Robert E. Waite | 1 Comment WEEKLY WAITE-O-GRAM (RELEASE 4.0)
DEADLY CEO SIN #2: 'BUNKERISM'
No, this is not a reference to the Archie Bunker character from the 1979's TV hit, "All in the Family". But if the term got you thinking instead of Germany during, say, late 1944 and early 1945, you're on the right track. The point is, spending too much time squirreled away with staff...and not enough time out with the troops...can put a leader out of touch with reality...and lead to a very bad ending.
HIT THE ROAD, JACK (OR JILL)
Getting out of head office frequently is always a good option...but it is especially important during the early days of a CEO's tenure. This is true for both those who are promoted from within...and those who are new to the company. In the case of the internal CEO, it is likely that he or she has headed up a unit, function or line of business, but has not had extensive contact with employees and customers that fell outside their span of control. Both employees and customers will want to see and hear from you. If you perceive no great need for a change in your company's strategic direction, product offerings or market approach, communicate this. The naming of a new CEO, any new CEO, creates some level of anxiety. Clear communication can dissipate that sense of unease and get people refocused on the task at hand.
THE 'WHY' EVEN BEFORE THE 'WHAT'
On the other hand, if you anticipate the need to make significant change during your tenure, due presumably to market or competitive shifts, it is important to set the stage for this by communicating the change in your business environment and the case for a response. Fifty years ago a CEO might have gotten away with simply issuing orders: Not so today. Employees (and customers) want to know why you are doing something and just how they fit in. Doing this face-to-face, while time consuming, is still by far the best method to accomplish this. Electronic delivery mechanisms, from streaming video to social media, all have their place, but study after study continues to show that getting out live and in person resonates much higher with employees and customers.
WHAT COLOR IS YOUR PARACHUTE?
If you are new to your company, all the more reason to get out and about. When Canada Post CEO Moya Greene took the reins of that Crown Corporation in 2005, she spent almost half of her time during her first six months out at mail sorting plants, depots, post offices and company franchises with employees. In this instance, it was not so much about delivering a message - although a message was delivered-but more about listening. Canada Post, it will be remembered, had just come through a rough patch during the so-called Sponsorship Scandal. Morale, never all that high to begin with at Canada Post due to a legacy of management-union distrust, was approaching rock-bottom. Yet within just a few months...simply by being visible on the shop floor...and asking people to express their opinions...Moya sent out a strong signal that things had changed...and the past could finally be put in the past...rather hang like an oppressive dark cloud over the enterprise.
NOTHING WRONG WITH BORROWING
Customers also need attention and to be listened to during the early months of an outside CEO's tenure. Lou Gerstner, during his first days as CEO at IBM, made a point of seeing as many customers as possible, in part to reassure them that he would retain the best of what IBM had been, but equally importantly, to communicate to them that they would be listened to and put at the center of company strategies and priorities. As Gerstner himself put it in his book, "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?" it was "crucial that I get out into the field. I didn't want my understanding of the company to be based on the impressions of headquarters employees." If these outreach efforts sound a little like a political campaign tour, well, they are. Things like good advance work, the careful crafting of messages, the appropriate staging; even the town meeting format and the use of surveys-all are transferable from the political world. At the end of the day, you want to find ways to motivate your people, to get them more fully engaged behind your vision of where the company needs to go.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...
I recently finished a book called "The Trusted Advisor" by a fellow named David Maister. It is not a new book - it was originally published in 2000-by it is highly relevant to anyone who sells professional services. Like me. And it is even more relevant to anyone thinking about BUYING professional services. Maister, who taught at the Harvard Business School for seven years before setting out on his own, has constructed an almost perfect blueprint outlining how management consultants, lawyers and other advisory types can worm their way into your lives, becoming seemingly indispensable for an ever widening array of tasks. Suggestions range from the more prosaic remembrance of birthdays...to the delivery of books, flowers or maple syrup (OK, I made that last one up - but I did have a consultant once who every year gave me tins of maple syrup... boiled and processed by him on his Quebec farm.)
CAN YOU TRUST...YOUR TRUSTED ADVISOR?
Maister, who known as something of a maverick in the consulting world, has in essence written a very subversive tome. On the one hand, it has dozens of ideas and methodologies for, say, your friendly McKinsey consultant to bore his or her way into your heart (and bank balance). On the other hand, the book can be bought by anyone and everyone...including those same C-Suite executives who are the target of these endearing strategies. So, as I say, good reading for the buyer and seller of professional services...and if, at the end of the day, the consultant delivers good value for money...along with a tin of maple syrup...all the better.
A SATISFYING ENDING
Anyone, regardless of whom they were rooting for, who watched Sunday's US - Canada hockey gold medal game got more than their money's worth. Our son watched at university in Minnesota, surrounded by American partisans as he cheered for Canada. I watched in Ottawa, cheering for the Americans...while surrounded by my spouse and our dog Tashi (who always takes Karen's side.) When the US tied it 2 - 2 and I cheered, I was accused of being a Benedict Arnold (which might have made sense if Benedict Arnold had switched from the British to the American side, instead of vice-versa, but never mind). Overtime -- Karen and I had seen this movie before - we were actually at the 1994 Canada- Sweden gold medal game in Lillehammer, where the Swedes won in a shoot-out. And I must say, in the end, I was happy to see Canada prevail, in no small part because of the way they played in overtime - full-out, going for the win and risking the loss. In 1994 the team seemed willing to take their chances with a shoot-out-not so this time. And good on them!
AND FINALLY...
Now that the Olympics are over, do you think we'll ever see any of those celebrities in Canada again? Or Stephen Harper?
(The views expressed are solely those of the author, who is responsible for any errors, omissions or misconceptions. This newsletter may be cascaded far and wide as it is a marketing tool of Waite + Co. And, for a limited time only, anyone signing up for Waite + Co. services will receive a free tin of maple syrup. Real friendship will entail an additional fee.)
Reader Comments (1)
So much boils down to the building of trusted relationships, doesn't it. Interesting that you mention David Maister. I'm just reading one of his newer books, intriguingly titled Strategy and the Fat Smoker, that talks about "devising ways to ensure that compared to others, we actually do more of what everybody knows they should do".