The CEO Paradox: Why Your Expertise Might Be Your Greatest Bottleneck
In the corner offices of the world’s most successful firms, a quiet crisis is brewing. According to the PwC 2026 Global CEO Survey, executive confidence in revenue growth has plummeted to a five-year low, with only 30% of leaders feeling highly confident about the year ahead.
Why? Because the rules of 21st-century leadership have fundamentally shifted, and many executives are still playing by a 20th-century playbook.
At Ian Baker Executive Coaching, I help leaders navigate these shifts. Drawing on the latest global research, here are the three critical "traps" currently holding leaders back and how we can break through them.
1. The Tenure Trap: Trading the "Telescope" for a "Microscope"
A startling data point from the sources reveals that CEOs now spend 47% of their time focused on issues with a horizon of less than one year. Only 16% of their schedule is dedicated to decisions looking five years ahead.
This is the "Tenure Trap." When leaders expect to stay in their roles for five years or less, they often neglect the long-term reinvention necessary for survival. The sources suggest that those who adopt a longer term perspective acting as if they will lead for a decade, are more likely to make the bold moves required for such strategies as AI integration and business model evolution.
Stop waiting for perfect clarity before making a move. Most leaders don't need more information; they are waiting for certainty, which is a trap.
Try: Use the 70% Rule. In your next strategic meeting, if you have enough information to be 70% confident, make the decision and immediately set a "review point". The review point is what makes the decision safe, allowing you to move with traction rather than waiting for 100% alignment.
2. The Heart vs. The Nervous System
Many founders and CEOs feel they must be the "heart" of the organization: the central pump through which every decision flows. But in a complex world, "heart leadership" creates organisational and the illusion of control while real decisions happen through informal "shadow systems" you cannot see. When every significant decision escalates upward, the leader becomes a bottleneck, and talented teams stop thinking and start waiting.
The sources point to a superior model: the "Nervous System." Companies like Spotify, Netflix, and Haier have succeeded by distributing authority to the "edges" where information is richest. At Haier, this shift resulted in decision-making cycles becoming 67% faster. My coaching focus is on helping you transition from controlling every beat to setting the context that empowers your team to sense and respond independently.
Try: Implement the Three-Question "Decision Close." Never end a meeting as a "discussion club". Before anyone leaves the room, explicitly ask:
What did we decide?
What did we not decide?
Who owns the next steps, and by when?.
This shifts you from a "heart" that approves to a "nervous system" that coordinates.
3. The Specialized Trap: The Breadth and AI Savviness Gap
Traditional career systems reward early specialisation, but this career funnel limits your adaptability. Today, there is a "Breadth Premium"; firms led by CEOs with a broader range of experiences and skills outperform their industry peers by an average of 9.8 percentage points. This is especially urgent regarding AI; currently, only 44% of CIOs are deemed "AI-savvy" by their CEOs.
Deep expertise in one niche creates a savviness gap that makes your business model unfit for the AI era.
Try: Practice "Infill Synthesis." When faced with a complex problem, intentionally look for an analogy in a completely different industry (e.g., how a hospital manages flow vs. how your factory manages logistics). This builds adaptive capital, the ability to extract common relational structures from dissimilar cases to solve novel problems.
How Ian Baker Executive Coaching Can Help
Bridging these gaps requires more than just training, it requires a behavioural transformation. I partner with leaders to:
• Stretch the Horizon: Audit your schedule to shift focus from the urgent to the essential.
• Build a "Leadership Factory": By 2025, one in ten managers will be Gen Z. I help you build mentorship and coaching pathways that turn your organisation into a talent incubator.
• Measure Real ROI: Using frameworks like the Phillips ROI Model, we move beyond qualitative feel-good metrics to measure the tangible impact of leadership on productivity, retention, and revenue.
The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed. Are you ready to lead it?
🔗 [Book a discovery call today] to learn how we can bridge your viability gap and build your 21st-century leadership factory.
*Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are based on publicly available information and are intended for general commentary only. They do not constitute legal advice or a definitive account of any individual or organisation's actions.
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