防止CEO倦怠沒那么貴

There are few jobs with less appeal than being the chief executive of a big company. The work is intolerably stressful. It is lonely. You never see your children. You spend far too much time breathing stale air in a pressurised cabin 36,000 feet up. And it generally ends in big, humiliating failure.

很少有比在大公司當(dāng)首席執(zhí)行官更沒勁的工作了。壓力大得喘不過氣。還得強忍孤獨。見不著孩子?；ù罅繒r間在3.6萬英尺高的加壓艙里呼吸污濁的空氣。到頭來還常常一敗涂地、顏面盡失。

Johnson & Johnson, whose Human Performance Institute has spent more than 30 years studying the behaviour of athletes and other fanatics, has come up with a way of making the job manageable: a $100,000 anti-burnout programme. The CEO is packed off to the Mayo clinic for a few days during which their insides are methodically prodded and X-rayed. Then three experts are called in — a dietitian, a physiologist and a coach — who over the next nine months interview the executives’ families, poke around in their fridges, then tell them what to eat, how much to exercise and how to change their characters. Or, as the company puts it on its website: “The Premier Coaching Team leverages holistic Physical, Mental, and Emotional Analyses to create highly personalised action plans.”

強生(Johnson & Johnson)的人類績效研究所(Human Performance Institute)花了30多年時間研究運動員和其他狂熱分子的行為，提出了一個可以掌控工作的方案：一套價值10萬美元的抗倦怠計劃。CEO們要在梅奧診所(Mayo clinic)待上幾天，這幾天里他們的五臟六腑會挨個接受刺激和X光檢查。接著會有三位專家——一名營養(yǎng)師、一名生理學(xué)家和一名教練——介入，在接下來的9個月，這三位專業(yè)人士會到CEO們的府上做家訪、翻看他們的冰箱，然后告訴他們吃什么、做多少運動以及怎么改變性格。或者，就像強生公司網(wǎng)站上說的那樣：“基于對您身體、精神和情緒的全面分析，我們的高級教練團隊會為您量身打造專屬于您的行動方案。”

I have no doubt Premier Executive Leadership ™ will be in great demand. I once read that 40 per cent of CEOs quit or are fired in the first 18 months. Executive burnout is not only a downer for the person but for shareholders too. According to research by Strategy&, a CEO resignation at one of the world’s largest companies can knock its value by $1.8bn. Compared with that a $100,000 insurance policy seems like a cheap solution.

我深信強生的“高級行政領(lǐng)導(dǎo)”(Premier Executive Leadership ™)計劃會非常搶手。我以前讀到過，有4成CEO在上任后的18個月內(nèi)辭職或者被炒魷魚。高管們的工作倦怠不僅對個人來說很糟糕，對企業(yè)的股東們也是一樣。思略特(Strategy&)的研究顯示，全球規(guī)模最大的一些公司的CEO辭職會使公司價值損失18億美元。這么看來，一份10萬美元的保單似乎很劃算。

Premier Executive Leadership™ does not solve a thing. It merely adds to the problem. We put someone under inhuman pressure by placing impossible demands on them. They often crack. Then instead of wondering how to lessen the pressure, we tell them all will be fine if they eat every three hours, exercise more, behave differently and fill up their already full schedule with a trio of quacks.

可是“高級行政領(lǐng)導(dǎo)”計劃并不解決任何問題，而只是加劇了問題本身。我們對某些人提出不合理的要求，讓他們承受著非人的壓力。他們經(jīng)常因此崩潰。然后我們非但不想辦法幫他們減輕壓力，反而告訴他們一切都會好起來，只要他們少食多餐、多做運動、轉(zhuǎn)變行為方式，再從本就已經(jīng)很緊張的日程中騰出時間應(yīng)付三個江湖郎中。

It is not just decadent, but also damaging. Our message to executives who crack up is that it is their fault for not having enough of something that has become the corporate world’s favourite and most fashionable virtue: resilience. At the same time, we are hoodwinking companies into thinking resilience can be bought. So long as the programme is “holistic” and “personalised”, a CEO can be turned from a frail human into a superhero.

