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What questions can tech CEOs be asked, to guage their moral trustworthiness?

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Re: What questions can tech CEOs be asked, to guage their moral trustworthiness?

#41

Post by doubled112 »

e40 wrote: post #38
codeptualize wrote: post #15

With these kind of things I don't think asking questions is really going to tell you much. People can present themselves differently than they are, and especially people with lower morales will have no problem presenting themselves differently if that is in their interest. Look at pretty much any big company CEO. If you do need to gauge someone, look at their history, look at their actions, and look at their incentiv…

I came here to say look at what they do not what they say. This applies not only to CEOs but to every single human on the planet. One thing I have learned is that many people seem to be easily tricked by certain types of humans saying one thing and doing another (which is contradictory to the "said" thing). It is certainly frustrating to watch happen, when it involves people you care about.

Talk is cheap.

Re: What questions can tech CEOs be asked, to guage their moral trustworthiness?

#43

Post by Satam »

Hmm, my theory would be: don't look for the morally spotless ones, look for the ones with internal consistency, authenticity, and honesty. Everyone shits and everyone fucks, and in business, everyone cares about money (even if for different reasons). Yet when the time comes to discuss these things publicly, most suddenly become goody-goodies. So that's the first kind of lie. From there on out many other lies will follow. So seeing some unpolished views and although I think is good because where there's a lot of polish it's probably not 100% true.

Re: What questions can tech CEOs be asked, to guage their moral trustworthiness?

#44

Post by upwardbound »

suoduandao3 wrote: post #8

I found a good question to spring is 'name a time you had to make a moral decision'. If someone thinks about decisions in terms of morality it's a good open-ended question that'll lead into how they approach moral dilemmas. If you suspect you're getting a rehearsed answer, follow up by asking about a moral decision they made where they would have acted differently today. Anyone who rehearses an answer to that questio…

This.

Re: What questions can tech CEOs be asked, to guage their moral trustworthiness?

#46

Post by corobo »

dylanrw wrote: post #39

You’re in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, it’s crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t, not without your help. But you’re not helping. Why is that?

.. why would I flip it in the first place?

Did I just disqualify myself as a CEO

Re: What questions can tech CEOs be asked, to guage their moral trustworthiness?

#47

Post by jpmattia »

There is no question that will truly gauge moral trustworthiness. The most pathological leaders will craft answers that sound "morally trustworthy", but after taking the role will happily take whatever pathological action they please.

If anything, the OpenAI fiasco is more about the disconnect between boards and the companies they guide. It's not the first time I've seen a BoD take action based on information from the wrong people, but the fact that it has been so public makes it a great object lesson for founders and other leaders.

Re: What questions can tech CEOs be asked, to guage their moral trustworthiness?

#49

Post by JohnFen »

nasir wrote: post #13

Paying attention to the micro interactions of a person (or CEO) with others especially those who have no business interest with them can give a good view of their morality. These can be simple things like a conversation they have with random strangers and their judgement on that.

This is a bit like how, when you're starting to date someone new, you should pay attention to how they treat servers and other workers at the places you're going to.

But in the case of interviewing a CEO, you don't often have a chance to see them interacting with random people.

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