CEO絕對不能說出的幾個真相 The four lies a successful chief executive must always tell
About a year ago a friend landed a grand job running a medium-sized company. A few weeks in, I had lunch with him and he told me he was having a pretty grim time. Half his staff was mediocre, the culture was sleepy and, although he had come up with a plan to change things, he wasn’t at all sure it would work.
大約一年前，有位朋友找了一份非常棒的工作：管理一家中等規模的公司。幾周後，我倆共進午餐時，他告訴我，他現在感覺很糟糕。公司裏死氣沉沉，半數員工都不怎麼樣，儘管他想出了一個改革計劃，但一點都不確定是否會管用。
Last week we met again and I asked how it was going.
上週我們又見面了，我問他，現在情況怎麼樣？
Great! he said. It’s all good.
好極了！他說，一切順利。
I congratulated him on having whipped everything into shape so quickly. He gave me a funny look and said the only thing he had so far managed to whip into shape was himself. He had worked out that the first thing you have to do as a chief executive is to learn to lie. Or if not actually to lie, never to give voice to four basic truths.
我恭喜他這麼快就讓所有事情走上正軌。他帶着古怪的神情對我說，到目前爲止他唯一搞定的就是他自己。他已經發現了，作爲一名首席執行官，你不得不做的第一件事就是學會撒謊。如果確實不想撒謊的話，絕不能透露四條基本事實。
The first rule is never to admit to not enjoying the job. When you are in charge you cannot say that you are struggling or stressed or having any negative feelings about the work at all. Instead, you must insist that the job is stimulating and going well and that you are entirely in control.
第一條，絕不能承認你不喜歡自己的工作。身爲負責人，你絕不能說，你在苦苦掙扎、你壓力很大，不能說你對工作有任何負面情緒。相反，你必須堅稱，這份工作令你感到興奮，一切順利，你完全掌控着局面。
The second truth you are forbidden from uttering is that you don’t like or rate anyone at all in your organisation. “My chairman is an idiot,” is something often thought but which must never be uttered. Even less can you disparage anyone who works for you.
你不能說的第二個真相是你一點兒不喜歡或看不上公司裏的任何人。“董事長是個白癡”，這樣的想法即使經常在心裏冒出來，也絕不能說出口。你更不能輕視任何一個下屬。
Third, bad-mouthing your company is out of the question. You are responsible for it and for everyone who works there and you have to be chief cheerleader at all times, however unnatural that feels.
第三條，說公司壞話是不行的。你對公司和所有員工負責，你在任何時間都必須是拉拉隊隊長，即使你覺得不自然。
There was John Cryan last week laying it on with a trowel as he insisted that Deutsche Bank was “absolutely rock solid”. By the standards of bank chief executives Mr Cryan is a straight talker (he dared declare in November that his bonus didn’t make him work harder) but even he had to play the confidence game — banks are only ever rock solid when people believe them to be so.
約翰克賴恩(John Cryan)最近就說了大話，他堅稱德意志銀行(Deutsche Bank)“絕對穩如磐石”。以銀行CEO的標準來衡量，克賴恩是個直言不諱的人（去年11月他居然大膽地說，獎金並沒有讓他更賣力地工作），但就連他也必須玩信心遊戲——當人們認爲銀行穩如磐石的時候，銀行纔會真的穩如磐石。
There are only two times when it is possible to say something negative: when you can blame it on your predecessor (and then it’s open season) and when you have a plan up your sleeve for improving matters. Even then, though, such talk can be dangerous.
唯有在兩種情況下能說些不中聽的話：你可以將問題歸咎於前任的時候（然後就可以公開批評了），和你想出了一個改善局勢的好辦法的時候。不過，即便此時，這樣講話也可能是危險的。
When Stephen Elop likened Nokia to a burning platform, he spoke the truth, one that was needed to frighten employees into action, yet it was a disaster. Things continued to get worse until Nokia was finally bailed out by Microsoft, which bought its mobile phone unit.
