“Another thing I thought about when running a large organization is that the CEO is the person who drives the bus. When the bus driver is fickle, it sharpens the nerves of all passengers. It is important to be as clear as possible. You shouldn’t get up and ask me to go this way, and then ask me to go that way the next day.” – Adam Bryant –

When a leader is fickle, every passenger on the bus he drives gets on the nerves. That is why it is an important virtue for leaders to reduce ups and downs and focus.

There is one mistake that many leaders make in this regard. That is to say without much thought about one’s ‘interests’ to his staff. I’ve been like that too.
There are leaders who think of themselves as ‘shared’ with their employees, and distract themselves from the ideas they have written down in their personal notebooks. But this look of a leader confuses employees. Seeing a CEO commenting on a variety of ideas keeps employees from focusing on the plans they’re working on. “I’m doing this right now, and the CEO is more interested in other things. Should I do those things instead…”

Showing ‘ups and downs’ is also an aspect that leaders should avoid. It is important not to overreact no matter what happens, and to focus on the task at hand. Here’s a quote from Katherine Hayes, CEO of visual effects technology company ZenArts.

“Throughout four years of college, as an athlete, I learned that as an athlete you have to be focused on the present moment and not be distracted by things you did well before. The same goes for the fact that you are a little behind in the race. Focus on what just happened. You can’t get it right, because it’s already unavoidable, that’s not to say you shouldn’t pause and congratulate yourself, you need to keep your balance while focusing on the next step.
There is something to be learned from what athletes say. ‘Good job, we won. But what could have been done better? There’s a game next week.'”

As Carl Bass of Autodesk puts it, the CEO is ‘the person who drives the bus’. He should reduce ups and downs and show a focused look.