Dear BNET Reader,

A CEO's fall from grace is an all-too-familiar story, as tales of outrageous compensation packages, backdating scandals, and even prison sentences dominate the headlines. The public may be losing faith in company leaders, but what's the view from the inside? BNET decided to ask the CEO's toughest critics -- we surveyed more than 1,500 senior managers and executives around the country -- to find out what they really think of the top boss.

The Survey Summary
Chief execs get surprisingly high marks for ethics and standards of conduct -- but suffer serious deficiencies as managers and leaders.

Lacking the Human Touch
Only one in five employees would describe his CEO as "caring" or "warm." Yet CEOs used those words twice as often to describe themselves. Talk about a disconnect. Here's why CEOs receive less than a C in communication skills.

Mismanaging Innovation
Perhaps the most disturbing CEO "blind spot" is the fact that most employees agree that good ideas rarely ever make it from the cubicle to the executive suite. Ask the CEOs, on the other hand, and they're likely to praise the way their bureaucracies encourage innovation.

Falling Through the Generation Gap
Gone are the days of command and control. CEOs, take note: Younger employees expect a more nurturing, less autocratic style of leadership.

How Chip Conley Got His Mojo from Maslow
When one-third of your 3,000 employees clean toilets for a living, how do you keep motivation high? In hotelier Chip Conley's new book, "Peak," he discusses how psychologist Abraham Maslow taught him that creating peak experiences for employees leads to stellar customer service.

Leila's House of Corrections: Being Approachable
If you're not an approachable manager, chances are no one is going to risk telling you. CNET's executive coach Leila Bulling Towne explains three simple fixes that will make you more accessible and your team more productive.

Word of the day: uncovered bear

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The Corner Office
Clawing Back CEO Compensation

Okay, let's get real. We've had a series of colossal failures -- Chuck Prince at Citicorp, Stanley O'Neal at Merrill Lynch and Angelo Mozilo at Countrywide Financial. All three are losing their jobs or their companies...

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Deflect Insults to Win the Day

There's an old maxim: acting is reacting. I'd argue that the same philosophy applies to business: Your success hinges on how you react to various situations, like impending deadlines, make-or-break sales pitches...

BNET1
Young Women Now 7% More Likely to Have a Bachelor's Degree

Despite the fact that average earnings for women remain below the average earnings for men, women ages 25 to 29 are 7 percent more likely to have a Bachelor's degree than men. The percentage of women who have obtained...

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