How to Tackle Big Challenges

Confidence is a virtue in CEOs, we know. But what CEOs decide to be confident about also matters.

A new survey from the global leadership consultancy Egon Zehnder, titled “The CEO Response  (opens in a new tab),”  notes that CEOs anticipate a lot of changes in the near future. Ninety-five percent of them “expect significant, systemic shifts in the economy, geopolitics, energy, and technology over the next ten years.” And a lot of CEOs feel their role obligates them to be social influencers: 80 percent say they “acknowledge an expanded role beyond leading their companies.”

In some ways, this echoes the conversation around “should CEOs speak out on social issues?” that emerged in 2020 and 2021. But the new report suggests that CEOs are treading more carefully and strategically around that discussion now. Though a sizable majority—68 percent—say they have a role to play alongside government in addressing geopolitical issues, they are also “careful to avoid noisy rhetoric and extreme positions.” 

In practice, that means leaders want a say in terms of addressing sustainability and discussing the role of AI. This is admirable—CEOs in the corporate and associations world alike should take a leadership role around the leading environmental and technological shifts of our time.

But assertiveness in those areas seems to have a counterweight—the issues they’re less likely to engage in. Only 9 percent of CEOs said “tackling inequalities” was a key challenge; asked to sort various challenges into “existentially critical,” “critical,” and “less critical,” only one made it into the third category: “diversity and inclusion.”

It may be that DEI-related matters are back-burnered because a lot of leaders treated them as very critical three or four years ago. And it may also be that other issues are much more pronounced and sudden—the current state of geopolitics and AI does tend to command a lot of leaders’ time and attention. But day-to-day operational matters still weigh heavily on leaders’ minds too: “talent acquisition and development” is among those existential threats CEOs are paying attention to. 

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how a handful of association leaders have handled DEI conversations in the face of resistance to it. Two broad pieces of advice emerged from that conversation: Tie DEI to business goals, and tie it to your organization’s values. If a CEO wants to be a change agent around climate, technology, and (especially in trade groups) politics, they’re only going to be as successful as the people they have around them. 

The good news is that leaders seem to recognize the importance of developing the skills that make for more inclusive organizations. Among the “adaptive and relational” skills they say are most important are “cultivating a culture of curiosity and open-mindedness,” “honing my ability to listen,” and “working to lift the collective ambition.” As one anonymous respondent put it in the report: “If you manage to create that emotional attachment…change, adaptation, alignment and drive, are much simpler to achieve.”

CEOs want to play a role in making the world better, which is admirable. But it doesn’t just start with dealing with the latest fires that require putting out. It involves building teams and communities that can support those efforts in the long run.