Many students believe that with clarity, clear thinking, and good data, every CEO should be able to make strong, quick, and sensible decisions at any given moment.
That is harder as many people think.
Teaching the real complexity of CEO level decisions comes by by putting the students into the CEOs shoes. At least for a little thought experient.
Let’s find out how easy it is to decide and how consistent you are in your decision making.
You are CEO, it’s Monday Morning
You come into the office with a plan for the week. Meetings. Numbers. Decisions. Normal stuff.
Then HR walks in.
Door closed.
“We have an allegation against your COO.”
MeToo-style.
After an office party.
A subordinate says it was not consensual.
He denies it.
No witnesses. No proof. Two stories.
And now I stop talking.
I look at the room and ask:
What do you do?
First instinct: facts. Of course.
That’s always the first reflex. It’s the safe reflex.
Questions I place to the students
- Who brought this to HR?
- Who else knows?
- Any history between them?
- Any previous cases?
- Messages? Witnesses? Timeline?
HR tells you they did their job. They investigated. They came back with nothing conclusive.
Two people. Two versions. Zero certainty.
And that’s where the case becomes interesting, because now I ask the second question, the one people don’t like:
Do you act anyway?
“If you can’t prove it, you can’t punish him.”
This answer comes fast. Almost always.
It sounds fair. Rational. Legal.
You see heads nodding.
So I push a bit.
Okay. So you do nothing.
What does that mean for the employee?
And then I ask
- Do they continue working together?
- Do you move her?
- Do you send him on leave?
- Do you tell her: “Sorry, unclear situation”?
And now the room gets quieter.
Because doing nothing is not neutral. Doing nothing is also a decision.
Then I add one sentence.
Your company policy explicitly forbids relationships with subordinates.
Silence again.
Because now the ground shifts.
This is no longer only about assault. It’s also about rule violation.
And I ask again:
If he admits a relationship but calls it consensual, what do you do?
You still can’t prove coercion. But you can prove a breach.
Do you issue a warning? Suspend him? Remove him from leadership? Signal “values matter”? Or quietly manage it away?
New version. Same facts. Different pressure.
She is not an employee.
External person. Not on payroll. No reporting line.
But she has something else.
Followers.
And she tells you she will go public if you don’t act.
Now I ask:
Does that change your decision?
And watch what happens.
Suddenly legal gets mentioned. PR enters the room. Revenue numbers appear. “Reputation risk” becomes a phrase.
And someone finally says it out loud:
“If this costs us 10% revenue, I fire him.”
That moment is always uncomfortable. Because it’s honest.
And that’s when I stop the discussion and say:
“Congratulations. We just threw our company values out of the window in under 30 seconds.”
And everyone laughs. A bit nervously. Because they know it’s true.
Let’s go one step further: Glassdoor
Your company is now publicly labeled “bro culture.”
Hard partying. Drunk sales teams. Chauvinistic behavior toward women and hotel staff.
No photos. Just patterns.
Your head of sales sits in front of you and says:
“That’s how we win deals. Numbers are great. Best team in the company.”
And I ask:
So? Do you intervene or not?
- Some propose training, guidelines, monitoring.
- Some say fire the leader, make an example.
- Others say do not touch it, revenue matters.
And then I narrow it down to one line:
Where is the limit?
Because partying is not the issue. Results are not the issue.
Accusative behavior toward women is.
That’s the line.
And leadership is about drawing it before lawyers do.
Final twist: fear creates discrimination
A senior male executive comes to you and says:
“I won’t mentor young women anymore. No one-on-ones. No business trips. I don’t feel safe.”
Some want to accommodate. Group mentoring. Third persons. Special rules.
And then I ask quietly:
What if 15 leaders say the same?
Now you don’t have a legal problem. You have a culture collapse.
You just recreated discrimination as a defensive mechanism.
And then I connect the dots back to where we started:
Remember what we spoke about in our Leadership class.
Trust is the foundation of every strong team.
And you just destroyed it.
Why this case matters
Not because it is about MeToo.
Because it forces you into the CEO seat without full information, under pressure, with values on the line.
Every option hurts something: fairness, people, trust, money, reputation.
Leadership is not choosing the clean option.
Leadership is choosing, explaining why, and living with the consequences without lying to yourself.
And that’s usually the moment when the room goes quiet.
Because everyone suddenly realizes:
“I was sure five minutes ago. And now I’m not.”
Exactly this is where leadership starts.