Russell Reynolds Associates

A more rigorous approach, employed by Nitin Nooria and Michael Porter of Harvard Business School for their groundbreaking study on CEO time published in 2018, had executive assistants code their bosses' time in 15-minute increments, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

We gathered responses from Constantine Alexandrakis and Russell Reynolds Associates, RRA, Kelly Cook of David's Bridal, Mary Ellen Coyne of J. Jill, Vimal Kapoor of Honeywell Technologies, Raj Mehra of Sage, Brianne Olson of Paxon, Tyler Perry of Mission North, Rene Saul of Capital, and Job van der Voort of Remote.

Here's what we learned.

Leaders get lots of love.

Five big firms control the executive recruiting industry.

Spencer Stewart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds Associates, Egon Zender, and Korn Ferry.

They go by the acronym SHREK, spelled like the green ogre from the DreamWorks movies.

Ha's firm, Heidrick & Struggles, is the H. They've worked on some of the biggest CEO placements in the corporate world.

It's Clarke Murphy.

I'm a leadership advisor with Russell Reynolds Associates and very excited to be live in the studio in New York City.

And something unusual for us, we'll have two podcasts from this recording, double the insights, double the humor, and a really, really exciting guest.

Before we get started, just a quick reminder that all of our episodes are on YouTube.

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For our audio listeners, wherever you get your podcasts, we look forward to your questions and any thoughts you have.

In my role at Russell Reynolds Associates, I have the gift of interviewing amazing leaders.

Those who give us the lessons of leadership from what they have learned, from being governors today and how boards are reacting to this world of change and technology and transformation, and those who have the lessons of transformation to create change successfully with performance and profits.

It happens when leaders create the conditions for others to contribute their ideas, challenge assumptions, and share responsibility for moving an organization forward.

Constantine Alexandrakis is the CEO of Russell Reynolds Associates and the author of The Catalyst CEO.

Throughout his career, he has worked closely with many of the world's largest organizations, giving him a front row seat to how CEOs are chosen, how executive teams function, and why some organizations successfully transform while others struggle.

Drawing on research involving more than a thousand senior leaders around the world, he argues that the era of the hero leader is giving way to something very different.

So I am not introducing a Greek ideal that we should aspire to it, but it really does exist in many, many leaders around the world who care deeply about their customers, about their employees, about their purpose as an organization, and work 24-7 in order to advance that for all those stakeholders and for their communities and philotimo is the personification of a sense as you said of generosity of giving of helping others advance what they need to advance it's a cultural spirit in the greek culture but it's also a cultural attribute of many leaders

Is it binary for you in terms of who you introduce to boards for consideration? Are you looking for this specifically in people? Because it's beautiful.

This is not in the sort of Russell Reynolds Associates competency model, but it is many times something that our clients refer to.

They may not use the word philotimore.

It's called The Catalyst CEO: Why CEOs Can't Lead Transformation Alone—And What the Best Do Instead, and I can't wait to read it.

And joining Constantine are Sean Dineen and David Mills, two of our leadership advisors at Russell Reynolds Associates who have deep experience advising CEOs through the complex work of business transformation.

But before we dive in, remember to share any burning questions you want our experts to answer by emailing redefineus@russellreynolds.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

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