If you’re a chief executive officer, your job is to execute. It’s
written right into your title. But what does it mean, in terms of daily
tasks, to be the company’s top “executer?” After all, CEOs don’t
actually build factories or sell products.
It’s tempting, therefore, to view the CEO as primarily a thinker;
someone who mulls and shapes strategy. That is a part of the CEO’s job,
of course. But the best CEOs know that strategy is just theory unless
it’s actually translated into frontline routines―unless the rest of the
company actually is executing the strategy.
The CEO’s job is to make sure that happens. The best CEOs focus
primarily on four things: communication, communication, communication,
and overseeing resource allocation to ensure that the priorities they’re
communicating are actually the ones getting funded. The problem with the first three of those tasks: It can be incredibly boring. The same messages must be repeated again and again ad nauseam.
But the best CEOs resist the desire to chase the next shiny object.
They stick maniacally to their communication role to guarantee that the
strategy is baked into frontline routines and behaviors.
And just because it’s repetitive doesn’t mean it’s easy. First-time
CEOs often feel like their own company is conspiring to drown out those
messages. Based on our research and
decades of experience working with CEOs, here are six tips for CEOs who
want to get the boring—and most important—stuff done:
Liberate yourself from your own staff. Your time and
your energy are your most valuable resources. Focus them on what’s most
important and start saying “no” to people—starting with your immediate
staff. The average CEO inherits a staff committed to serving the
institutional requirements of the office of CEO, not the CEO’s strategic
agenda. If you don’t ruthlessly protect your time, you will watch your
calendar rapidly fill up with retirement parties, ribbon cuttings and
other corporate tasks that have nothing to do with advancing the
strategy.
Many CEOs apply a 60/40 rule: They devote 60 per cent of their time
to “must-do” tasks like governance and investor relations and the other
40 per cent to personal focus on strategic execution. And they
constantly review the 60 percent to decide if really need to do them or
can delegate them to others. One pharmacy retail chain CEO who wasn’t
particularly good at investor relations simply hired people who were
better and entrusted them with that duty.
Disentangle yourself from the Byzantine bickering of the professional managerial class.
Most companies have a professional managerial class that absorbs way
too much time and energy and distracts CEOs—and others—from focusing on
customers and the front line. CEOs can waste a massive amount of time
simply tending to the egos and petty squabbles of professional
managers―time better spent connecting directly with the front line and
solving their needs. I recognize this sounds harsh; it is. Of course,
every organization needs professional managers, and many of the great
value-creation stories of business can be traced to their efforts. But
we have to be honest: If we can point to companies that are
under-managed, we must also point the finger at companies that are
over-managed, where the professional managerial class appears to spend
as much time perpetuating its own agenda as it does supporting the front
line.
As part of the ongoing research effort for our book, The Founder’s Mentality,
we’ve studied why companies retain or lose the characteristics that
help them avoid growth-killing complexity and stay focused on their
insurgent mission to serve customers. Our surveys, research
and extensive interviews suggest that this sense of mission fades first
and fastest at the upper and middle layers of the company as they
become diluted with professional managers.
Professional managers tend to worry most about stakeholders somewhere
in their own office. They are more likely to tell their family about
face time with the CEO than about solving some faceless customer’s
problem. Avoid becoming a dinner table boast and instead spend your time
maintaining the energy and sense of mission of the frontline employees
who devote their day to serving customers or supporting those who do.
Laminate your “strategy on a page” and find joy in talking about it for the thousandth time.
The best CEOs create some sort of strategy on a page. I’ve known some
who laminate it to survive the 1,000 conversations they initiate. They
constantly remind everyone what matters in the simplest terms possible.
How a CEO spends his or her own time sends a powerful message about what
matters to the business, but that doesn’t let them off the hook on the
boring part of the job: They still must repeat that message over and
over and over again.
We even argue that CEOs should focus on a “strategy on a hand”
(which liberates them from their laminates). The thumb represents a
simple, jargon-free description of “why we exist,” and the fingers are
the three to four ways the company must excel to make that happen. At
Indian consumer products company CavinKare, the thumb is “Whatever a
rich man enjoys, the common man should be able to afford, and our job is
to find a way to solve this.” At one Brazilian retailer, it’s “To give
aspiring lower-class consumers the opportunity to own furniture, ‘white
goods’ and consumer electronics by helping them solve their financing
needs.” At Google, it would be “To organize the world’s information and
make it universally accessible and useful.”
