This exercise is a companion to the material in The FIVE TEMPTATIONS of a CEO book (See summary in Resource Centre). CEOs/Leaders may fall prey to choosing...(1) Status over Results; (2) Popularity over Accountability; (3) Certainty over Clarity; Harmony over Conflict and (5) Invulnerability over Trust.

Take a few minutes, without interruptions, in a quiet place and reflect on the questions below. Be honest with yourself and whatever you conclude, act on it, it can make a very big difference. Challenge your direct reports to go through the same readings and exercise. I have facilitated this with many groups and it always leads to increased performance of the CEO/executive team.

Your personal temptation:

•  Which of these temptations am I most vulnerable to?

•  What are two or three recent situations where I succumbed to this temptation?

•  How did my behavior in this area impact the organization?

•  How did my behavior in this area impact my effectiveness as CEO/Leader?

•  How could have I acted differently to have a more positive impact

   on the organization?

•  What do I need to do to avoid falling prey to this temptation?

Weakest Link:

•  In the chain of trust-conflict-clarity-accountability-results, in which link is our

   organization the weakest? Why?

•  How do I personally contribute to making that link weak?

•  What could I do differently to strengthen the link?

•  What could we do differently as an organization to strengthen the link?