Envision a single person who is called upon to be knowledgeable, wise, empathetic, a visionary, an implementor, a juggler and a larger-than-life inspiration to over 1,000 members of a single family for whom (s)he is the guardian and perpetuator of wealth creation. The person lives in a world where knowledge becomes stale by the hour and has the strongest competition imaginable. And, (s)he has an average of three years to 'achieve'.

Leading a business is a tough job in the best of circumstances. The year 2020 draws visions of an 'intellectual economy'-a far cry from the industrial age where hard assets were king and the key competitive differentiator. So, a myriad questions arise. How will the role of the CEO evolve as we look ahead? What can CEOs do now to lead their companies into the future with confidence? How should they start to evolve and prepare themselves and their organisations as we move forward? And should their behaviour be primarily that of a master or a coach or something entirely different?

There is no right answer. Only perspectives. I'd like to start with one which could win general acceptance; it is easy to visualise the things that may remain the same. The CEO will still have the ultimate responsibility of being the steward of corporate assets and being ultimately responsible for its performance. What is likely to change: ever- increasing demands on time, speed of change in the business environment, data/information overload and increasing globalisation of business. All this could make even a superhuman CEO feel that there's no way to win consistently and in perpetuity. Perhaps the CEO should consider drawing upon true and tried ways to manage now and prepare for the future. The CEO should lead in a way that maximises the organisation's performance as it exists today, while being flexible and adaptive, equipped with the vision to build an organisation team that will succeed in the unchartered waters of tomorrow. It is about enabling the right mindset.

Maximising an organisation's performance requires that the CEO delivers on the following:

1. Articulating a vivid and overarching goal for the organisation. This is critical so as to help drive daily behaviour and choices among competing alternatives. The vision and priorities are lean and compelling, not cluttered and buzzword-laden, so that decisions are crisp and clear, not tentative and ambiguous. The CEO must convey an unwavering firmness and consistency in actions, aligned with the picture of the future they paint. The result: clarity of purpose, credibility of leadership and integrity in organisation.

2. Being focussed, setting the priorities and taking risks. Too often have I seen an overload of initiatives and inability to discern what is important. Often companies fail due to an overload of initiatives and flitting from fad to fad. This creates team confusion, reduces the organisation's credibility and ability, and drains coffers. A CEO must set the organisation's priorities and be prepared to make choices and take risks. Sometimes speed to market is more important than total quality. Sometimes an unapologetic CEO directive is more appropriate than participatory discussion. Some situations require the CEO to hover closely; others require long, loose leashes. Successful CEOs honour their core values, but are flexible in how they execute them. They understand that management techniques are not magic mantras, but simply tools to be reached for at the right times.

3. Understanding that people are the key. Successful CEOs recognise that while we all need organisation structures, plans-short- and long-term-in the end an organisation alone doesn't really accomplish anything, nor do plans accomplish anything. Theories of management don't matter much. Endeavours succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the 'best' people in tune with organisational needs and culture will you accomplish great deeds.

4. Understanding that being a CEO means that the buck stops here. You may encourage participative management and bottom-up employee involvement. Ultimately, the essence of leadership is the willingness to make the tough, unambiguous choices that will have an impact on the fate of the organisation. We've seen too many non-leaders flinch from this responsibility. Even as you create an informal, open and collaborative corporate culture, prepare to be lonely and decisive. Make the hard decisions even if you are wrong sometimes. Be credible. Be human.

5. Responsibility to the stakeholders. Some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. This is inevitable if you're honourable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity: you'll avoid the tough decisions, you'll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted and you'll avoid offering differential rewards based on differential performance because some people might get upset. Ironically, by procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying not to get anyone 'hurt' and by treating everyone equally 'nicely' regardless of their contributions, you'll simply ensure that the only people you'll wind up angering are the most creative and productive people in the organisation.

6. Execution is the key. All the great ideas and visions in the world are worthless if they cannot be implemented rapidly and efficiently. Good CEOs delegate and empower others liberally, but they pay attention to details, every day. (Think about supreme athletic coaches like Jimmy Johnson, Pat Riley and Tony La Russa). Bad ones, even those who fancy themselves as progressive 'visionaries', think they're somehow 'above' operational details. Paradoxically, good CEOs understand something else: an obsessive routine in carrying out the details begets conformity and complacency, which in turn dulls everyone's mind. That is why even as they pay attention to details, they continually encourage people to challenge the process.