這不僅很消極，還很有害。我們傳達給那些心力交瘁的高管們的，是這樣一種信息：沒有足夠的韌性是他們的錯，而韌性正是企業(yè)界最欣賞、最流行的美德。同時，我們也在蒙騙企業(yè)，使他們認為韌性是可以買來的。只要這個計劃是“全面的”、“量身打造的”，一名CEO就能從一個脆弱的人變成一位超級英雄。

There is a better, more obvious and cheaper way. Instead of attempting to shore up the incumbent, we should change the job spec. Being a CEO is awful for four reasons. First, people think that you are in control, but you are not. All organisations are dysfunctional and even if you have the right idea of what you want to do, doing it is practically impossible. Second, everything is always your fault, even when you have had nothing to do with it. Third, it is very lonely. No one tells you the truth and you cannot tell anyone else the truth either. Finally, you spend your life in two of the most depressing spaces on earth — meeting rooms and aeroplanes.

有一個更好的、效果更顯著也更實惠的辦法。與其試圖幫現(xiàn)任CEO硬撐，不如轉(zhuǎn)變一下工作分配。做CEO很煩的原因有四個。首先，人們覺得你大權(quán)在握，但其實不是。一切組織都存在運轉(zhuǎn)障礙，即便你明白自己想干什么，也沒法實際執(zhí)行。其次，一切問題都得由你負責(zé)，即使跟你一點關(guān)系都沒有。還有，當(dāng)CEO真的很孤獨。沒人跟你說真心話，你也不能對別人掏心掏肺。最后，你要在地球上最壓抑的兩個地方度日——會議室和飛機上。

The best way of lifting pressure is to spread the load. That means fussing over the other people at the top — the chairman, deputy and three or four important others. The next is to do less. Does the CEO really need to speak at a conference on the other side of the world? The answer is almost always no. Most meetings need not take place.

緩解壓力最好的辦法就是分散責(zé)任。意思就是讓其他高層一塊操心——董事長、副手和其他三、四個重要人物。接著就是少干點活。CEO真得為了一個會議發(fā)言飛半個地球嗎?通常都不是。大部分會都沒必要開。

But the most important thing — which no one company can do alone — is to change expectations of what a single person can achieve. Academics have debated for 70 years how much the CEO matters, and most studies conclude they do not matter much.

但最重要的事情——沒有哪家企業(yè)能單獨完成——就是改變對某一個人能力的預(yù)期。關(guān)于CEO有多重要，學(xué)者們已經(jīng)辯論了70年，而大多數(shù)研究的結(jié)論都說他們并沒有多重要。

If expectations were lower, pressure would be less. Better still, the nice humble people who are supposed to be better at the job might be more interested in applying, instead of the narcissistic nutcases the system produces. A recent study showed the proportion of psychopaths in corner offices is the same as in prisons.

如果期望值低點兒，壓力也會少些。而且，那些理應(yīng)更勝任這一工作、友善又謙卑的人(而不是被體系逼成的自戀狂)也許會更有興趣應(yīng)聘這一職位。最近一項研究顯示老板辦公室出產(chǎn)的瘋子跟監(jiān)獄一樣多。

Under this job spec — shared power and scant chance of ever being on the cover of Time — two desirable things might occur, which hardly ever happen together in a free market. The standard of CEO applicants would rise. And pay would fall.

根據(jù)這種工作分配——分散職權(quán)，以及減少上《時代周刊》雜志(Time)封面的幾率——或許會出現(xiàn)兩個令人滿意的結(jié)果，而在自由市場中兩者從來難以同時實現(xiàn)。CEO應(yīng)聘者的標準將會提高。而付給他們的薪酬反而會降低。