Tom Adams, the chief executive officer of Rosetta Stone, the language software business, says he never blows up about big stuff, like aligning the objectives of an entire board of directors. Smaller things get to him more. He remembers being furious when a long-term employee was let go without his OK.
Douglas McKenna isn't surprised. With his background in psychology and leadership development, he coaches executives in dealing with stress and anger.
One of the first things McKenna does is try to find a pattern to the anger. CEOs don't generally walk around in a rage all day. Something has to trigger it, maybe a particular concern, person or even time of day. He worked with one CEO who got up early every day and became prone to outbursts at around 11:30 a.m., when she started getting hungry for lunch.
Such patterns are common, he says, but sometimes the job is just too much. "There's a theme in anger," he explains. "We get angry when we're thwarted. CEOs have a thousand opportunities every day to see their goals get blocked."
Chief executives may be more resistant to stress than the rest of us, but their personalities and environments often exacerbate hostility. They tend to be Type A personalities and very impatient, says Nathan Bowling, an industrial and organizational psychologist who studies job attitudes and performance and the role of personality in the workplace. They're goal-oriented go-getters who want things done now. All these traits tend to lead to frustration. "It makes sense that a fair number of CEOs have anger issues," Bowling says.
Not that they care to discuss it. Almost every CEO we asked about anger for this article refused to comment.
Does the boss's anger do more good or harm? In general, it's a tradeoff that depends a lot on how that anger is expressed. Robert Hogan has studied what he calls "derailed managers," looking at their personalities and performance, since the 1960s. When a manager throws a tantrum, he says, there is almost always a short-term, immediate benefit. Someone runs off and gets what you wanted, or makes a promise they can't necessarily keep to appease you.
The problem is longer term. Alienating and stressing out workers by yelling at them kills team-building. Regular outbursts tend to harm the culture of the company as well. Managers who get yelled at yell at the people they blame for getting them yelled at.
McKenna warns that even in the short term, the benefits of outbursts are dubious. There are four general responses to displays of anger: fighting, fleeing, appeasing and sabotage. Only the appeasement response actually provides even a brief benefit, and that's often outweighed by the additional stress, shoddy workmanship or thoughtless action that follows.
Bowling adds that handled right, anger itself isn't bad for CEOs. "Everyone gets angry. What you don't want is someone who lashes out," he says. "If you're never upset, though, some people will think you don't care. It can even be politically unwise to always be cool." He even says some employees respond very well to anger.
McKenna has seen bursts of anger have a wide range of effects. Some that he calls "laser-guided missiles" do get the job done and done well. More just show the CEO losing his composure. Showing a deficit in balance and flexibility does no good at all.
McKenna says the key is to maintain your anger and composure at the same time. In fact, some CEOs are successful partly because they've mastered this very ability. They can intimidate without being unprofessional.
How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb? One, but the light bulb has to want to change. CEOs who throw tantrums have to acknowledge that they need to change before they can do so. Many explosive CEOs may admit to having a short fuse, but even so don't think they need to change.
What do you say to the boss who can't keep cool? Hogan says the best way to frame it is: "If you keep doing this, you're going to fail." Many anger-ridden CEOs do what they do because they believe it will bring results. Realizing they are damaging themselves and their companies in the long term must be the first step down the road to redemption.
President Barack Obama is the absolute antithesis of all this, according to Hogan. "No one has ever heard him yell." So far, it appears to be serving him well.
Angry CEOs: It's time to channel your inner No-Drama Obama.
