Do You Really Want A CEO To Be A Role Model?
Do You Really Want A CEO To Be A Role Model?
Executive Summary
In “Do you really want a CEO to be a role model?” Theodore Kinni challenges the popular habit of turning high-profile CEOs into broad leadership icons. Using Elon Musk and Steve Jobs as examples, Kinni argues that extraordinary business performance does not automatically make a leader’s full set of behaviors worth imitating. A CEO may be visionary, bold and highly effective in some dimensions while also displaying interpersonal or governance behaviors that should not be normalized.
The article’s central insight is that leaders should distinguish between role models and reference individuals. Drawing on sociologist Robert K. Merton’s distinction, Kinni explains that people may broadly copy a reference individual, including both positive and negative traits, whereas a true role model should be emulated more selectively. In other words, business leaders can learn from a CEO’s innovation, courage, or communication style without adopting that person’s arrogance, volatility, or disregard for norms.
For executives, the article is a timely reminder that leadership influence is contagious. Senior leaders not only set strategy; they transmit behaviors, values, and cultural expectations through everyday conduct.
Major Takeaways
Business success does not equal behavioral excellence.
Kinni opens with the tension around Elon Musk being named Fortune’s 2020 Businessperson of the Year despite concerns about his leadership style. The point is not to dismiss Musk’s achievements but to question whether exceptional results should cause organizations to excuse or copy problematic behavior.
Senior leaders are always modeling behavior.
The article connects CEO conduct to organizational culture, citing the principle that people at the top must demonstrate the change they want to see. This means leaders’ negative behaviors can also cascade through an organization.
Bad behavior can be contagious.
Kinni references Stanford professor Robert Sutton’s argument that working for a jerk can cause people to adopt similar conduct. For companies, this makes executive behavior a cultural risk, not just a personal style issue.
Choose what to emulate carefully.
The article’s most practical distinction is between copying an entire leader and studying a specific capability. A business leader might learn from Musk’s ability to communicate audacious ideas to investors without adopting his more controversial public behaviors.
Responsible role modeling requires self-awareness.
Kinni closes with a leadership challenge: if executives want to be responsible role models, they need to understand which of their behaviors and values are worth transmitting. That requires awareness of strengths, blind spots, values, personality, and impact on others.
Talking Points for Executives
Organizations should be careful about celebrating “hero CEOs” without separating performance outcomes from behavioral norms.
Culture is shaped less by slogans and more by what senior leaders repeatedly do, tolerate, and reward.
Executives can learn from successful leaders without copying their full leadership persona.
Boards should evaluate CEO behavior as part of enterprise culture and risk oversight, not merely as a matter of personality.
The best leadership development may come from building a portfolio of role models: one person for strategic courage, another for humility, another for operational rigor and another for communication.
Reflection Questions
Which leaders do I admire, and what specific behaviors am I actually trying to emulate?
Am I copying someone’s full leadership style when I should only be learning from one strength?
What behaviors of mine are likely being mirrored by my team?
Which of my habits would I be proud to see repeated across the organization?
Where might our company be excusing poor conduct because someone delivers strong results?
Potential Action Items
Create a leadership “emulation map” that identifies specific behaviors worth learning from admired leaders, rather than treating any one executive as a complete model.
Add behavioral expectations to executive performance reviews, especially for senior leaders whose conduct influences culture.
Ask leadership teams to identify which behaviors they want to reinforce across the organization and which they must not normalize.
Use 360-degree feedback to uncover blind spots in how executives’ actions are being interpreted and copied.
During succession planning, evaluate candidates not only on results but also on the cultural behaviors they are likely to amplify.
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