Oxford English Dictionary's 2023 word of the year was "rizz": a colloquial shorthand of "charisma" that Generation Z set on a viral spiral.
"Rizz" is defined by Oxford as "charm, style or attractiveness," particularly in verbal communication. Alternatively, it can be defined as "the ability to attract a partner." A person's magnetism, their star power, their "it factor" could all be bolstered by a healthy dose of rizz.
The word of the year came as a surprise to many; one reporter for The New York Times admitted she had to look it up. Its selection in the age of social media indicates a broadening cultural fascination with self-presentation, one that CEOs grappled with this year, right alongside Gen Zers.
New challenges have climbed into the corner office in recent years, leading CEOs to reconsider how they project themselves. Chief executives have always been expected to give guidance through tough times, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, many faced unprecedented headwinds; they did not have all the answers. The mirage of an all-knowing CEO dissolved, and leaders had to contend with something new — publicly admitting their own limitations.
In the pandemic's wake, humble, emotionally intelligent leaders remain in high demand. However, a June survey of 3,000 human resources professionals found that one-third do not consider their CEO to be empathetic — a 16% decline from the same survey in 2022. Margie Warrell, PhD, a senior client partner in Korn Ferry's CEO Succession and Executive Leadership practice, attributed this to executive burnout.
"People running on empty don't have a lot of empathy, because they're phantom selves," Dr. Warrell said.
Jeff Comer, PsyD, CEO of Show Low, Ariz.-based Summit Healthcare, has also studied the evolutionary, psychoneuroimmunological concepts underlying stress reactivity; in November, he told Becker's many CEOs are suffering in silence, concerned about how any weakness might be perceived.
"We feel as leaders that we have to be confident, we have to walk into a room and we have to take command, we have to show that we know what we're doing, we have to have all the answers," Dr. Comer said. "And of course we can't; that's not possible. But that's kind of the story we tell ourselves. And when we have burnout, a lot of us executives feel shame because we don't feel strong. We feel that we're weak."
CEOs know they must maintain a contagious confidence — even when their own is waning — so as not to strip morale. But CEOs who don too much armor may come across as "stuffy" to their teams; they must prove themselves to be down to earth, acknowledging both their organization's shortcomings and their own. A January study conducted by business professors at Washington, D.C.-based George Washington University, Evanston, Ill.-based Northwestern University and Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard University found that leaders who disclose their own weaknesses are perceived as more authentic. The higher the leader's status, the stronger the positive response to an admission of fault.
Despite this, most leaders only present their strengths to employees, the researchers found. They agreed that honest disclosures should be somewhat strategic; for example, a CEO who admits they are bad with technology is likely to win some brownie points for relatability. A CEO who admits they do not have time to seriously consider an employee's concern is not.
CEOs continue to grapple with just how much of themselves to reveal and just how much authority to exercise as they implement return-to-office policies and navigate a "new normal" post-pandemic. There is no guidebook for how to present oneself — particularly when one is expected to appear both stoic and sympathetic. Between 2012 and 2022, executives' prioritization of confidence, decisiveness, command of a room and polished appearance has remained the same while the weight placed on authenticity, inclusiveness, vision, fitness and willingness to show up in person has intensified, according to a recent Harvard Business Review report.
In other words, CEOs are trying to be the best of both: displaying themselves as the classic, confident leader that commanded respect in the past, and the genuine, kind-hearted leader that commands trust in the present.
However, a September paper from Stanford (Calif.) Graduate School of Business and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge found that both approaches yield their own benefits. Researchers used a natural language algorithm with earnings call data to assess the personalities of 460 CEOs at more than 300 companies through the Big Five model, which measures traits of openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion and neuroticism. They then analyzed 1.2 million Glassdoor reviews written by employees to calculate the firms' organizational cultures, including factors such as collaboration, execution and performance.
Their conclusion: There is no such thing as a "perfect" CEO personality.
"Although the larger picture suggests that extraversion and agreeableness have the most positive effects on organizational culture, the perfect combination of CEO personality traits does not exist," according to an article on the study from Stanford GSB. "Each of the nearly infinite combinations of the Big Five comes with trade-offs — boosting one trait consequently diminishes another. This means that the ideal personality of a CEO will largely depend on their company."
As the year of "rizz" draws to a close, contemporary CEOs will continue to explore the balance between conviction and compassion. This question of how to present oneself nods to a shifting social dynamic, Casper Grathwohl, president of the Oxford languages division at Oxford University Press, said on a Dec. 5 episode of NPR's "Morning Edition."
"Something like rizz, where it's about your energy and your ability to sort of attract and to strut, says something about human interaction again and how we're kind of ready again to take part and really connect," Mr. Grathwohl said.
For leaders looking to rally teams — regardless of their charisma score — that's promising news.