Boards CAN give the CEO a proper performance appraisal

The CEO is an island. His/her boss, the board, meets infrequently, has many unrelated obligations, and possesses a fraction of the corporate knowledge the CEO has. The result is CEOs who operate with little oversight--until things go horribly wrong. After which the bluntest performance appraisal is applied: "You are fired."

There is an alternative. In the October Harvard Business Review (link), Stephen Kaufman, former CEO of Arrow Industries, describes the effort his company made to create a review process that was more like the one applied to his direct reports. It involved numerous board members interviewing executives throughout the company and was intended to provide a window into Kaufman's needed development areas--and to complement the financial and business objectives he was judged on.

I wonder how other CEOs would view this type of process. Would they see it as an intrusion into their space? Or as a yearly checkup that could prevent the root canal of a surprise firing?

From the Mistake Bank: Don't ever bring a harmonium to an acoustic radio gig

From The Mistake Bank.

This story is from Fran Ten, who is the bassist for West Indian Girl, an LA band with a very cool, neo-psychedelic sound. Fran runs the business operations for the band, and I interviewed him for a podcast. As is becoming a custom, I asked him for a mistake story. Completely off the cuff, he rattled off the story below, regarding discussions he and his bandmate, Rob James, had about a radio appearance. While he tells me that he has better mistakes than this, I thought it was an appropriate one to kick off a fun holiday weekend--plus it deals with a fear we all have--messing up in public. It made me smile, anyway.

There was one time, we had a radio gig, and Rob thought that someone should play a harmonium, you know, that Indian instrument? On his acoustic set. And it sounded like shit. Right? It sounded horrible.

I said, “You know, Rob, that was a mistake. We are never bringing a harmonium again to an acoustic radio show. You’re just going with your guitar, or this setup we know that works.”

But we tried it. At least we tried it. Business-wise, you have to keep making mistakes. Isn’t that how you grow?

Mistake Bank, experimentation, music, performance, narrative,
radio