The best CEOs instinctively distill an often complex strategy into a
few clear elements that can easily cascade through the organization, and
they revel in making that happen. “The role of a CEO is to simplify the
complexity and stick to a few themes that are easy to understand,” the
CEO of one luxury goods company told us. Or, as an airline CEO reflected
in a recent conversation with us, “In any company I’ve been in, there
haven’t been very many people who are capable of standing back and
making the complicated things very simple. Yet that’s where the real
value is.”
Celebrate the doers. Every company needs thinkers,
but CEOs need to fight the natural tendency of corporate hierarchies to
glorify them. Instead, they must remind everyone that it is the
doers—the key employees who directly support customers—whose actions
advance the mission of the company.
“My sales force are the heroes of my business,” the CEO of one
consumer goods company told us. “I want them to sell all day, outhustle
the competition, get our products onto the right shelves at the right
width and height. I’ve told them over and over that they are not the
brains of the company, but the arms, legs, ears and eyes.”
He continued: “For example, if the sales reps see new competitive
activity or something interesting in-store that worries them or presents
an opportunity, they take a photo with their smartphone, write a few
lines about the issue and send them off to the heads of sales and trade
marketing. Then they go back to selling. The thinkers back at
headquarters get about 150 pictures a week, some of which get translated
by the marketing staff into new sales initiatives. And every month, the
company gives an award for the best new sales initiative―not to the
marketing department, but to the sales rep whose photo triggered the new
initiative.”
Be the question guy, not the answer guy. Thousands
of issues can distract a CEO from what really matters. You don’t need to
solve every problem. As the CEO of one food company told us: “I need to
know about those issues and I would be cross if I didn’t. But I don’t
have to fix them.” If a problem is getting in the way of the doers, you
should make sure it gets solved. Otherwise, it can probably be delegated
to someone on your team to figure out. Most CEOs start the job
believing they need to have all the answers, but over time they realize
they need to have good questions, such as “How does this activity help
translate our strategy into frontline behaviors and results?” There it
is, the boring part again.
Ignore the conventional wisdom of coaches. CEOs hear
a lot of bad advice urging them to stay in their box and work through
the management structure. Watch out for these phrases:
“The CEO should look up and out.” This is the
notion that the CEO’s job is to manage the board and outside
stakeholders, leaving day-to-day operations of the companies to others.
This is poppycock. One would hope the CEO attained his or her position
by being one of the best operators in the business. Why abandon that
strength once they are in the ultimate position to exercise it
throughout the company?
“The CEO should work through the layers and not connect directly with the front line.”
Nonsense. Messages must be delivered directly. We’ve all played the
game of telephone as kids and know the twaddle that emerges at the end
of the chain. A CEO who communicates through layers is a CEO who dooms
the organization to drivel. This doesn’t mean you ignore the management
layers in between – bring them along, share the stage and debrief and
coach them afterwards. But deliver messages directly.
“The CEO must rise above the details of the business.”
Total nonsense. Revenue comes from customers, and customers care
massively about the details of the business. Deep customer loyalty is
born of the infinite decisions required to get these details right. The
CEO must live here.
“The CEO’s job is to set the strategic direction and then leave the execution to others.” Utter nonsense. Strategy is meaningless without execution. Execution is where strategy turns into results. Do both.
And yes, execution by communication can be boring. Yet you will often
find that the messages need repeating—and that each time you do, you
learn a lot about what’s working and what isn’t in different parts of
your company. In the long run, these simple messages make your job much
easier. Performance management gets linked to these simple themes. That,
in turn, encourages leaders throughout the organization to absorb and
live the same priorities. It shows employees that their own path to
success is tightly linked to strategy. And clear, simple themes win over
investors and analysts, too.
Here’s the rub. Ultimately, you need to find joy in this. And there
is joy. Each conversation is an opportunity for mutual discovery, for
mutual insight. You can be successful as a CEO only if you can mobilize
the hearts and minds of thousands, so you must love this mobilization
and take joy in helping each group and each individual discover what the
strategy means for them. CEOs don’t lead companies, they lead a
collection of people who all need to move in the same direction. And
that demands a thousand conversations.
