Redefiners
Talking Transformational Leadership with RRA’s CEO Constantine Alexandrakis
Wed, 15 Jan 2025
In today’s fast-paced, competitive business landscape, hiring and developing future-ready, transformational C-suite leaders is critical to organizational success. Making the wrong hiring decision can often lead to higher costs, damage to workplace culture, or worse. So what are the key things to keep in mind as you think about the leaders who can help take your organization to the next level? In our first episode of Season 5, Simon sits down with Russell Reynolds Associates’ own CEO, Constantine Alexandrakis, to talk about what to look for in transformational C-suite leaders and how to use leadership assessment tools – like RRA’s Leadership Portrait – to find them. He’ll reveal how to take the next step in building transformational teams and what makes them successful. He’ll also share tips from his own CEO journey and the steps he took to prepare for that transition to nail his first year in the role. We'll also hear from Erin Zolna, a leadership advisor in our New York office, who will outline our latest research on the skills that leaders need in a fast-changing world. Four things you’ll learn from this episode: How to start well when stepping into a new CEO role How to assess transformational leaders and why it’s important before they take on leadership roles What makes transformational teams different and how they operate What C-suite leaders are thinking about AI and the top challenges they’re facing If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like these Redefiners episodes: Exploring the Art of Possible with Google and Alphabet President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat Leadership Lounge: How to Future-Proof Your Leadership Talking Tough Decisions with TCW President and CEO Katie Koch Leadership Lounge: How to nail your first year as CEO Unpacking Leadership Lessons with Marriott International President and CEO Tony Capuano
Chapter 1: What is transformational leadership and why is it important?
Call them change makers. Call them rule breakers. We call them Redefiners. Join us in conversation with daring leaders who are creating extraordinary impact and driving change from around the globe.
Each episode gives you a fresh perspective on your leadership and career journey. I'm Hoda Tahun, a leadership advisor at Russell Reynolds.
I'm Clark Murphy, the former chief executive officer and a leadership advisor. And this is Redefiners.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Redefiners. This is our first episode in 2025 and the kickoff for season five. I'm Simon Kingston. Hoda is unable to join me sadly today, so I'll be flying solo on today's episode, which for reasons that will become clear is slightly terrifying.
However you celebrated them, I hope you all had wonderful holidays and have had a fantastic start to the new year so far. Before we get started today, just a quick reminder to our listeners that you can find all the episodes of Redefiners and the Leadership Lounge on YouTube. And if you're currently watching Redefiners on YouTube, just hit the subscribe button below so you don't miss an episode.
For our audio listeners, don't forget to rate Redefiners wherever you get your podcasts. We really want to hear your feedback. Today, we've got what is in many respects a unique conversation. We're going to talk to somebody who knows firsthand what it takes to hire and develop
the best in class leaders, both CEOs and of the C-suite across a whole range of industries and someone who is himself a true redefiner. He's redefining the executive search industry because our guest today is none other than our own Russell Reynolds, Chief Executive, Konstantin Alexandriakis. Constantine also serves on the firm's board of directors.
Prior to taking on the CEO role, Constantine held numerous leadership roles across the firm, latterly as head of the Americas region. Now, in addition to leading the firm, he continues to advise a host of boards and CEOs for both public and private companies on the most significant leadership issues they face.
But he's also practiced what he's preaching at a corporate level in the provision of advice on leadership development and assessment to those leaders too. And he has expertise in corporate governance, board effectiveness, and succession planning, as we'll be discussing in the course of the next 30 minutes. Konstantin, welcome to Redefine Us. Thank you, Simon. Great to be here.
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Chapter 2: What is the concept of philotimo?
Now, people will understand as we enter bonus season just how unfair it is for me to be left on my own with the boss having this conversation, and Hoda owes me for abandoning me in this situation. But before we kick off and get into the serious meat of what we're going to talk about, can you tell us a little bit about your formation? not so much as a leader, but as Constantine.
And as a clue to what might be interesting, perhaps as you unpack that and your early formative experiences, maybe you could explain to our listeners the philotimo. concept?
Well, happy to, Simon. And I think you might be able to tell from my name that there's a heavy Greek influence there. And both my parents were raised in Greece. My mother was born in Egypt, but raised in Greece. My father was born on the you know, lived very interesting early lives and kind of difficult lives at that time.
