CEOs aren’t judged just on outcomes anymore
I’ve watched the same pattern repeat itself for two decades: CEOs aren’t judged just on outcomes anymore — they’re judged on how fast those outcomes arrive.
Investors want results, but today’s markets expect both speed and the right results.
HBR recently wrote that decision-cycle compression is the new leadership stressor. I’ve seen the same thing in real time: leaders who looked decisive in 2017 would look slow today.
And the difference between the CEOs who last and the ones who get replaced comes down to one thing:
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀.
The soon-to-be-replaced leader asks:
“What happened?”
The durable leader asks:
“What’s the second-order effect — and how soon does it hit the system?”
You can spot this difference in their early decisions, long before the market prices it in.
At Eagle Talon Partners, we’ve built an investment lens around that gap — how fast leaders move from assessment to action without losing judgment. For us, it has become one of the most reliable predictors of whether execution strengthens or stalls.
𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.
𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗽𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱.
What’s one leadership decision that you believe must happen faster today than five years ago?