There’s that one person on your team — the bad apple who has nothing
positive to say, riles up other team members, and makes work life
miserable. If you can’t fire him, how do you respond to his behavior?
What feedback do you give? How do you mitigate the damage he inflicts?
What the Experts Say There’s a difference
between a difficult employee and a toxic one, says Dylan Minor, an
assistant professor at the Kellogg School of Management who studies this
topic. “I call them toxic because not only do they cause harm but they
also spread their behavior to others,” she explains. “There’s a pattern
of de-energizing, frustrating or putting down teammates,” adds Christine
Porath, an associate professor at Georgetown and the author of Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace.
“It’s not just that Joe is rude. The whole team suffers because of
it.” Of course, your first step as a manager should be to avoid hiring toxic people in the first place,
but once they’re on your team, it can be hard to get rid of them.
“Oftentimes the behavior doesn’t run against anything legal so you can’t
fire them if others in the organization don’t agree that a line has
been crossed,” Porath explains. Here’s what to do instead.
Dig deeper The first step is to take a closer
look at the behavior and what’s causing it. Is the person unhappy in the
job? Struggling in their personal life? Frustrated with coworkers? “You
might meet with them and ask how they’re doing — at work, at home, and
with their career development,” suggests Porath. If you find there’s a
reason for why they’re acting the way they are, offer to help. “A
manager can use this information to coach the person, or suggest
resources to help address the root of the problem.” For example, adds
Minor, if the person is going through a divorce or struggling with a mental health issue, you could offer “counseling resources or time off that could potentially alleviate” the underlying issue.
Give them direct feedback In many cases, toxic
people are oblivious to the effect they have on others. “Most of the
time people don’t realize that they’re as destructive as they are,”
Porath says. “They’re too focused on their own behaviors and needs to be
aware of the broader impact.” That’s why it’s crucial to give direct
and honest feedback — so they understand the problem and have an
opportunity to change. The standard feedback rules apply:
Objectively explain the behavior and its effects, using specific,
concrete examples. “It’s not helpful to say, ‘You’re annoying us all,’”
Porath explains. “You have to ground it in the work.” Also discuss
what kind of behavior you’d like to see instead and develop an
improvement plan with the employee. “What do you expect them to change?
Strive for clearly defined, measurable goals,” Porath says. “You’re
giving them the chance to have a more positive impact on people.”
Explain the consequences If the carrot doesn’t
work, you can also try the stick. “We all tend to respond more strongly
to potential losses than we do to potential gains, so it’s important to
show offenders what they stand to lose if they don’t improve,” says
Porath. If the person is hesitant to reform, figure out what they care
most about — the privilege of working from home, their bonus—and put
that at stake. For most people, the possibility of missing out on a
promised promotion or suffering other consequences “tied to the
pocketbook” will be a strong motivation to behave in a more civil way.
Accept that some people won’t change Of course,
you should always hope that the person can change but not everyone will
respond to the tactics listed above. Minor is currently researching
toxic doctors and says that early results indicate that some are either
unable or unwilling to change. Porath’s research on incivility has
meanwhile found that “4% of people
engage in this kind of behavior just because it’s fun and they believe
they can get away with it.” In those extreme cases, you should recognize
that you won’t be able to fix the problem and begin to explore more
serious responses.
Document everything If you conclude that you
really need to fire the person, you must first document their offenses
and any response you’ve offered so far. “You want to establish a pattern
of behavior, the steps you took to address it, the information,
warnings or resources provided to the employee, and the failure of the
employee to change,” Porath says. Include “supporting material” too:
formal complaints, relevant information from performance evaluations,
such as 360-degree or peer reviews. The idea, says Minor, is to protect
yourself and the company and to show your employee exactly why they are
being let go.
