The CEO’s Frustration
I once reported to a CEO that was convinced there was a communication problem in his leadership team. He felt the team didn’t engage during meetings, didn’t come to the meeting with ideas, and generally seemed disconnected. What infuriated him even more was nobody else in the team felt the same. Whenever he asked them individually, they always said they collaborated really effectively with their colleagues. Was there a leadership blind spot?
It got to the point that the CEO had to act.
He spoke to a friend of a friend who ran a consulting firm and asked them to come into the business and spend some time shadowing the leadership team and, in particular, sitting in meetings to try and uncover what was going on.
So for the next month, the consultant lived inside the business, attended as many internal meetings as they could, and spent time one-on-one talking with the leadership team. After four weeks, the consultant went back to the CEO to confirm the discovery part was complete and they would need a couple of weeks to write up their recommendations.
Two weeks later, the meeting took place, and the CEO was looking forward to being vindicated. Having a second opinion confirming his view would ensure the team took it on board and they would make the necessary changes. As soon as the meeting started it was clear that this was going to be a challenging discussion and not go the way he was hoping. It started as the CEO expected with the consultant confirming that they had indeed found a significant breakdown in the team’s dynamic which in their opinion needed to be urgently addressed. If unchecked it would at best inhibit the company’s success and at worst could be the death of the company.
What the consultant discovered
- There were a number of meetings that happened each week that involved the entire leadership team except the CEO, and these meetings were highly engaged, with some great ideas bubbling up, and a real feeling of collective spirit.
- The leadership team had stopped bringing ideas to the CEO as they knew the answer would be no unless it was his idea.
- When the CEO held his weekly meeting, the only person it served was the CEO. He often arrived late, spent the first 20 minutes of the meeting talking about his private life, and then looked for opportunities to try and catch out members of the team and then ridicule them. People didn’t seem disengaged; they were disengaged.
The real leadership problem
There were a number of other areas that the consultant picked up on, all along the same theme. The problem was not the leadership team; the problem was the CEO.
Now, nobody wants to hear that kind of feedback, and a sense of hurt and protectionism is of course going to kick in. Recognising this, the consultant suggested the CEO took some time to lick his wounds, recognise the issue, and commit to the changes needed to correct the problem. And that is exactly what the CEO did NOT do. Instead, he threw the consultant out of the office.
He threatened not to pay them and doubled down on his problematic behaviour with the team. Many of the team left shortly after, and the CEO was relieved as he could now replace them with ‘better’ staff who will collaborate better, come up with ideas, and will lean in during his meetings. He found those new team members pretty quickly, and they did all the things that he hoped they would, just one problem though, like the last team, they only did those things when he wasn’t in the room to block them, and so the cycle continued.
The lesson for business leaders
So why do I share this with you?
I have a section on my website that states the three things I need from any company I work with:
- Openness – For me to truly understand your business and current process, I need full transparency – warts and all.
- Open to receive honest feedback – I will share my findings with you, and my role is not to make you feel good but to make you be excellent.
- Willingness to act – my recommendations are tried and tested and will reap rewards but only if you take the necessary actions.
The above story about the CEO informs this approach. My time, and my clients’ time is valuable, and I do not see any benefit for either party in engaging with a company that is not prepared to make the necessary changes to move their current state to a preferred state.
It will not be easy, change rarely is.
You may not like everything you hear, growth lessons by their nature will highlight areas that are not currently optimum.
It will be worth it, letting go of the inhibitors to success is the first step in the path to long term sustainable growth.
The following quote, often misattributed to Albert Einstein or Benjamin Franklin, sums it up best:
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Ray
The Sales Doctor
Consult | Assess | Recommend | Execute
Post by Ray King, 19th September 2024
