My CEO Life

A great posting came across my desk ther other day that listed the top 10 CEO’s around the world that never went to college (uni for those in the UK and Australia). All the CEO’s are well known. Of course there is Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on the list. However, some of the other names were a little surprising.

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In today’s tough economic environment, everyone is hurting – busineses, employees, their suppliers and of course the customers.  In these tough times, it is important the all parts of the business tighten their belts and the business is seen externally to tighten its belt.

If the company does not do this, it runs the risk of disenfranchising their employees and their customers.
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I recently heard about a manager who called all his staff in for a meeting about the future of his part of the business.  As he went through the presentation, he talked about a new, more efficient structure.  The problem was, the new structure left off a bunch of existing people.  These existing people immediately asked “where am i”.  To their surprise, they  were told that their roles where no longer needed and the manager wasnt sure if they would have a job after 30 June.  Now this doesnt appear to  be the smartest approach to the problem of how to tell someone they dont have a job any more.  What is the impact of this approach and how could that manager have handled it better?
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Businesses around the world are going through tough times as the world’s economy continues to struggle.  In these tough times, business have to make tough decisions – often letting go of key people.  In making these decisions, it is important that the people in the business understand why the decision is being made, in particular what events have led to that decision.  However, this openness and transparency is often very difficult for management.  Therefore, the result is that businesses become plagued by fear and rumour, thus leading to a slowdown in efficiency and effectiveness and therefore more layoff.  How can management break this spiral?

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I was chatting with a few folk the other day about different styles that CEO’s have.  Some wander around and chat, some roll up their sleeves and get deep into the hot issues, some just look at the numbers from their desk, while others cant help but micro manage. 

This got me to thinking, can a CEO really manage a business from his / her desk or do they really need to get out amongst the people?

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You have to love the Nike slogan – it really does epitomise many things a business should do and often doesnt. How many times have you been frustrated by the speed of decision making within a business or the speed of response by a business to make something happen. Often decisions get bogged down in politics, lack of ownership, consensus building or just fear (of making a decision). I have often experienced this when dealing with external businesses (and sometimes internally too) where people seem to take forever to make what sometimes looks like a relatively easy decision.

I think that there is a different way to run a business and one the leads to faster decision making, more responsibility passed down through the ranks and the result is a place where people get on with it, take leadership for their actions and things happen!

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The other day i wrote a post about politicians emerging where there is a leadership gap.  (Click here to read it).  In it i looked at some different types of people within a business and what happens when things change.  The article identified 4 types of peope – worker bees, survivors, aspirants and politicians.  Well the article stirred some discussion and Alain in Luxembourg wrote a great email all about the Worker Bee Politician Mutation.  Here it is …

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There are many different types of people that operate within a business.  Based on my experience, here are some of them.

Worker Bees- These are hard workers who are happy with their lot in life and have few long term leadership aspirations beyond doing a good jobs and putting bread on the table for thier family. 

Survivors – These are not so hard workers who do what is necessary to survive in the business and are either looking for something else or see work as a means to end – an enjoyable life.

Aspirants- Employees in this group truly aspire to be leaders in a business and believe that hard work and doing a good job will get them recognised.  They let their work to the talking for them.  Not everyone in this will become a leader in the business however their aspire to get there.

Politicians - Employees in this group also aspire to be leaders however they often look for opportunities to climb the corporate ladder by shamelessly promoting themselves, sometimes at the costs of others, and often are divisive in the business in an attempt to curry favour or use wedge politics to get themselves noticed.

I have come across people in each of these groups during my working life.  The funny thing is that people often clearly fall into one of these categories although they often dont know it themselves.  Of course as the CEO you want a great combination of Worker Bees and Aspirants in the business and should ensure that the Survivors and Politicians are shown the door as soon as possible. 

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Now here is an interesting question – “How do you teach the employee’s within your organization about the company’s Core Values and at the same time ensure that your fostering that culture throughout the organization?“

I am not sure “teach” is the right word to use.  I think that you can not create a culture however you must use your best efforts to shape the culture.

Now shaping a culture is quite difficult, especially once you go through 150 or so employees.  (I have 350 employees today).  Therefore it is important that while you are small, you get the basis of the culture right and as part of that, get the core values right.

So, firstly you must decide what type of organization you want to run.  It can be open and egalitarian, it can be hierarchical, it can be dictatorial – it is up to you.  Why?  Well for one simple reason – what you do will determine what is acceptable behavior.

We see it in all walks of life.  It is ok for the US Government to spy on its citizens so what do we see Hewlett Packard doing – spying on its Board members and even the press.

So, what ever you want the place to be, live it in everything you do.  It is by experience that people learn what is right and wrong within the organization.  Work on your lieutenants as they must also live the culture.  If you it right, it will spread like wildfire.

So take my business.  I think it should be egalitarian so i don’t have an office, i don’t fly business and the rest economy, i don’t have any special favors – we are all equal.  We openly value great ideas not position.  I openly chastise those that try to ingratiate themselves with me and we praise great ideas – no matter where they are from.

Other things i do is travel to other offices and just work there for the day amongst the team.  I take people to lunch, shout them beers and just let them know, by action, that i am a normal guy and very approachable.

The best form of teaching is to live the culture and being a CEO, you are always under the spot light …

One thing that i constantly do is read.  I always have a stack of throw away reading for plane trips.  I never read confidential materials about the business on a plane and really spend that time opening my mind to new ideas and thoughts – either about the industry we operate in or about new management techniques and thoughts.

Leadership is one of my hot buttons … here is a list from a management magazine of the top 8 tips for leaders

1. People are led – things are managed
2. Pay attention to people, not structures
3. Some things never change.  Leadership is a process which involves the leader and the followers in a specific situation.  It is NOT a person, a role, a position or a title.
4. In the next century, despite the on rush of technology, people are still people and need to be and like to be led.
5. In the knowledge economy, the most precious knowledge is knowing what you dont know
6. In the knowledge economy is it not what you know but how adept you are to learning
7. Knowledge is mobile – when people move so does their knowledge
8. No matter what century, without integrity, there is no leaderhip