ICEE Launches Honorary CEO Citation For Quality People Management

 

By Bruce Bolger
 

It takes courage to break the mold and adopt a new leadership paradigm. This new ISO 10018 Quality People Management citation is designed to honor CEOs with that courage. 

 

Given the extraordinary tolerance required of CEOs for every day problem-solving, negotiating, risk-taking, and meeting the daily unexpected challenges required by the job—and with the old model of the “imperial” CEO still considered acceptable—only about 20% of organizations at best have a CEO-led strategic or systematic plan to engage all stakeholders; i.e., customers, employees, distribution partners, vendors, communities, etc. 

 

Will the new generation of leaders change the paradigm? According to a study recently published in Fast Company, the answer is yes. The survey found that more than half of younger generation managers polled see future workforce planning as a ‘top priority’ for their departments, nearly three times more than their Baby Boomer counterparts. 

 

While the ISO 10018 certification is only one year old and the recipients of the honorary ISO 10018 CEO leadership designation are not ISO-certified, the CEOs selected will have demonstrated through publicly available documents confirmed by their extensive personal writings and/or interviews to have the necessary commitment to a strategic and systematic approach to engagement across the enterprise that will be necessary for organizations in the 21st century and for those that seek to obtain an actual ISO 10018 certification.

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“CEOs have access to great coaches, and yet nothing has changed in overall employee and customer satisfaction in decades," says Bruce Bolger, Co-founder of the International Center for Enterprise Engagement at TheICEE.org, the first certifier of ISO 10018 Quality People Management standards. “In the end, it’s not just about leadership styles or how CEOs treat people; it’s about having a strategic and systematic commitment to engaging the entire enterprise in the organization’s brand, values and goals. Clearly, what’s lacking is the same CEO-led strategic and systematic approach to addressing the needs of all stakeholders that helped transform Quality Management in the last century.”

 

According to ICEE Co-founder Dr. Ron McKinley: “What makes this designation unique is that it’s not just about the individual’s leadership skills, corporate social responsibility investments, or employee or customer engagement survey scores. It’s specifically about the CEO’s commitment to having a strategic and systematic approach to engaging all stakeholders consistent with ISO standards and guidelines.”

 

Adds Lee S. Webster, ICEE Co-founder: “We understand that any CEO or company we select will have its detractors. Any leadership role is no different than politics in that a certain percentage of people won’t like you, and also because any leader makes decisions or mistakes along the way that can hurt people. Every company will disappoint a certain percent of customers and employees. If perfection were the standard by which we measured people, there would be no leaders able to embrace this new approach to engagement across the enterprise.” 

 

Dr. McKinley stresses that this honorary citation does not constitute an ISO Quality People Management certification for the organization. ISO 10018 certification for an organization requires a formal audit to verify that the CEO has all the elements in place to address stakeholders in a systematic and measurable way similar to the way standards have helped improved quality management, safety, environmental products and numerous other products and services (see TheICEE.org). 

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The CEOs we are selecting deserve praise because they’re at the cutting edge of a new paradigm of leaders who will, in the words of Bill George, a Harvard Business School professor and former Medtronic CEO, ‘save capitalism,’” explains Bolger, Founder of the Enterprise Engagement Alliance, which administers the honorary CEO Citation for Quality People Management designation on behalf of  the ICEE. 

 

“Starting, turning around, or leading a company takes courage and fortitude and the ability to withstand considerable pressure coming from all sides of the organization almost every day,” Bolger continues. “Even the most well-meaning CEO must make tough decisions when it comes to launching a new product or service; turning around a business, facing major competitors, hiring or firing people, making decisions about customers, addressing shareholder pressures, legal or regulatory threats, safety problems, addressing financing or cash flow challenges, or myriad other issues. It takes a certain type of person to withstand that pressure, and one of those traits often involves the ability to compartmentalize that can oftentimes make a CEO appear aloof and uncaring.”  

 

Bolger concludes: “Many CEOs can be excused for so-called ‘imperial behavior’ because it’s a tough job in almost any circumstance and because that was the paradigm of their time, just as it was often tolerated to treat women in the workplace in a way that today is offensive. This new honorary CEO Citation is designed to recognize leaders who have the courage to pave a new way to success and who will, as Professor George says, ‘save capitalism.’” 

 

To Recommend a CEO for the Honorary ISO 10018 Citation, contact: 

 

Bruce Bolger

Enterprise Engagement Alliance

Bolger@TheEEA.org

914-591-7600, ext. 230