????有幾種方式能讓CEO們在明星效應中保持清醒的頭腦。薪酬就是其中的一種。沃德曼在提交給同行評審期刊的一篇研究論文中指出，在美國，CEO的薪酬如果與公司內部薪酬次高者較為接近，往往比那些薪酬差距大的CEO更加謙遜。他表示，這樣的管理團隊往往更高效。“（他們）積極探索，學習新知識，同時又充分利用現有知識。”

????明星CEO還可以通過縮小與雇員間的物理距離來保持謙遜。阿爾弗萊德·斯隆就是一個例子，他曾在1923年至1956年間擔任通用汽車（General Motors）CEO。“斯隆是第一位明星CEO，“傳記《斯隆規則》（Sloan Rules）的作者戴維·法伯在接受芝加哥大學（University of Chicago）出版社的采訪時表示。斯隆當然相信，他命中注定要成就一番事業。但他也和員工在一線一起攜手工作。1992年出版的《管理未來》（Managing for the Future）一書中，管理學者彼得·德魯克寫到，斯隆每3個月就會離開總部，前往美國各地的經銷商店內作一名普通的銷售員。弗斯特表示，看到這位CEO兜售別克（Buick）車可能會讓員工認為他很有人情味。

????完善的接班計劃也能夠削弱明星對公司的負面影響。“如果你相信自己是超人，就別考慮誰來接替你了，“弗斯特說。深知個人局限性的CEO們會在任職初期就考慮接班人的問題。謙遜的CEO們也知道選擇一位與自己強項不同的接班人有哪些益處。從良性角度看，公司在不同的歷史時期需要從領導者身上獲得不同的特質。“問題不是哪個時期的領袖偉大，”弗斯特說。“問題是誰來領導？目標是什么？”

????這才是核心。一旦明星CEO們將個人成功視為命中注定，將自己擔任CEO職位視為必然的選擇，認為個人所有決定都合情合理，危險就在逼近。杰出的領袖或許喜歡走紅毯，這沒什么，只要他們知道，自己作為CEO一職的最適合人選只是相對狀態——在某一特定時刻相對于組織內其他人而言。

????而且，名聲（無論如何名滿天下）并不等于不會犯錯。“沒有超人，”弗斯特說。“不存在這樣的人。每個人都在妥協。”

????譯者：楊智

????There are a couple of ways to keep a clear head in the face of CEO stardom. Pay is one. In a study of Waldman's that he is currently submitting to peer-reviewed journals, he found that in the United States, CEOs with salaries close to those of their next top managers tend to be more humble than CEOs at companies with large pay gaps. Those management teams tend to be more effective, he says. "[They] engage in exploration and new learning and also exploit existing knowledge quite well."

????Star CEOs can also stay humble by creating less physical distance between themselves and employees. One example is Alfred Sloan, who was CEO of General Motors from 1923 to 1956. "Sloan was the first celebrity CEO," said David Farber, author of the biography?Sloan Rules,?in an interview with the University of Chicago Press. Sloan certainly believed he was destined for greatness. But he also worked with employees in the field. In a 1992 book called?Managing for the Future,?management scholar Peter Drucker wrote that Sloan would leave headquarters every three months and work openly as a salesman at GM (GM) dealerships across the U.S. Seeing the CEO hawking Buicks probably humanized him for his employees, First suggests.

????Solid succession planning can also temper star power. "If you believe that you are superman, there's no need to wonder who is going to fill your shoes," First says. CEOs with a good grip on their limitations will think about a successor early on in their tenure. Humble CEOs can also see the benefits of choosing a successor who has different strengths. It takes a degree of healthy perspective to see that companies need different things from leaders at different times in their history. "The question is not great leadership period," First says,? "it's always great leadership by whom for what."

????And there is the crux. Star CEOs grow dangerous when they see their success as destiny, their place at the head of the pack as the only path possible, rendering all of their choices justified. The best leaders might enjoy the red carpet, that's fine, as long as they understand that being the best fit for the CEO job is a relative status -- relative to the needs of the rest of the people in an organization at a specific moment in time.

????And fame, no matter how great it may feel, does not equal infallibility. "There is no superman," First says. "Those people are not there. Everybody's making tradeoffs."