Separate the toxic person from other team members Even
if you can’t get rid of a bad apple, you can isolate it from the rest
of the bushel so the rot doesn’t spread. Minor’s research shows that
people close to a toxic employee are more likely to become toxic
themselves, but the good news is that the risk also subsides quickly,”
he says. As soon as you put some physical distance between the offender
and the rest of the team – for example, by rearranging desks,
reassigning projects, scheduling fewer all-hands meetings, or
encouraging more work-from-home days — you’ll see the situation start to
improve. Porath calls this “immunizing” the others. “You’re trying to
protect people like you would with a disease,” she says. “You will
hopefully decrease the number of run-ins and the cognitive loss.” But
make sure to do this with discretion. Let employees come to you with
their complaints about the toxic colleague and use “one-on-one
conversations” to coach them on how they might minimize their
interactions.”
Don’t get distracted Managing a toxic person can
eat up your time, energy, and productivity. But “don’t spend so much on
one individual that your other priorities fall by the wayside,” says
Porath. To counteract the negativity and make sure you’re still thriving,
“surround yourself with supportive, positive people” and “look for
meaning and purpose in your work,” she says. Also focus on basic
self-care. “If someone is draining you, build yourself up by exercising,
eating right, sleeping, and taking breaks, both short-term ones and
vacations,” she says. “Being healthy and proactive is the one thing we
know that buffers people from the effects of toxic behavior.”
Principles to Remember Do:
Talk to the person to try to understand what’s causing the behavior.
Give concrete, specific feedback and offer the opportunity to change.
Look for ways to minimize interactions between the toxic employee and the rest of your team.
Don’t:
Bring the situation up with your other team members. Allow them to mention it first and then provide suggestions.
Try to fire the person unless you’ve documented the behavior, its impact, and your response.
Get so wrapped up in handling the issue that you ignore more important work and responsibilities.
Case Study #1: Give direct feedback and support the rest of the team Christina
Del Villar, the director of marketing at the e-commerce operations
software firm Webgility, managed a small team at a start-up earlier in
her career. One employee, Sharon (not her real name), a senior marketing
manager, was making the rest of the group miserable.
“She was an alcoholic, abused drugs, and had a medical condition,”
Christina recalls, Her work was “full of mistakes,” her work ethic was
poor — ”she was often out of the office, at least one day a week, if not
more” — and she frequently took credit for others’ efforts.
Christina made sure to document the behavior but says she couldn’t
fire Sharon because the woman “had threatened to sue for a variety of
reasons, including her medical condition” should she be let go. Instead,
she worked to prevent “the negativity from seeping into everything” by
routinely giving Sharon feedback and direction. “Sometimes people don’t
realize the impact they’re having so I like to have a blunt conversation
with them about their behavior, what they can do to change it, and how
they can work better with the team.” Her approach was “delicate”
because, with Sharon “you never really knew who you were going to get on
any given day.” But she learned to read her employee’s “state of mind”
and “pick days where she would be more accepting of this kind of
conversation.”
Christina also supported the rest of the team. “Sometimes it was as
easy as saying they were doing a great job or thanking them for stepping
up to “fill the void” left by Sharon, she explains. She also encouraged
them to focus on themselves and their work, “not on what someone else
was or was not be doing.” When they complained about Sharon, she offered
advice “while still respecting everyone’s privacy and staying within
the law.”
While Christina’s efforts reduced the negative impact Sharon was
having, the problem was ultimately solved by circumstance. When their
business was acquired by a larger company, Sharon moved to a different
department.
Case Study #2: Help him rebuild his reputation Daniel
Hanson (not his real name) once managed an IT team at a large
multinational that suffered every time it had to interact with Bob (also
not his real name), a senior internal consultant. “He had a habit of
talking down to people and being dismissive and was blissfully unaware
that his behaviors irritated people,” Daniel recalls.
With a little probing, Daniel discovered some of the reasons for
Bob’s negativity. “His personal life was a mess between bad
relationships and estranged children. Plus he’d realized that he had
reached a certain age and hadn’t achieved the professional satisfaction
that he wanted and he thought he deserved.”
Still, Daniel made clear to Bob that his behavior needed to change.
He recommended a counselor provided by the company and offered up his
own time and advice in weekly meetings. “I told him this was his last
chance and that the next step was a formal performance management plan
and almost inevitably exit from the business,” he says. Although many managers “hated Bob with a passion,” Daniel encouraged
them to stop talking about him behind his back, “to see that he was
trying to change and to include him in more senior projects under close
observation.” He spoke to people individually and “pointed out that his
contribution on numerous projects had been immense.”
