When we do an evaluation of your team’s perception of your leadership style, we will probably find the following:
- The CEO is great at communication, we receive communication from time to time or often.
- And on the weakness side, the CEO is terrible at communication, we never know what is going on.
As a CEO, we are tasked to achieve results through and with others. A CEO gains followership by leading a group into a future that they cannot achieve individually or by themselves. The key here is a great vision and even greater communication.
So, what is happening?
1. The CEO is not clear on what is expected.
If you’re a CEO and you don’t know what you really want, or cannot articulate it clearly and concisely, it’s time to stop and reassess what you are doing. The direction and purpose must be so crystal clear that you can explain it to a 6 year-old. Being unclear about direction and outcomes translates into general confusion, a lack of focus and discipline to execute. It’s the responsibility of the leader of the company to set the vision, communicate it, and to weave it into the culture of the organization. If you don’t know where you’re headed (your vision) and why (your purpose) and what (the mission), your team will be left guessing and making stuff up to make sense of their work.
2. No clear action plans developed with the team, and the results they expect fall short.
With a clear vision, mission, purpose, and strategic objectives, it is imperative to work with the team to develop leading strategies and actions to figure out how you are going to achieve goals and agree on measures of accountability to gauge success.
Develop pro-active business rhythms to plan annually, realign quarterly, review progress weekly, and execute daily. Make plans and progress very visible to the whole team.
3. They don’t review their annual plans every quarter.
A CEO who neglects quarterly reviews of the company’s progress is missing an opportunity for the leadership team to capture lessons from the prior quarter and make any necessary adjustments to ensure achievement of annual goals.
Quarterly planning sessions with your leadership team to align on the game plan for the upcoming quarter, and pro-actively shift where needed, will ensure your company is on track to meet your annual goals.
4. Run your own annual planning session because “nobody really gets the business as well as I do.”
Running your own annual planning session may save you money, time and be quite gratifying in efficiency. However, it will cost you dearly by negatively impacting how your leadership team participate and will lack diverse perspectives and insights. A unilateral autocratic plan elicits low engagement and participation. The best practice to allow yourself to participate and ensure the entire team is heard in the planning process is to hire an external professional facilitator. It may be pricey up front but saves a fortune in failed implementation costs. A skilled facilitator will help the team challenge assumptions, develop scenarios, and get clear on the best plan for the year ahead.
5. They are not transparent, breeding distrust, suspicion, and frustration among employees.
It is not always easy – time is limited and there is a lot to do. Playing the cards close to the chest is not in your best interest. People like playing to win, engage and participate on the journey of a winning team. If they understand the direction, the rules of play and where the team stands on the scoreboard, they will play hard. They align with the direction and effort to achieve the goals. The more you share, the more your team will believe in the company’s values and your leadership as the CEO. The courage to be open and transparent is often the difference between a business that survives and one that closes its doors during tough times.
And lastly, on the topic, communication is everything. Saying it once is getting it off your chest. Repeating the same message at least 7 times, in 7 different ways, testing for understanding, and asking for feedback drive communication – a two-way process.
As George Bernard Shaw said: “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it happened.”
