The CEO’s Most Underrated Responsibility: Setting The Emotional Tone
Summary
Andy Freed argues that a CEO’s most important, yet often overlooked, job is setting the emotional tone of the organisation. While boards and leaders focus on visible, measurable tasks—strategy, decisions and results—the informal emotional system (trust, confidence, feeling safe to speak up) does most of the executional work. CEOs transmit mood through posture, pace and presence; tone travels faster than instructions and shapes how teams think, take risks and follow through.
Freed explains that great leaders prepare not just their messages but how they will show up emotionally. Emotional leakage (stress, fatigue, anxiety) affects behaviour and performance even when the leader tries to compartmentalise. Setting tone isn’t about fake optimism; it’s about steadiness, clarity and emotional discipline so strategy converts into action.
Key Points
- The CEO sets the organisation’s emotional tone every day—people feel the leader’s energy before they process the words.
- Organisations run on two systems: the formal (strategy, metrics) and the informal (emotion, trust); the latter drives execution.
- Preparation for presence—deciding how you want people to feel before you speak—is as important as preparing content.
- Emotional leakage from leaders (stress, fatigue, defensiveness) creates noise: teams become defensive, slow to commit and less creative.
- Setting tone is not relentless positivity; it’s consistent steadiness: honest about reality, composed in delivery, and intentional in presence.
- Emotional discipline is a leadership skill: when CEOs model the desired tone, alignment, accountability and sustainable performance improve.
Why should I read this?
Short version: because if you care about getting stuff done, this explains the invisible lever you’re probably ignoring. It’s a quick, practical reminder that your mood is part of your job description — and that deliberately showing up steadier gets better results. Read it to stop accidentally sabotaging good strategy with bad presence.