CEOs in the GCC are affirming their commitment to the “dual journey” of transforming themselves and their organisations, a task many are tackling with energy and devotion.
This journey can help CEOs build a strong community of mutual thriving. That matters: in the UAE for example, some chief executives are currently in a lonely place. Unlike their worldwide counterparts, a number of UAE-based CEOs say they do not have a closely aligned executive team, a strongly supportive board, or close confidantes to rely on. That makes it all the harder for them to navigate an environment that they describe as dynamic and challenging.
In Saudi Arabia, many CEOs face challenges around developing local talent in an already complex business environment – namely, a nationwide imperative to embrace economic transformation and diversification.
Egon Zehnder’s recent worldwide study of nearly 1,000 CEOs, and I will focus on findings from the UAE and KSA. It also includes my own reflections about Gulf CEOs’ approach to leadership, drawn from the firm’s years of deep engagement in the GCC.
UAE-based CEOs: Leaders seeking confidantes
Across a range of industries and organisations, UAE-based CEOs are in near total accord that, in recent years, the CEO has moved into the centre of louder, more diverse and diverging voices.
In today’s environment, as one UAE CEO puts it, “Remaining dynamic and agile is crucial. What worked for many years cannot be applied anymore.”
While CEOs across the globe and in the GCC continue to give top priority to financial metrics in their decision-making, they are also expected to embrace a range of other topics, ranging from growth, innovation and talent, to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues.
The challenges of adaptation are profound. As one CEO says, “The ability of the organisation’s inner circles to accept change, the speed at which it’s done, the degree of willingness to question methods, cultural environments, legacy situations, unsuitable structures – these are obstacles that you have to manage, sometimes fight, while you are facing tremendous external risk factors”.
In these circumstances, what support do CEOs receive in their decision-making?
The stark answer is that many in the GCC tend to feel that they are fundamentally alone – more than their global peers. When asked whom they turn to for honest feedback, for example, three in five UAE-based CEOs say: “You have to rely on your own judgment.” This is nearly 25 percentage points higher than the worldwide figure.
Despite having to rely on their own judgment, however, many leaders are not content with their degree of executive solitude. As one UAE-based CEO puts it, chief executives “are doomed to fail when perceived as lone wolves”.
As for their relations with other senior people, just one in five UAE-based CEOs say they are “fully aligned with their executive team”; the same proportion are fully aligned with their boards of directors. These figures are half the global average.
While UAE-based CEOs do seek feedback from figures such as the chairperson of their board, independent board directors, and – most frequently – members of their senior executive team, they are less inclined to do so than their global peers.
Saudi-based CEOs: Stronger networks to tackle challenges
According to one KSA-based CEO, this is an era of “more pressure”. There are significant expectations on CEOs in Saudi to play their part in a nationwide drive to transform and diversify the national economy. As a Saudi chief executive puts it, when affirming the importance of close ties and solidarity: “We’re all in this together”.
For one Saudi-based CEO, the greatest opportunity over the past year has been “building trust with the leadership team”. Given KSA CEOs’ attention to maintaining strong teams and networks, it is noteworthy that Saudi respondents to Egon Zehnder’s recent worldwide study identify talent management as a “high priority” among the drivers of their decisions, comparable in importance with financial performance.
Succession processes and board relations
To recognise the importance of close relations, it is not to say that CEOs in the GCC need to learn the fundamentals of their job from others. In the UAE, for example, more than a third of surveyed CEOs were previously chief executives. But however experienced CEOs may be, a new role, sometimes within a new environment, calls for collaboration, mentorship, and other relationships of support and learning.
A strong succession process also helps CEOs find their feet. Yet, while CEOs in KSA are far more likely to regard their succession process as “good” than to criticise it, most surveyed CEOs in the UAE are not quite satisfied: fewer than a quarter rate as good the succession process, by contrast to most of their global peers.
In Egon Zehnder’s experience, many factors might help explain uneasy relations with boards and poor succession processes. A board might take on a CEO with an impressive prior chief executive record, and expect the new leader to take up the reins without substantial support. As a result, the succession process may be minimal, and the board under-engaged.
While some CEOs enjoy strong board relations, others experience their board as having “rigid expectations” that do not fit well with the agile, dynamic and collaborative approach of the new business environment.
One CEO in KSA contrasts the board’s traditional approach with recent influences on the organisation, including “stakeholder activism, changing attitudes of bright younger talent, digitalisation, and democratisation of knowledge and information that makes everyone think they are subject matter experts”. The chief executive adds that “a board dominated by more traditionally minded folk makes it challenging for the CEO to navigate stormy waters on an even keel, and keep moving forward.”
The 4 Cs: Credible, caring, curious and courageous
As farsighted businesspeople, many CEOs in the GCC are not content to be lonely and isolated. Like their worldwide counterparts, they are committed to the “dual journey” of transformation, working to change their organisations as they attempt to change themselves, and doing so in a way that is relational, adaptive, and self-aware.
Such attributes, as one UAE-based CEO puts it, when offering a range of personal strengths, include the “ability to forge relationships that go beyond what one needs from the other person, and the ability to deeply listen and ensure diverse views are considered”.
For CEOs in the Gulf region, the pandemic has brought not only crisis but opportunities. For instance, one UAE-based CEO points out major and lasting gains in productivity and efficiency. More broadly, the change has stimulated profound reflection, and fresh commitment to solidarity and mutual thriving.
According to a prominent CEO in the UAE, the greatest benefit over the past 12 months has been the “renewed importance of communicating purpose to yourself and colleagues”. The same CEO emphasises “the importance of the community winning – which ensures you are successful as well”.
As for reaching out to others, some CEOs regard their tendency towards isolation as a personal flaw (“I refuse to receive help”, says one CEO in the UAE, when asked to name an Achilles’ heel). Other CEOs are nurturing relational capacities as their greatest asset: “Credible, caring, curious and courageous” is the list of strengths (4 Cs) given by one chief executive in the Emirates, in addition to being “honest and engaged.” A Saudi-based CEO talks about “empathy, interest, fairness and inclusion.”
In short, many surveyed CEOs in the GCC are working towards being part of a richly varied community – one of shared experiences, expertise, ideas and resources. They know that the old model of the lonesome CEO is no longer working well, and adapting to a rapidly changing world calls for multi-faceted contributions from confidantes and a close community.
As leaders who are solution-oriented – to use one CEO’s self-description – chief executives in the GCC are “pragmatically taking on ways to advance the transformative journey.”
“Knowing how your business works might not be sufficient anymore,” as one of the UAE-based CEO respondents puts the challenge. “Predicting how the business could work in the future – that might be a stronger skill.”
As CEOs in the GCC look to the future, Egon Zehnder looks forward to joining them in further conversations on leadership.