Dear BNET reader,

Forget the public view of CEOs. BNET's exclusive new survey of top managers and execs pinpoints how business insiders today assess what the top boss is doing right and wrong.

BNET's CEO Report Card

Survey Summary: How Managers and Execs Rate Their CEOs
Chief execs aren't all the overpaid louts they are made out to be. Here's how their toughest critics -- their top managers -- rate CEO performance.

Part 1: Lacking the Human Touch
When given a list of a dozen words to describe their CEO, only one in five employees picked "caring" or "warm" -- words that were picked twice as often by the CEOs asked to describe their own attributes.

Part 2: Low Marks for Managing Innovation
Perhaps the most disturbing CEO "blind spot": Only a third of employees thought that good ideas found their way up through the organization to the CEO. Remarkably, the vast majority of CEOs thought their organizations were doing well in this regard.

Part 3: Understanding the Generation Gap
The lukewarm evaluations of CEOs also may point to a generation gap between typically baby boomer-era upper management and Gen X- and Gen Y-age employees and managers. Several experts pointed out that younger employees expect a more nurturing, less autocratic style of leadership.

Audio/Video

In Praise of Middle Management
Who needs CEOs? Not Vince Thompson. While he says they are valuable in raising money and getting a company started, middle management is where the real action is. In this video, Thompson tells you how you can revolutionize your company from the middle out.

Awaken Your Inner Jack Welch
The most successful top-level executives were not necessarily the smartest kids in the class. In this podcast, we talk to leadership coach Stephen Baum about the five traits that enable ordinary people to become extraordinary leaders, such as former General Electric CEO Jack Welch.

Management

Almost Ready: How Leaders Move Up
Aspiring CEOs must understand and master the unique skills required for success at the top. Those skills -- including understanding the current chief's leadership style and managing political nuances without appearing "political" -- are very different from the ones that got them into the number-two spot.

How I Got Here: Boss-Management Tips from the Pros
Those who have made it to the top of the corporate ladder know that getting there requires good boss managment. To learn the secret wisdom of this ancient practice, we interviewed five top executives about what strategies they used with their own bosses when they were on the way up.

Management Secrets of Idea-Friendly Companies
New ideas are the lifeblood of many industries, yet dropping everything to pursue any faint glimmer of genius is no way to run a business. How do smart companies balance the two? By setting up standard procedures for collecting and evaluating good ideas, no matter when or where they strike.

Collaborating for Improved Product Development
By working with other businesses on product development, companies can reduce production costs, make better use of skilled, specialist resources, and speed up the time to market. Here's how to make sure your partnership works for your company.

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Sincerely,

BNET Staff

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