Bank of America's Beached Leadership

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan is a prime example of an interesting dynamic that has emerged in recent months that will amplify over the next year: the beached leader.What has happened to Moynihan (and countless other CEO’s) is this: He arrived at the helm of BOA at a time when the business was pretty close to being in Predictable Success:

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Unfortunately once the headwind of recession hit, it – as it always does – had the effect of pushing organizations down whichever side of the curve they were on. In BOA’s case, they were leaning to the right side of Predictable Success, so they got pushed by the economic climate into Treadmill.

Now here’s the problem: As I explain in my next book, “The Synergist: Leading Your Team to Predictable Success“, of these four guys (gender-free term) below, the Visionary, Operator, Processor and Synergist, one is ideally suited to running the business in Predictable Success, while another is right for the business in Treadmill:

Mr Moynihan, admirably suited to run BOA when in Predictable Success, is now stranded – beached by the recession, if you will – in the arid environment of a BOA in Treadmill. Hence articles like this.

Watch for many more CEOs struggling with the new environment they find themselves in over the next few months.

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About the Author

Les McKeown is the Founder and CEO of Predictable Success.

Les is the author of "Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization On the Growth Track - and Keeping It There". "The Synergist: How to Lead Your Team to Predictable Success", "Do Lead: Share Your Vision. Inspire Others. Achieve the Impossible" and most recently "Do Scale: A Roadmap to Building a Remarkable Company".