Well, I guess we're picking on bosses this week.
Tuesday, I went after narcissistic CEOs who want their inner children to lead the company.
Yesterday it was ex-G.E. Chair Beth Comstock, who hiked the Grand Canyon and said it reminded her of corporate projects.
Today it's Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, who won Chief Executive magazine's "2018 CEO of the Year," announced this week.
What did she do to get the award over all the other peers making tens of millions every year to lead their companies in a booming economy?
“It’s been a year of strong candidates,” said Mark Weinberger, CEO of EY and a member of the selection committee, “but Marillyn has demonstrated exceptional leadership, proving to be an exceptional role model and exceptional person—something we need in business, especially today.”
Great leader, great role model, great person. Looking forward to hearing more!
Tamara Lundgren, CEO, Schnitzer Steel, added: “Marillyn has led her company with tremendous vision and integrity, and the results have shown through both financial and operation performance as well as the diversity and loyalty of the people she leads.”
Vision! Results! Performance! Integrity! Diversity! Loyalty! (Schnitzer Steel!)
How about some specifics?
“She is absolutely a beacon of excellence in an industry that hasn’t had many good stories,” said Fred Hassan, former chairman, Bausch & Lomb, and partner, Warburg Pincus. “She has displayed a lot of courage in dealing with the many complexities in running a business of Lockheed’s size and scope.”
For a second there, I thought he said a "bacon of excellence," which would have meant something. And does it take courage to deal with complexities, or does it take brains and patience?
Maybe Hewson herself can shed some light.
“It is a tremendous honor to be named Chief Executive of the Year,” said Hewson. “This honor is ultimately a tribute to the 100,000 women and men of Lockheed Martin—and all they do each day to protect lives, drive innovation and press forward the frontiers of human knowledge and understanding.”
Hewson may indeed be the CEO of the year.
But you'd never know why by looking here.
(Or here.)
Look: Marillyn Hewson must be one serious human being: Her bio reveals that she has spent three decades climbing through the most macho, male-dominated, slide-rule-driven company imaginable, to become its CEO.
She likely achieved that through sheer competence—mostly deeds and not words.
But now she's CEO. In fact, she's CEO of the year!
So when comes to communication, she needs to press forward her frontier.
Leave a Reply