The Greeks were kind of exiled from Egypt when she was a young child and they were refugees in Greece. And my father lost his father and his grandfather in the Second World War. They were executed by the Nazis when their village was invaded. So I mentioned that because I think
Part of my formative elements and literally DNA has been around the importance of family and helping your neighbor and doing good for others, which my parents had to experience as they grew up in those environments. And as they came to the United States for education and subsequently becoming university professors.
So one of the things I was raised on was this concept of the Greek word philotimo, which if you Google it, you'll see there's no real translation. But the meaning of it is around helping others, giving of yourself, generosity, kindness, and treating others with respect. And that's a key concept. element of the Greek culture. It's a key element of the culture that I was kind of raised with.
And it's a key element of how I like to work with colleagues and lead our organizations and our clients.
And that idea of deep cultural formation is fascinating because it comes through that sense of solidarity that was clearly bred into you from a very early stage. We'll get into this a bit later, perhaps, but to what extent can that be taught and replicated in a business context? Or are you born and raised with it?
It's a good question. I mean, I think everyone, no matter what culture you're raised in, there are values associated with that, positive values and ways of interacting with fellow human beings that shape one as they go through school and life experiences, right? I think that... the way that's translated into organizations is through organizational culture.
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Chapter 3: How did Constantine prepare for his CEO role?
That was going to be a question I had because I think, among colleagues, you're really respected for the clarity of your analytical capability. almost forensic legal training coming through, perhaps. Is that how you see yourself as a leader, as somebody who leads through persuasion and force of argument?
No. I could see that stereotyping out there, but no, I see myself more as somebody who kind of listens, considers, and then tries to help the team get to the conclusion. Although I will say that that style has definitely evolved through many years of different jobs, different levels of responsibility, and so on. I'm sure you've read...
Ty Wiggins' book, The New CEO, he talks a lot about the CEO transition and how does one sort of evolve their approach in a completely different job, which is what being a CEO is. So I think there are a lot of parallels in how he describes that with the journey that I've been on and I know the journeys that many other peers have been on.
Let's talk a bit about that. You became our CEO in 2022. Unlike some of the other people we've interviewed on Redefiners, it wasn't in the context of an emergency, it wasn't sudden, it was planned. With that in mind, how did you think about the things that you chose to do and the things you chose not to do early on in your time as CEO?
Look, as you sort of said, I was very lucky to come into a role where the firm was very successful, doing great work for its clients day in, day out around the world. And the situation was more of a build on the greatness versus do a turnaround or a transformation. But the complicating factor, which I think is true for many CEOs today, is the macro challenges outside our doors.
were multiplying at a significant pace, whether it was global geopolitical unrest, which had not really been an issue for many, many years, social upheaval, rapidly advancing technological opportunities and challenges. were and are moving very quickly and advancing. And any enterprise today needs to hit those head on.
So to answer your question, what I did quickly was I felt like we needed to hit the ground running. And as a result, I had the benefit of having a six-month transition period. But during that time before I was even enrolled with the team, we kind of designed what the
the team structure, senior leadership team structure would be going forward and named it and put it in place so that January 1st, we were off and running. So that was a big thing of what I did when I came into the role. I wasn't going to wait for a year to kind of evaluate and decide.
I'd been in leadership for a while and kind of had a good sense of where we should take things next from a leadership team structure perspective. I think what I... didn't do, which was the other part of your question, was really want to upset the apple card in terms of how we serve clients and how our clients saw us.
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Chapter 4: What challenges do CEOs face today?
And if you were to pick out a couple of those, the differences in the way you are a CEO now from how you began and how you expected, what are some of those things in terms of how you do what you do?
Well, I think the biggest thing was, and there's quite a bit of literature about this, but I think it's mostly false, which is that there's a lot of thinking out there that says that the most successful CEOs are the ones that drive execution of the strategy. And I think the concept may be accurate, but those CEOs aren't really driving execution.
What I've learned is that those CEOs are sort of inspiring others to drive execution or to inspire others to drive execution. That was a big learning for me. And I think it's especially hard for, and I've heard this from CEOs who came through operational roles into the CEO role.
or similar capabilities, you have to completely shift your thinking, your communication toolkits, and the way you interact with your leadership team to enact that.
