防止CEO倦怠没那么贵

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.

很少有比在大公司当首席执行官更没劲的工作了。压力大得喘不过气。还得强忍孤独。见不着孩子。花大量时间在3.6万英尺高的加压舱里呼吸污浊的空气。到头来还常常一败涂地、颜面尽失。

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.”

强生(Johnson & Johnson)的人类绩效研究所(Human Performance Institute)花了30多年时间研究运动员和其他狂热分子的行为，提出了一个可以掌控工作的方案：一套价值10万美元的抗倦怠计划。CEO们要在梅奥诊所(Mayo clinic)待上几天，这几天里他们的五脏六腑会挨个接受刺激和X光检查。接着会有三位专家——一名营养师、一名生理学家和一名教练——介入，在接下来的9个月，这三位专业人士会到CEO们的府上做家访、翻看他们的冰箱，然后告诉他们吃什么、做多少运动以及怎么改变性格。或者，就像强生公司网站上说的那样：“基于对您身体、精神和情绪的全面分析，我们的高级教练团队会为您量身打造专属于您的行动方案。”

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.

我深信强生的“高级行政领导”(Premier Executive Leadership ™)计划会非常抢手。我以前读到过，有4成CEO在上任后的18个月内辞职或者被炒鱿鱼。高管们的工作倦怠不仅对个人来说很糟糕，对企业的股东们也是一样。思略特(Strategy&)的研究显示，全球规模最大的一些公司的CEO辞职会使公司价值损失18亿美元。这么看来，一份10万美元的保单似乎很划算。

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“高级行政领导”计划并不解决任何问题，而只是加剧了问题本身。我们对某些人提出不合理的要求，让他们承受着非人的压力。他们经常因此崩溃。然后我们非但不想办法帮他们减轻压力，反而告诉他们一切都会好起来，只要他们少食多餐、多做运动、转变行为方式，再从本就已经很紧张的日程中腾出时间应付三个江湖郎中。

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.

这不仅很消极，还很有害。我们传达给那些心力交瘁的高管们的，是这样一种信息：没有足够的韧性是他们的错，而韧性正是企业界最欣赏、最流行的美德。同时，我们也在蒙骗企业，使他们认为韧性是可以买来的。只要这个计划是“全面的”、“量身打造的”，一名CEO就能从一个脆弱的人变成一位超级英雄。

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.

有一个更好的、效果更显著也更实惠的办法。与其试图帮现任CEO硬撑，不如转变一下工作分配。做CEO很烦的原因有四个。首先，人们觉得你大权在握，但其实不是。一切组织都存在运转障碍，即便你明白自己想干什么，也没法实际执行。其次，一切问题都得由你负责，即使跟你一点关系都没有。还有，当CEO真的很孤独。没人跟你说真心话，你也不能对别人掏心掏肺。最后，你要在地球上最压抑的两个地方度日——会议室和飞机上。

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.

缓解压力最好的办法就是分散责任。意思就是让其他高层一块操心——董事长、副手和其他三、四个重要人物。接着就是少干点活。CEO真得为了一个会议发言飞半个地球吗?通常都不是。大部分会都没必要开。

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——没有哪家企业能单独完成——就是改变对某一个人能力的预期。关于CEO有多重要，学者们已经辩论了70年，而大多数研究的结论都说他们并没有多重要。

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.

如果期望值低点儿，压力也会少些。而且，那些理应更胜任这一工作、友善又谦卑的人(而不是被体系逼成的自恋狂)也许会更有兴趣应聘这一职位。最近一项研究显示老板办公室出产的疯子跟监狱一样多。

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.

根据这种工作分配——分散职权，以及减少上《时代周刊》杂志(Time)封面的几率——或许会出现两个令人满意的结果，而在自由市场中两者从来难以同时实现。CEO应聘者的标准将会提高。而付给他们的薪酬反而会降低。