The case for CEO term limits. (2013)

“…how does a nation or company avoid the dangers of tone-deaf leaders? It’s as simple as making finite the time that leaders spend close to power’s flame. In other words: term limits.

Ian Mount, CNN Money Fortune
1 November 2013

It is a leadership truism that CEOs and presidents are arrogant psychopaths. Recent studies have found that half of US Presidents experienced some kind of mental illness, with many of them (and UK Prime Ministers) suffering from “Hubris syndrome.”

A certain grade of psychopathy can help a leader in the sense that he’s not always asking the same questions to keep the whole world happy.

The problem is that when such behavior reaches an excessive level, psychopathy leads to the kind of arrogance that defines fallen, once-great leaders, like the heads of banks who kept ill-thought policies in place — despite contrary evidence and advice — in the run up to the 2008 financial collapse.

So how does a nation or company avoid the dangers of tone-deaf leaders? It’s as simple as making finite the time that leaders spend close to power’s flame. In other words: term limits.

Read the full article here: The case for CEO term limits