And coming to the kind of business that we are, I mean, ultimately our product is the advice, the expertise that we offer to our clients. So we are the quintessential people business. What in your experience is distinctive about leading that kind of business as distinct from a manufacturing business or another sector?
I don't know. Simon, I may just disagree with this question. I think 10 years ago, our business, which most of its assets are people and proprietary information, but people at the heart of it certainly is a people business. But I think in the last decade or so, manufacturing businesses, other sort of hard asset businesses,
The importance of people and the importance of human capital in those organizations to actually differentiate them and drive growth, I think, is increased. So I think to a large degree, all of us have become people businesses in the last decade. But certainly a professional services firm like ours has people at its core more so than other organizations that have other assets that they work with.
The tenets of that are the same as in other businesses where people may not be the only key to it, which is we are nothing without our people. Our people are what drive our culture, which is one of our greatest assets. And the reality is that Those people need to be nurtured every day by me, by the leadership team, by their peers.
Every day the issues are different, but the level of nurturing, the level of support, the level of trust building, the level of community, the level of fun, all those things needs daily nurturing. But I would say, again, I don't think that's necessarily unique to a business like ours. I think it's unique across all types of organizations. You've been at Russell Reynolds now for nearly 20 years.
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Chapter 5: How is leadership assessment evolving?
It's always fascinating to get into a group of peers and hear the frustration, the vulnerability, especially on a topic like AI, which for the past couple of years has been
Everywhere has almost become a cliche, but now we're in a period of really entering what does it actually mean, how can organizations really thoughtfully leverage it, and where is it going to take organizations, companies, and industries going forward. And there are no easy answers to any of that.
And CEOs and other leaders really appreciate being able to get together and brainstorm that in a way that helps them move the ball just a little bit forward each time.
And you talked compellingly about that evolution of our firm into a leadership advisory business. When we think about the other parts of the body, Russell Reynolds, what else have we added? You talked about Ty Wiggins' book and the CEO transition insights that he's helping us bring to clients.
What are the other tools that we've added as we make that move ourselves to being truly the leadership advisory firm that we want to be?
So RRA Mentor is one where we've partnered with esteemed and storied retired CEOs and CFOs in many parts of the world to bring them together with newer CEOs or CFOs who might need a mentor who's walked in their shoes and can serve as a sounding board for them.
RRA Artemis is another effort where CEOs have nominated female leaders from their organization who are potential future CEO successors, have nominated them to be part of a one-year program that's a development program for future CEOs designed by women for women and has really brought to the market something that has not existed before.
Our top team effectiveness consulting work is helping leadership teams, large and small, really improve the way they work together and how they support their organizational needs. There are many other examples like that, but those are just, those are three of them.
Next week, the leaders of the world, or many of them, are going to be meeting in Davos and amidst a cacophony of challenges and disruption and volatility in the world. This question is not so much cheeky as unfair, because if you knew the answer to it, you wouldn't need to go. But what do you think... is going to be on the agenda?
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Chapter 6: What role does AI play in leadership and organizational success?
I don't think the topics are going to be too surprising if I had to predict what the informal conversations are going to be. I think geopolitics and alliances, tariff regimes, the impact of new leaders in various countries around the world. I also think
What's been true the last couple years will probably be true again in terms of technology innovation, the opportunities that come with it, and both the opportunity and challenge related to generative AI integration and digital transformation will be important.
And this one might be the most important one of all, this sort of notion of trust across organizations, across entities, trust in one's government, trust across societies, cross-border trust. That's probably one that is also going to be talked about a lot, not only from a societal and government perspective, but also as organizations come together with their customers.
How do we reinforce trust in a time of geopolitical uncertainty and diplomatic roadblocks in certain parts of the world?
And on that... Because that links in a way to this idea that we live in an era not just of misinformation, but also active disinformation in some places. What's your advice to senior leaders about how far they can go to a gender trust that is beyond their immediate business?
On Redefine, have you heard kind of two very distinct views when we've talked to senior leaders about social issues and whether they should be engaged with them? Some say, yes, we have to be because it's a basic principle of doing business. Others say, no, stick to your swim lane.
