CEOs should stop trying to be perfect and be more like…Gwyneth Paltrow?

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.

The modern CEO is expected to do it all flawlessly. Shareholders demand strong returns, quarter after quarter. Employees want an empathetic leader who says exactly the right thing in town halls and intimate interactions. Journalists and industry analysts ask CEOs to be visionaries who can present a plan for what a company will look like five years from now.

In fact, CEOs are far from perfect. We sometimes make judgments too quickly or drag our feet on tough personnel decisions. We may miss our numbers. And we have shortcomings: The skilled operator may not be the best orator. The visionary CEO may not be great at capital allocation.

Embrace the imperfections

Rather than fret about a CEO’s flaws, Justus O’Brien and Dean Stamoulis of leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates suggest that boards of directors, employees—and CEOs themselves—embrace the notion of the imperfect CEO.

O’Brien and Stamoulis, who do a lot of work on CEO succession, told me that some of the most valuable conversations they have with boards involve assessing a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. These discussions are often constructive, exploring the ways the directors and executive team can help the prospective CEO succeed. They note that CEOs who acknowledge their imperfections can often be more effective. A willingness to ask for help and guidance from directors may lead to a healthy board dynamic, O’Brien says. Leaders who know their vulnerabilities are able to address their shortcomings by building strong teams. Stamoulis recalls one executive telling him, “I’m not trying to be the smartest in the room. I’m trying to create the smartest room.”

The fragile CEO

But it takes a lot of nerve to be able to know and show fragility at the CEO level. A few years ago, I interviewed actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow, who quietly retook the reins of Goop, the lifestyle brand she founded, after bringing on an outsider as CEO for a few years. She was incredibly open about her ambivalence about running a business (sentiments she echoed in this New York Times interview) and her learning curve. I walked out of the interview thinking: Wow, I could never be that vulnerable!

Paltrow may not be everyone’s leadership ideal—she knows she’s divisive and she’s frequently criticized for peddling pseudoscience—but her confessional style clearly is part of her appeal to her customers and investors. 

Perhaps Paltrow figured out what O’Brien and Stamoulis articulate in their report on imperfect leaders: “When CEOs can admit their flaws and mistakes, they create a sense of trust and authenticity with employees, investors, and other stakeholders,” they write.

What would Gwyneth do?

What are your thoughts on being a vulnerable leader—or working for one? Drop me a line at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. I would welcome ideas on how I might unleash my inner Gwyneth.

Read and watch: The vulnerable leader

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