Taming the Alpha Exec

His name is George. He's a vice president at Cleveland's Eaton Corp. And he's a recovering alpha exec. It took him three years at Eaton to admit that he had a problem. It took another year for him to commit to doing something about it.

Months of professional probing and coaching later, George T. Nguyen is learning how big a jerk he has been--autocratically dispensing orders through his administrative assistant, for example--and how little loyalty he has inspired. That psychic hurdle cleared, he's starting down the path to becoming a guy you'd actually want to hang out with--and a more effective executive. Says Nguyen now: "I have to work at this every day, every week, every month, because it's not a natural tendency for me. I'm 45 years old. If I don't make the change now, I won't have the incentive to change."

Going to the Dark Side

You may be wondering when being an alpha exec became enough to warrant an intervention. For generations, after all, alpha characteristics have pretty much been prerequisites for success in American business--and most other endeavors. Are ambition, self-confidence, and competitiveness really so bad, especially when there are billions of dollars and thousands of careers at stake?

The trouble is, there's a dark side to those traits we revere in bosses, a side that many just can't resist. For every bold visionary, there's a Michael Eisner--the alpha boss whose dysfunctional behavior causes disastrous results. Convinced of their greatness, these alphas lapse into arrogance, defensiveness, manipulation, and malevolence, leaving a tangle of confusion and unhappiness.

Enter Worth Ethic, a consulting firm in Austin, which for about $30,000 will put an alpha executive through a rigorous program designed to rein in those unhealthy impulses. The first step is getting the executive to cop to the crime, usually after founder and CEO Kate Ludeman or her husband, Eddie Erlandson, the firm's two coaches, has produced a thick stack of feedback from miserable coworkers. Then they dare the alpha male--or female--to do better. "They just don't understand that they can be as powerful and as influential with a different approach," says Ludeman. "It's almost like Samson's fear of cutting his hair, a fear that their power and influence is tied to these behaviors."

More Dr. Phil than Deming or Drucker, Worth Ethic's tough love has an uncanny way of getting even the toughest executive's attention. It has also gotten the firm invited into some of the most intimidating executive suites in the world, including those at Dell, eBay, Microsoft, the Pentagon, and, most recently, the front office of the Boston Red Sox.

Maybe that's because Ludeman and Erlandson are all too familiar with what it's like to be intensely driven high achievers. She went from Cotulla, Texas (population 3,000), where her father owned a western-clothing store, to degrees in engineering and psychology and a career as a Silicon Valley HR exec. Says Dell chairman Michael Dell, a Ludeman client since 1995, "Kate's in tune with our culture. She's very, very frank with us." Erlandson is a Midwestern minister's son who became a vascular surgeon and hospital chief of staff in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and ran 100-mile ultramarathons in his spare time. "He's not shy about… having long productive days," says Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino, whose management team worked with Erlandson following the departure (and eventual return) of star general manager Theo Epstein. They're both energetic, gregarious, and like many alphas, tall--she's 5'10", he's over 6'.

Yet the couple also understands the dangers alphas face. They blame their own impatience, entitlement, and, at times, overweening ambition for the failure of previous marriages. While they haven't slowed down--Worth Ethic will rake in $3 million in fees this year--they work hard to keep their relationship in tune, meditating together on days when they are coaching.

While the "alpha" label is applied liberally these days as a synonym for macho aggression, its actual meaning is much more nuanced. Among chimpanzees, alphas are as likely to use cunning and intellect to get to the top as they are their superior size, and they can be male or female. In humans, alphas' power is assumed to reside in an innate tendency to lead, whether out of intellect, desire, charisma, or brawn. Alphas are revered for their self-confidence, and wannabes who appear to lack it are mocked. (Just ask Al Gore.)

Ludeman and Erlandson actually share that deference to alphas. They believe that three out of four top executives and half of all middle managers are alphas, and they say non-alphas who aspire to upper management won't get there without adopting at least a few of their traits. Last year, though, the couple embarked on a survey of 1,507 businesspeople to better understand the species, ultimately grouping alphas into four categories, each with distinct strengths: Commanders excel at making decisions and winning battles, while Visionaries inspire and motivate toward outsized goals. Strategists are supremely methodical, and Executors are disciplined and relentless. (Their book, based on this research, is due out in October.)