Given that, as you say, trust may be the rarest and most valuable of assets in the current environment, what would your advice be to leaders about how far they should go to try and engender it?
I don't necessarily have the answer to that, but I do have a sense from having talked about it with many leaders around the world. There's trust inside your organization and there's trust, as you say, outside in your communities, in the customers you serve, and beyond. I think at the end of the day, each of us, through our actions, build trust indirectly.
And yes, there's this debate all the time about how vocal should leaders be about social issues and issues outside the walls of their organizations. At the end of the day, if you're demonstrating your values within your organization, you're demonstrating your values to your customers and to your communities, that says almost as much as any specific proclamations you might make.
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Chapter 7: How do cultural values influence leadership styles?
We're lucky in that that is something that is replicated around the world consistently. And as I said, I love getting that feeling every time I go to one of our distant locations and meet with colleagues there and meet with clients there. But I think what you're asking is how does that get impacted by the world and countries perhaps drifting apart in geopolitical ways? The reality is...
I don't think we've been impacted because our culture binds us.
We do always have to drive good communication across borders, across continents, in order to make sure that we're sharing information, we're sharing stories about our clients, we're sharing ways to help our clients, we're sharing successes of our teams and new ideas that our teams have generated so that we can apply those to other clients in other places.
But I think when you have a strong culture, you can stand together regardless of some of the geopolitical nuance that is floating around you. Now, is that something that becomes particularly difficult as those geopolitical pressures increase?
grow and get into something that we may not have encountered yet, possibly, which is why as a leadership team, we have to be nimble and we have to always be ready to react and support our teams through anything unexpected that happens.
Constantine, as our regular listeners will know, we ask every guest on the podcast to tell us about their Redefine Our Moment podcast. an experience or a decision that shaped them critically. What was yours?
Before I came to Russell Reynolds, Simon, I was a management consultant and was pretty young and inexperienced, but was trained by some great senior consultants and was given a lot of responsibility early on to contribute to significant efforts at clients.
And there was this one project we were working on helping the CEO of a business reorganize his team and his organization and kind of plot a new strategy for the group together with a leadership team. And I remember vividly sitting in his office down in Oklahoma
late one evening and he was kind of laying out some of his plans and I took the leap of faith and told him that I thought it was completely wrong and that he needed to be thinking about things in a different way and sort of describe that and he was he was pretty taken aback for a moment and then I sort of quickly pivoted in the direction that I had suggested.
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Chapter 8: What makes transformational teams effective?
So I think for me, that kind of had a lot to do with the course I took since then.
We like to end these podcasts with a series of rapid fire questions. So I'm going to ask these and ask you to answer as quickly as you can. Are you ready? These are optional, right? You can refuse to answer. I'm ready. I'm ready, Simon. Let's do it. Come on. Since this is the first episode of the new year, what are you most looking forward to in 2025, Konstantin?
I'm looking forward to, you said rapid fire, right? I'm looking forward to spending time with our people and with our clients. And I think you've answered this one already, but to remind everyone, what was your first job? My first job, I was a cashier at the Winn-Dixie in South Miami. Do you know what a Winn-Dixie is, Simon? I have no idea what a Winn-Dixie is. Oh, my God. Winn-Dixie is amazing.
It's a supermarket chain, mostly in the South. And I was a cashier. And it was just when scanning items at the cash register had come up. So I didn't have to learn how to key in everything. But it was... It was a great customer service job.
Looking back on your leadership path, possibly including Winn-Dixie, what do you wish you'd learned sooner apart from scanning?
Everything. I wish I had learned everything sooner. I mean, I'm still learning. I think that's a key part of, I think, all of our journeys. What do I wish I had learned sooner? I think communication is so key to leadership. And I think, as I said, I think I'm still learning how to be a good communicator.
But I wish, you know, I see some great communicators and wish I had been able to learn how to communicate effectively earlier in my career, for sure.
What's one question you often ask when hiring people?
You're asking me for my secrets. Well, I love the misperception question. What's a misperception about you? What is one subject you'd like to learn more about? Maybe because of my upbringing, I'm a sort of archaeology history buff. So I'd love to spend more time really learning more about ancient civilizations and ancient history.
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