You will hear five different people talking about the recently appointed Chief Executive Officer at their company. For each

Man: Well, I don’t know about you, but I was pretty impressed by how quickly she got to grips with even the more complicated of our procedures in only three weeks. When I met her originally I have to confess that she struck me as being a little laid back. When I asked her about ideas for the advertising, I have got the commission for the new campaign, you know, she didn’t have all that much to say. In fact, throughout the discussion, she listened more than she talked: that rang an alarm bell with me. But I suspect she is one of these people that like to take everything in before venturing to say much. And as I say, she has worked out nearly all of the final points in my sales plan with what I imagine to be only minimal support from her assistant.
Woman: Well, it was a bit shock when she walked in. Luckily I just arrived myself. I had been sent out to get some office supplies that day and I was loaded down with paper and paper clips and that type of things when she came. It was the last thing I expected. I was the only one there, so I had to ask all her questions even though I don’t know much yet. I don’t think I did very well, frankly, because she was asking a lot about the filing system. And I know I should know about it, but I haven’t got my own head around it at this stage, let alone try and explain it to someone else. And you know what they say, "Last in, first out."
Man: The reason I asked her straight was that because I think it’s the best way of finding out what her general attitude is. I know she won’t have the health and safety at the forefront in mind, but I have had a lot of pressure from the shop floor wanting to know there is going to be any movement on this, and she might as well know there is going to be an issue in the coming month. My members always complained, and I have to say I agree with them, that the old CEO was avoiding the question because he knew he was leaving, which is fair enough. Anyway, I know she has only just arrived, but she filled it very well, I thought: and she didn’t do what the last one did, which was to ignore my questions until we got to a more official form.
Woman: Yes, I felt the meeting went quite well. She said she was quite happy for us to do the paper work and take over a bit and then present the figures and she will just come in at the end. That’s fine by me. It suits me better than having the boss work too intimately with you. She did seem quite interested in being involved in the decisions about software though, but I have got Jenkins to handle that. I don’t feel up to it frankly. Anyway, I might betray my prejudices on the account, which might be helpful. As long as this prevents costs getting out of hand again, I am not too concerned about which one we go for. Oh, by the way, she says she is going to come in on discussions prior to the presentation of annual report.
Man: I didn’t know what to say to her actually. I didn’t want to get into a confrontation in the first day. She was going into all this staff about how she wanted to set up computers in all the different offices, from the most junior clerks to the heads of department. And I said, "That’s all very well, but how is my department going to devise programmes to upgrade skills in the time available?" The last CEO took things steadily. I knew that it would be stupid to take on too much until we knew how people were going to acquire the skills. The new one is coming in too aggressively, I mean it would be silly to get the hardware and have only one third being able to use it. And would we have to buy in expertise or what, because we certainly don’t have the staff on site?