The most important principle that an executive must embrace is a desire to produce results. As obvious as this sounds, it is not universally practiced by the highest-ranking executives in many companies. Many CEOs put something ahead of results on their list of priorities, and it represents the most dangerous of all the temptations: the desire to protect the status of their careers.

How can a person become the CEO of a company and not be a maniac for results? Most CEOs were results maniacs before reaching their ultimate jobs. Once they “arrive,” though, many of them focus primarily on preserving their status. This occurs because their real purpose in life has always been personal gain. With nowhere to go but down, it almost makes sense that once they have achieved their ultimate status, they will do whatever they can to protect it.

This causes CEOs to make decisions that protect their ego or reputation or, worse yet, to avoid making decisions that might damage them. They reward people who contribute to their ego, instead of those who contribute to the results of the company.

This poses a good question: Don’t executives realize that by focusing on results they will ultimately achieve greater status and ego satisfaction in their careers? Yes, but this requires a lot of work over a long period of time. It allows for too many risky episodes of status-loss along the way. Remember, even temporary loss of status is unacceptable to CEOs who do not resist this temptation.

Simple advice for CEOs: make results the most important measure of personal success, or step down from the job. The future of the company you lead is too important for customers, employees, and stockholders to hold it hostage to your ego.