'Real' CEO & Exec Leadership/Team development - how is yours?
Conducted a Leadership Talk with a corp. CEO & 10 Plant Mgrs/Corp Staff (topic: Indiv/Organizational Leadership Dev). Afterward, CEO was bought into the need - his staff saw this as 'tough stuff' to deal with. Sharing here some pieces of a follow-up letter I sent.
" (CEO name), here’s what I think hit some last night after we seriously challenged their own leadership and where they came from in the presentation today. ...here's what I think many were thinking to themselves after the session:
• “We have a lot on our plates as it is, we don’t have time for leadership and all this; we have important operational stuff to do -those other two legs of the tripod are where we should focus!..OPERATIONS, CUSTOMERS.
• This doesn’t sound FUN…
• The shortcuts (gimmicks/rah rah programs) have been taken away, to include just giving training to the supervisors/managers down below! This is about me…going first....
• TRUST issues are present and very real and that means we are going to have to work on ourselves, and my own personal behavior (and maybe past misbehaviors). I am going to have to like him/her and deal with stuff that has happened in the past; poor relationships, and say tough things. And I will have to get along with and ‘like’ him/her…
• This is not about someone else’s leadership, but mine. I am going to have to work on that also?....
• This is going to be about me teaching leadership to those below me, who also don’t do it well. I will have to change my behaviors and admit my past ineffectiveness in how I led….and get them to see this also...
• I will have to tell ( the CEO) stuff I don’t want to say, even though it is needed…
• I will have to admit that I have issues with a % of people around that table today…
• Down economic times means insecurity, and do I really want to be saying risky things right now? Is MY job secure?..."
(CEO's name), this CONSENSUS thing is a great concept which I believe you and most there realized. It also is a concept that is hugely challenging and even complicated. The ability for a leader and his team to become capable of DOING IT, is hard work, requires behavioral change, willingness to be flawed, saying what we feel, etc. ...There are no shortcuts...., This is all done so we realize this is about attacking ideas, suggestions, and the thinking of others ------ and not attacking each other! Over time, we begin to realize this is a good, necessary and better way of doing things. It is changing our lifelong thinking that feedback, input, criticism of our ideas, performance appraisal are negative, & instead GOOD... The leadership at the top MUST be able to do this...egos, silos and all that has to go away... We need to make big important decisions together!...
After the top organizational leader and his team learn to do this (and BECOME THIS); they then have to do the same with their team of leaders. Tough stuff to face in the early stages, at every level! IT IS INDEED LONG TERM cultural development for an organization. All this needs to occur with every leader/every team, all the way down.
The leader who is willing, persistent & committed to fixing leadership and teamwork, has to JUST DO IT. This seems to be contrary to the concept of CONSENSUS, ... .....Your leadership must realize that when it comes to developing ourselves, organizational leadership, culture and our team (right here among this team of execs), this is non-negotiable. It is about who we are, what we want to become, a sustainable process and where we are going. It cannot be the next expensive gimmicky event or program (this is a tough one for people to buy into!).
Any team, anywhere, with accumulated baggage, ineffective/untrained leadership (99% of all organizations), organizational change issues...will NEVER BE READY. ...the org. leader/exec team at top should be the model team for the organization - RARELY is it the case!
