Valid point - but from the way the article was written this was a life changing event.

Read it again.

While I agree 'yelling' is not the most professional method of getting your point across, the CEO felt the need to impress a point on everyone that he wasn't going to stand for something. And that he was going to put resources (travel with VP of sales to talk to customers) into the person he was yelling at to make sure he does things differently.

This was not a casual emotional rant about something he said. This was a thought out attack on a way of thinking that was unacceptable to the CEO, followed up with a strategy to fix it.

I'll bet the author would agree that was one of the more pivotal moments of his professional life. A lot of CEO's might hear a comment like that, file it away, and then just not promote you, or put you first in line to be laid off. It takes effort and guts to stand up and pronounce what you, the leader of the company, believe in.

And that's something that's often missing today with CEO's.

I'm reminded of the story told by Randy Pausch where the assistant coach said to him (regarding being yelled at by the coach): “That’s a good thing. When you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you any more, that means they gave up.”

Right. You can also look at it as a type of hack ... an emotional hack, if you will. It tends to work well with men. It is similar to the cliche teachers use: "you will never amount to anything". The idea is you will get so angry, you will self-motivate just to prove them wrong. The army also uses these tricks in boot camp.

A good leader will figure out a priori which techniques work with which people and apply them appropriately.

I'm sure nobody cares, but there's a huge body of psychological research that goes to show that such "negative motivations" do. not. work.

They are especially horrible when the person is in a real position of authority, like an adult over a child (parent, teacher), or an employer. It not only de-motivates over the long term, it causes a lot of damage to the relationship.

The military situation is a bit different, because of the pseudo-brainwashing ("break em down and build em up" approach -- downvote me if you like, but we all know that's an explicit goal to create team cohesion), not to mention huge legal obligations, and maybe because of the type of people who go into it to start with.

Fuck professional. What I want to know in my CEO is that he knows what he's doing. Beyond that, I don't give a shit if he's nice or the most terrifying man alive. Similarly, if a CEO is professional as all hell but knows nothing, I want nothing to do with him.

As much as I love etiquette, it's a nice little side deal, not the primary concern. What matters above all else is competence.

This is why I get completely pissed off when I see some schmuck in a suit flattering their would-be employers during an interview, or some overcompensating upper-level worker playing territory / power games. It gets in the way of business. I don't think it's quite as black and white as you put it, but I agree nonetheless.

I'd rather get yelled at in a meeting and sent out with the VP of sales to improve my knowledge/skills/value than sit around all year waiting for the 30 minute yearly 'performance review' where my managers tell me nothing.

Presumably there are things in between the two extremes.

Personally I think yelling and screaming is awfully unprofessional. He still would have been humiliated and embarrassed if the guy had called BS on him in other ways, I think, which is probably what made the lesson stick. He got cut down to size, and he knew he was wrong.

I think screaming can backfire, too. I had a guy yelling and pounding his fists in a meeting the other week, and it reduced my opinion of him further. (He wasn't angry with me nor the 10 or so other people present, who were looking at him like 'what a jerk').

If I want to spend time with someone who has temper tantrums, I'd much prefer the company of my daughter, who I don't see enough as it is.

I don't care if it's "unprofessional" or not and I only think it's abusive if there's a rule that I can't yell back.

I have no problem with having heated discussions on occasion. I think it can be a great way to get people saying what they really mean. Mutual alcohol consumption surely is a gentler method though...