Inside the Fortune 500 CEO pressure cooker: Surviving harder than ever and requires an ‘odd combination’

Thompson, president of the CEO Alliance and previously named the world’s top CEO coach, and Loughlin, global head of board consulting at Nasdaq, have joined forces to provide a comprehensive view of this leadership moment, from the perspectives of CEOs and the board, respectively. In a wide-ranging dialogue with luckThey talked about Shakespeare’s themes of leadership, turmoil, and feeling like “the head that wears the crown is heavy.”

For those who aspire to reach the top, Thompson shared the conventional wisdom he learned from his mentor, Marshall Goldsmith: “Whatever got you here, gets you halfway.” (Goldsmith had a New York Times bestseller in 2007 with What got you here won’t get you there.)

Thompson argues that going from being a high-performing CEO on a “swim route” to having the “slot of owning an entire organization” requires a great deal of new learning and skill development, because no matter how good you are as a CEO or how prepared you are, the existential stakes are high. said Thompson, who recently wrote an article on the topic of CEO “decapitation.” luck.

Adding to this pressure is the dramatic shift in board members’ expectations, Thompson and Loughlin added. Board members, who may once have been “golf buddies,” are now “under pressure to perform.” They are “less patient” and are expected to “actually deliver” based on their subject matter expertise.

This environment requires that almost every candidate be prepared to serve as a “peacetime and wartime CEO,” Thompson says, able to reap the best aspects of the company’s culture while also being “a disruptor and an innovator to break new ground.” An executive promoted from a functional role, such as a CFO, may possess “the heft of street and stakeholder understanding,” but often lacks the breadth needed to “light up the hearts and minds” across the workforce, or “connect with customers.”

Zodiac unit and “relationships”

luck Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., tracked this vulnerable moment for leaders throughout 2025. Major staffing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that 1,235 CEOs left (or lost) their jobs during the first half of 2025, a staggering 12% increase from 2024 and the highest total yet since Challenger began tracking CEO turnover in 2002.

Likewise, Jim Rossman, global head of shareholder advisory at Barclays, who has been closely tracking shareholder activism for decades, found a record high in activist turnover at the top for 2025. “What the activists seem to have done is basically… [to hold] “Public companies fit the criteria of private equity,” Rossman said. luck In a previous interview, they came to view the CEO “as an operator, not someone who moves up the ranks.” In other words: results matter.

The intense environment contributes to feelings of isolation. As CEOs often note, being president is a lonely job as leaders find themselves stuck in the middle, with information they can’t share with reports but must share with the board, leading to significant information asymmetries, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella previously told McKinsey.

Carolyn Dewar, co-leader and founder of McKinsey’s CEO practice, previously said: luck That “no one else in your organization or above you, such as your board or investors, sees all the parts that you see.” She called on leaders to surround themselves with trusted advisors, or something like a “kitchen cupboard.”

Likewise, Loughlin said luck He is fond of the concept of “relationship science,” which he describes as “a kind of study of relationships.” He suggested that leaders develop “a set of intimate relationships” that are “highly contextually relevant.” A leader’s effectiveness hinges on his or her fluency, for example, when talking to the CFO about analyst days, working with the compliance team to keep the business safe, or communicating authentically with union executives. Loughlin said he often finds it a “big surprise” to great leaders that they have, for example, seven different groups they need to participate in and perhaps as many as six new skills to embody before they’re ready to take a project to the next level.

This need for deep, context-aware connection also applies to personal life, Loughlin added. The idea that personal lives and professional lives can be completely separate “undermines leadership and undermines the fabric of the company.” Most importantly, a board chair must know his or her CEO “at a deep, Shakespearean level,” which requires transparency that ensures proper accountability, Loughlin said. After all, Loughlin noted as one example, boards should be mindful that a personal relationship that violates company policy could jeopardize corporate governance at the drop of a hat. The board really needs to know who their CEO is, perhaps better than the CEO himself knows.

Power, privilege, arrogance and humility

Lovelin who admitted it luck He is somewhat obsessed with Shakespeare, and noted that the difference between tragedy and comedy is determined by the protagonist’s “vulnerability and self-consciousness,” and the tragic outcome results from a feeling he likens to “not realizing whether you need to grow or change.”

Thompson added that surviving as a CEO requires a “strange combination” of traits you might read in a Greek tragedy: arrogance and humility.

A CEO must possess the arrogance, or extreme pride, to believe he can be the best in his field, but also the deep humility to acknowledge that he cannot do it alone.

The professional mandate is relentless, Thompson added, citing a key interview for the book by Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon: If you’re “the same person you were a year ago, you don’t deserve a promotion.” Thompson said he thinks of arrogance when you’re on the “edge of your competence, so instead of stepping back, you should actually lean into it” to gain the skills and help you need to continue growing as a professional.

For senior leaders, the top job is not a prize to be won, but “a privilege to have that role,” Thompson said. He added that just as Olympic athletes must constantly improve, leaders must realize that breaking a record only leads to more competition.

Loughlin urged boards and executives alike to go above and beyond The Wolf of Wall Street mindset and “what it means to truly care, build trust, and foster appropriate accountability.” For many executives, admitting that you have areas you need to improve and getting better at is a “particular weakness,” he said. He said boards need more sincere interpersonal affection — sometimes the tough-love variety — necessary to prevent a truly Shakespearean tragedy from unfolding before them.

Loughlin said he had just had breakfast with a board director of a $30 billion company, and the topic of love came up: “Do you like your management team?” The manager said yes, sure, almost like relatives. After all, they have been with the company for more than a decade and have deep relationships with other managers and their executives. Loughlin said that over decades of advising boards on corporate governance, he wished more people would adopt that kind of stance.

“I don’t think this will hurt anything in business because a good father has to talk to his troubled son and hopefully guide him when [the son is] And he gets himself into trouble.” “After all, bad things happen, and I think some of these metaphors are important,” Loughlin continued. In other words, it shouldn’t be The Wolf of Wall StreetBut the wolf – or activist – is always at the door.