當斯蒂芬埃洛普(Stephen Elop)把諾基亞(Nokia)比作一個“燃燒的平臺”(burning platform)時，他道出了實情，他需要這種恐慌促使員工們行動起來，可結果卻是一場災難。局面持續惡化，最後諾基亞被微軟(Microsoft)所拯救，把手機業務賣給了微軟。
The final thing my friend has learnt never to tell anyone is that he’s not sure. As chief executive, you cannot say: “We are making this takeover/ restructuring/slashing costs but I’m not entirely sure if it will work.” Instead, you have to present every initiative as a no-brainer.
我朋友學到的最後一條，是絕不能告訴任何人，自己不太有把握。作爲首席執行官，你不能說：“我們正在進行收購/結構重組/大力削減成本，但我不太有把握能做好。”相反，你在說起任何行動時，都必須表現出輕而易舉的樣子。
Not only is doubt over strategy forbidden but admissions of self doubt are ruled out too. Even though almost all chief executives privately admit to being riddled with it — and those that don’t are the ones we worry about — they must not ever say: “I’m not sure I’m up to this” for fear they will be taken at face value.
不僅不能對公司戰略表示出懷疑，而且也不能承認對自己感到懷疑。儘管幾乎所有首席執行官私下裏都會承認，經常感到懷疑——不是這個樣子的首席執行官，反倒讓人感到擔憂——但他們務必不能說出口：“我沒把握能否勝任”，以防別人真的信了他們的話。
Possibly these four forbidden truths can be confided to a sympathetic spouse in the dead of night but that is as far as it is wise to go.
這些不能說的真相，可以在夜深人靜時透露給跟你一條心的伴侶，但也最好僅限於此。
Any sign of non-enjoyment, or doubt, or lack of faith in the company or individuals is taken as tantamount to admitting that you are unfit for the job.
任何對公司或個人表現出的不高興、或懷疑、或缺乏信心，都會被認爲等同於承認你不適合做這份工作。
This is all pretty constraining, especially given how hard it is to be a chief executive and how often it ends in failure. With hindsight some former chief executives will in unguarded moments admit that the job was hellish but at the time there was only one thing for it: square their shoulders and lie.
這太令人拘束了，尤其是考慮到當一名CEO是多麼困難，而且最終失敗的情況又是多麼常見。回首往事之時，有些前CEO會在不留神時承認，這份工作讓人煩透了。但在任時，他能做的唯有一件事：擡頭挺胸，堅定地說謊。
According to my friend, the good thing about pretending to be having a great time is that it helps you convince yourself that you actually are; the bad thing is that it is thoroughly alienating. If you can’t tell your friends what you really feel, there isn’t much point in having friends.
我朋友表示，假裝過得很愉快的好處是，這可以有助於讓自己相信，你確實過得不錯；壞處是，這麼做會徹底讓你與別人疏遠。如果你不能把真實想法告訴朋友們，那麼交朋友就沒太大意義了。
As I headed back to work it occurred to me that his list was not complete. There is a further taboo and over this lunch he had comprehensively broken it.
在回公司的路上，我想到，他列出的清單並不完整。還有另外一條禁忌，在這次午餐時被他徹底打破了。
That fifth thing you can never say as a chief executive is: “My job means that I sometimes have to lie and pretend.”
作爲CEO絕不能說的第五件事是：“我的工作意味着，我有時不得不說謊和裝腔作勢。”
There is only one acceptable view of what it takes to be a great leader, which is that you have to be honest with yourself and others at all times.
關於一位偉大的領導者需要具備什麼素質，只有一條公認的標準：無論什麼時候，你都必須對自己和別人誠實。
This simply is not true. A chief executive can only afford to be honest up to a point. In fact, the scope for honesty is so curtailed that the job is quite unsuited to anyone who, like my friend, is too addicted to saying what they really think.
這絕非事實。CEO只能做到一定程度的誠實，他負擔不起百分百誠實的代價。事實上，鑑於CEO的可誠實程度是如此受限，這個崗位非常不適合那些愛講真實想法的人，比如我那位朋友。
