The inaccessible CEO.

Many CEOs seem to never have any time. They are overbooked and run behind schedule most of the day. They rush from one meeting to the next, usually arriving late and leaving before the meeting is over.

Their offices look like tag sales. People are lined up to see them, while they continue to take telephone calls. It is an unbelievably complicated process to make an appointment to see them, to arrange a lunch date or a meeting, to get a hearing on an idea. Their paperwork backs up; too many documents get short shrift or are understudied. They lug full briefcases to their cars, planes, homes, and even on vacations, but never catch up.

They travel incessantly, but always seem to be in the wrong place when they are needed. Their cellular phones look like they're surgically - and permanently - attached to their ears. Their itineraries change weekly.

In this constant flurry of activity, these CEOs frustrate their executives and directors, infuriate their service agencies, neglect their families, and drive their secretaries crazy.

They have become inaccessible CEOs who are caught up in a whirlwind of unnecessary activity that spawns inefficiency and precludes them from emulating their more organized, focused brethren.

What can be done about such executives? In some cases, not much. The CEO may be the company founder, or the senior member of a founding family and a large stockholder. Occasionally, despite an inaccessible, inefficient CEO, a company can continue to make a profit for some time - it just misses growth opportunities and needlessly loses long-term market position to its competitors.

But what about the board? Isn't it supposed to watch over the CEO? Yes.

But industrious, hard-working CEOs sometimes can fool a casual, uninvolved board that tends to correlate busyness with effectiveness. If the board doesn't actually see the CEO muddying administrative waters, and if the CEO keeps stroking outside directors with elegant trips and high board fees, he or she often can get by for months - or even years. Besides, this type of CEO tries to avoid as much as possible having any hard-nosed, hair-shirt directors on the board who will ask difficult questions about his or her management style.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that it is the board's responsibility to sniff out underachieving CEOs and reform or replace them. In truth, that is what a well-ordered CEO Performance Evaluation Program is supposed to do. Thank heavens, more and more companies and boards are in the process of implementing such programs. A recent Korn/Ferry study of 1,000 directors reported that 78 percent of their boards have adopted a formal CEO evaluation plan.

However, the mere fact of having such a program in place is meaningless unless the board thoroughly appraises the true quality of the CEO's performance and then takes the proper corrective action. It means the outside directors have to work harder to get to know the operating and staff heads and to sense their feelings about working conditions. It means that, whenever possible, CEOs should be given a chance to correct the work habits and structures that may be causing the problems.

There are times when the comparatively simple addition of a competent administrative assistant can clear up much of a messy operation. There are cases in which the addition of an effective chief operating officer can make all the difference in the world. There are CEOs who are sincere and who simply do not recognize. the problem, but need it to be called to their attention in a forcible, responsible fashion. That's what a good board can and should do.

Inaccessible CEOs are bad CEOs. They are not acting properly as leaders, visionaries, managers, administrators, communicators, management developers, or as any of the other vital roles a good CEO takes on and executes. As they waste time, flub opportunities, and underachieve, so do their companies. They need to be corrected, redirected, or replaced. Otherwise, they are accidents waiting to happen.

If you are an outside director, you should make sure your CEO Performance Evaluation includes an accessibility appraisal that has some measure of credence and depth. If you find you have an inaccessible CEO at the helm, you had better crank up your Management Succession Procedure. It will be needed soon.

And if you are a CEO and recognize these symptoms in yourself, you had better figure out how to change the situation before you find yourself out of a job.

Formerly the CEO of F.&M. Schaefer (1972-1977), Robert W. Lear is chairman of CE's advisory board. He also teaches at Columbia Business School, where he is an executive-in-residence. He is an independent general partner of Equitable Capital Partners and holds directorships with Scudder Institutional Funds; Korea Fund; and Welsh, Carson, Anderson, Stowe Venture Capital Co.; and is a partner of Lear, Yavitz & Associates.