CEO egos must be kept in check to prevent them from becoming ‘emperors’: Ho Ching

[SINGAPORE] The top business leaders typically display a self-confidence that is necessary to drive the company forward. But it is imperative that a company’s board of directors manage these egos to prevent a leader from becoming an “emperor”, warned Temasek Trust chairman Ho Ching.

If not handled constructively, the ego of a chief executive officer could become overpowering, she added.

Ho, who is also the wife of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, was speaking at a fireside chat at the Singapore Institute of Directors’ (SID) directors conference on Friday (Sep 12).

“As human beings, we have our own self-confidence, and we have our own egos,” she said. “We need to understand and manage that in a constructive way.”

This same standard also applies to the chairman and board members, she added.

Ho was conferred SID’s honorary fellowship during the conference on Friday, in recognition of her “distinguished contributions to corporate governance and stewardship in Singapore”.

She is the second woman to be on SID’s slate of honorary fellows. Indranee Rajah, minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, was the first woman to be conferred the title in 2024.

When asked about the qualities that would make a “transformational director”, Ho said: “I think it’s more helpful to put our ego aside, and try not to think of ourselves as trying to be a transformational director.”

The board’s role

The board’s role is to guide, to mentor, and to set boundaries, she said.

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Ho sees the board as having a more “catalytic” function – meaning that it has to be open, maintain a certain level of curiosity, and set themselves up to be a mentor to try and develop or define a compass for the company.

In addition, she said, the leadership throughout an organisation – including the chairman and CEO – need to learn to “let go”.

“If you keep pulling back because you are fearful of loss of control, or fearful of risk, then there’s no chance for people to grow,” Ho said. “And when you don’t have people who are growing, learning and making their own mistakes, you will get a much, much weaker organisation.”

The way she sees it, a key priority when it comes to board management is to “look beyond the horizon”.

Unlike the management, which focuses on day-to-day functions, boards have the flexibility to “move around” and to do other things which allows them to look beyond the board, she noted.

Another important function of board management is to seek a complementary team, not just between the chairman and chief executive officer, but also internally within the board and management team, she added.