to plan better. But I remained true to the objectives I set myself. In the end it didn't matter when I left. And yet it continues to be the way I choose to act whether as a CEO of a corporation or that of myself. Yes, its lonely at the top and you can only understand it when you get there...