When a Visionary CEO Becomes a Risk Factor: How to Lead Through the Chaos
By Acadia Munari, Head of Marketing & Branding
In leadership, charisma is often mistaken for clarity. And brilliance at the whiteboard can sometimes mask blind spots in the boardroom.
The recent Harvard Business Review article, “When Your CEO’s Leadership Creates Chaos”, addresses a growing challenge we regularly encounter in our work with boards, investors, and executive teams: What happens when the person tasked with driving performance becomes the very thing stalling it?
At Nexus, we’ve helped companies on both sides of that question: those living with the consequences of a mismatched CEO, and those ready to prevent it from happening again. The path forward isn’t about personality change. It’s about structural clarity, cultural alignment, and leadership decisions grounded in evidence, not assumptions.
The CEO Alignment Gap: When Results Mask Risk
The HBR piece points to something critical: many CEOs who create organizational chaos still deliver on paper. And that’s what makes it tricky. Revenue climbs, investor sentiment holds, but inside the business? Engagement tanks. Innovation stalls. Key leaders leave. Strategic momentum slips.
We've seen this dynamic firsthand. In one client engagement, a high-performing investment firm had repeatedly experienced the same pattern across several operating companies:
Candidates presented impressively in interviews.
Their credentials were strong.
Initial board-level rapport was high.
But once in role, some of these leaders created drag instead of lift. They struggled to build trust. They bristled at feedback. They clashed with teams. Most critically, they failed to operate in the nuanced rhythm of the firm's culture and pace.
The issue wasn't intelligence or work ethic. The issue was fit. And the cost, financial, cultural, and operational, was steep.
Turning Executive Fit Into a Measurable Advantage
Many leadership teams rely on gut instinct or résumé credentials when making hiring decisions. But those tools alone aren’t enough, especially at the CEO level.
So, we asked one of our private equity partners a bold question: What if you could design a process that made fit visible before the offer was ever extended?
What followed was a comprehensive engagement that fundamentally changed how the firm hires and promotes portfolio leaders. This is what it looked like:
Step 1: Name the Pain
Our team began by sitting down with senior leaders—not for a workshop, but for a real conversation. We asked them to articulate, in plain language, the gap they felt but couldn’t fully define. It wasn’t about technical capability. It was about the friction leaders created (or didn’t) once they were in the chair.
Step 2: Source the Truth from Within
We interviewed a broad cross-section of internal stakeholders: investment partners, operators, and talent leaders who had seen what good looked like (and what didn’t). We didn’t rush to conclusions. We let the stories emerge.
Their feedback was striking: The difference between successful and unsuccessful leaders wasn’t their industry knowledge or education. It was how they communicated, made decisions, and partnered under pressure.
Step 3: Build a Thesis, Then Prove It
We translated those patterns into a hypothesis: a core set of competencies and behaviors that defined success in that specific organizational context. We selected validated tools, like the Hogan Assessment, to evaluate leadership style, derailers, and motivators. We paired that data with structured, story-driven interviews to capture the nuance behind the numbers.
Step 4: Test It with Real Leaders
We evaluated a sample of leaders who had demonstrably succeeded in the environment. Not a huge cohort, just enough for consensus. Each went through the full assessment process. And the results? Clear patterns emerged. Certain leadership traits consistently showed up among the most effective operators. Others, often seen in mis-hires, did not.
Step 5: Validate, Align, Operationalize
We brought those insights back to the decision-makers and asked a tough question: Does this feel true to your experience?
They didn’t rubber-stamp it. They pushed, challenged, and refined the model until it reflected not only the data but the lived reality of the business.
From Framework to Function: Making It Stick
We didn't stop at creating a competency model. We built a system around it.
Every future executive hire would be assessed against agreed-upon competencies.
Every interviewer would be trained in what to look for and how to interpret the evidence.
Scorecards were standardized. Debriefs were structured. Reports were simplified and integrated into investment memos.
And most importantly, internal promotions were measured the same way, eliminating the disconnect between how external and internal candidates were evaluated.
By the end of the engagement, the firm had a playbook to reduce costly mis-hires, improve succession planning, and make high-stakes talent decisions with greater clarity and consistency.
What This Means for Leadership Teams Today
If you’re reading this as a board member, private equity partner, or executive team leader, the HBR article likely hit close to home.
You may be dealing with:
A brilliant but divisive CEO
Rising turnover among direct reports
Slowed innovation despite strong top-line growth
Or simply that gnawing feeling: “Something isn’t working up there.”
What we want you to know is this: You’re not alone. And it’s solvable.
You don’t have to wait for another unsuccessful hire or another culture survey post-mortem to take action. The tools exist. The process works. But it requires willingness to go beyond credentials and charisma and instead ask:
Does this leader understand how to work here?
Will they earn trust in this environment?
Are they aligned to our goals and our way of working?
Fit Isn’t Soft, It’s Strategic
At Nexus, we don’t believe executive search should feel like a gamble. Leadership is too important. Mis-hires are too costly. Culture is too fragile.
We partner with organizations to close the gap between what looks good on paper and what actually performs in practice, and we equip those leaders with the tools and coaching they need to deliver long-term success.
If you’re building or rebuilding a leadership team and want a process that delivers more than résumés and referrals, we’re here to help.