“Gradually, as Bob’s behavior changed, their attitudes toward him
changed as well,” Daniel says. He’s proud that, when Bob did eventually
transfer to another team, it was because he’d wanted to go, not because
he’d been forced out.
You need to speak in public, but your knees buckle even before you
reach the podium. You want to expand your network, but you’d rather
swallow nails than make small talk with strangers. Speaking up in
meetings would further your reputation at work, but you’re afraid of
saying the wrong thing. Situations like these — ones that are important
professionally, but personally terrifying — are, unfortunately,
ubiquitous. An easy response to these situations is avoidance. Who wants
to feel anxious when you don’t have to?
But the problem, of course, is that these tasks aren’t just
unpleasant; they’re also necessary. As we grow and learn in our jobs and
in our careers, we’re constantly faced with situations where we need to
adapt our behavior. It’s simply a reality of the world we work in
today. And without the skill and courage to take the leap, we can miss
out on important opportunities for advancement. How can we as
professionals stop building our lives around avoiding these unpleasant,
but professionally beneficial, tasks?
First, be honest with yourself. When you turned down
that opportunity to speak at a big industry conference, was it really
because you didn’t have the time, or were you scared to step on a stage
and present? And when you didn’t confront that coworker who had been
undermining you, was it really because you felt he would eventually
stop, or was it because you were terrified of conflict? Take an
inventory of the excuses you tend to make about avoiding situations
outside your comfort zone and ask yourself if they are truly legitimate.
If someone else offered you those same excuses about their behavior,
would you see these as excuses or legitimate reasons to decline? The
answer isn’t always clear, but you’ll never be able to overcome inaction
without being honest about your motives in the first place.
Then, make the behavior your own. Very few people
struggle in every single version of a formidable work situation. You
might have a hard time making small talk generally, but find it easier
if the topic is something you know a lot about. Or you may have a hard
time networking, except when it’s in a really small setting.
Recognize these opportunities and take advantage — don’t chalk this
variability up to randomness. For many years, I’ve worked with people
struggling to step outside their comfort zones at work and in everyday
life, and what I’ve found is that we often have much more leeway than we
believe to make these tasks feel less loathsome. We can often find a
way to tweak what we have to do to make it palatable enough to perform
by sculpting situations in a way that minimizes discomfort. For example,
if you’re like me and get queasy talking with big groups during large,
noisy settings, find a quiet corner of that setting to talk, or step
outside into the hallway or just outside the building. If you hate
public speaking and networking events, but feel slightly more
comfortable in small groups, look for opportunities to speak with
smaller groups or set up intimate coffee meetings with those you want to
network with.
Finally, take the plunge. In order to step outside
your comfort zone, you have to do it, even if it’s uncomfortable. Put
mechanisms in place that will force you to dive in, and you might
discover that what you initially feared isn’t as bad as you thought.
For example, I have a history of being uncomfortable with public
speaking. In graduate school I took a public speaking class and the
professor had us deliver speeches — using notes — every class. Then,
after the third or fourth class, we were told to hand over our notes and
to speak extemporaneously. I was terrified, as was everyone else in the
course, but you know what? It actually worked. I did just fine, and so
did everyone else. In fact, speaking without notes ended up being much
more effective, making my speaking more natural and authentic. But
without this mechanism of forcing me into action, I might never have
taken the plunge.
Start with small steps. Instead of jumping right into speaking at an
industry event, sign up for a public speaking class. Instead of speaking
up in the boardroom, in front of your most senior colleagues, start by
speaking up in smaller meetings with peers to see how it feels. And
while you’re at it, see if you can recruit a close friend or colleague
to offer advice and encouragement in advance of a challenging situation.
You may stumble, but that’s OK. In fact, it’s the only way you’ll
learn, especially if you can appreciate that missteps are an inevitable —
and in fact essential — part of the learning process. In the end, even
though we might feel powerless in situations outside our comfort zone,
we have more power than we think. So, give it a go. Be honest with
yourself, make the behavior your own, and take the plunge. My guess is
you’ll be pleased at having given yourself the opportunity to grow,
learn, and expand your professional repertoire.