Then, how can a CEO accomplish all of these? More master, less coach, or vice versa, or neither, or both and lots more? What processes can be set up so that the CEO has adequate information to execute these key tasks?

If we examine how CEOs work, it is easy to reach the conclusion that the CEO is a conductor. Purposefully communicating with, as opposed to talking at, the people in the organisation. By listening strategically to their feedback, the CEO listens to both content and context of conversations. While team members will most often report their input from their functional or business perspectives, the leader must be listening from the perspective as the steward of the overall business vision and model-processing their input and how they align with the vision and priorities of the organisation. In a world where ambiguity, speed of decision-making and first mover advantage are key, increasingly a CEO cannot not only have the capacity to be a master of many varied topics and, therefore, must lead in a way that draws others into the process as thought partners, rather than dependants.

It is thus imperative that the dialogue between the CEO and the team encourages and accomplishes the following:

• Encourages and inspires individuals to be owners and executors of the vision;

• Facilitates individual and collective successes and identifies where hurdles exist that need to be addressed;

• Helps gather intelligence from various sources to run the business successfully and make decisive decisions when needed;

• Develop in the organisation cohesiveness around one common, compelling purpose-the holistic prosperity of Family Inc.; and

• Plant seeds in the minds of the people on new ideas, directions that a CEO may contemplate, before they are actually rolled out.

Only through understanding, clarification and delegation can a CEO be a thought partner with his people. This avoids the feeling of sole responsibility for the organisation's success and encourages all to a sense of shared responsibility. The CEO trains himself to not only listen, but also observe the non-verbal reactions of his team, noting different reactions to various comments and ideas. The CEO also helps the process by clarifying the discussion, keeping it focussed and rigorous. Through this dialogue, the CEO can begin to understand the limits of his or her team and avoid overwhelming them. By doing so, the CEO creates the best opportunity to be understood.

These conversations also provide rich opportunities for mentoring. Points can be made, agendas set and information shared. By listening to the content of specific conversations, while thinking from the broader business context, the CEO can shape the feedback in a way that better aligns his team's actions with the goals and values of the enterprise. During these conversations, the CEO assesses the gaps or deficits in the team's collective knowledge.

• What are the things that no one seems to understand deeply enough to fulfil the organisation's collective mission?
• Where are the gaps in their collective expertise?

Through dialogue and thoughtful responses, the CEO can introduce and model changes in the way the team will think about the work going forward. It is vitally important for the CEO to catch and correct his or her own invalid assumptions. It is critical to be open to hearing ideas that may change his or her perspective as well. It will not be the first time that a CEO has learned something about his or her organisation that was new and enlightening. It is also the responsibility of a thought partner to equally examine that which he or she is asking others to examine.

Master or coach? I firmly believe that effective CEOs will start to model and adapt their behaviour to be much, much more than either. And the very mix of attributes will be unique to each firm

This approach reduces the isolation of the CEO, sharing the sense of ownership for the decisions made in business. It also provides a business posture for strengthening the bonds between and among people in the company. It positions leaders to be thought partners rather than pretending that they alone have the answers. Finally, it minimises the need for you to rely on personal power to influence people at work. The role of a leader as coach places you in a position to be the best steward of your company's human assets.

Finally, and critically, the CEO must build trust and credibility. The contemporary business organisation's fundamental reason for existence is the pursuit of value creation. This needs to be appreciated holistically. And, so the corporate finds it being eased into actively playing a critical role in enhancing social good and being held increasingly accountable for its actions. Today, the CEO has an enhanced role in issues beyond delivering greater shareholder value-to think through the role of their respective organisations in a larger, more vibrant and immediate socio-economic, socio-political and socio-cultural universe.

So, master or coach? I firmly believe that effective CEOs will start to model and adapt their behaviour to be much, much more than either. And the very mix of attributes will be unique to each organisation.

To end with a thought provocateur-all business is human. As wealth becomes more widespread, the employee will look beyond cash. And as people have more leisure, consumers will look at 'other' concerns-ethics, environmental issues, social returns of an organisation. And these could just make the difference. Management fads have no place here. Does the future CEO?