I heard about the reality TV show where a big-company CEO goes into hiding and infiltrates his or her own shop floor (or restaurant kitchen, or loading dock) to mingle with the regular employees in their daily work routine. The gimmick is that the employees don’t realize their very own CEO is working among them. I heard about it, and I thought “What a stupid premise for a TV show.” It sounds like boring TV, for one thing. For another thing, how is it that these big-company CEOs are willing (much less avid) to go on national TV and say “Hey! I’m the CEO of a big company, and my employees don’t know me from Adam!”?
It’s disgraceful that a large-company CEO (or any CEO, for that matter) would have so little connection with his employees (or hers) that the rank-and-file team members could work alongside the head honcho without having a clue their new crewmate is their own fearless leader. The CEO spot is a leadership job, above all. In any size company, the employees doing the work should know who their leader is. They should know his or her face, name and message – there should be a connection between the captain and the lowliest cabin boys, forged over video, email, face-to-face meetings, broadcasts, and other channels. A CEO who has neglected that connection isn’t somebody who has time to be gallivanting about on reality TV. He or she has bigger leadership fish to fry.
I wonder about the PR people who thought it would be fun and beneficial to put their CEO on TV and make it clear to viewers (also known as consumers and shareholders) that the guy in the corner office is a stranger to his employees. That’s an ace PR move, if you ask me. I hope somewhere on Wall Street, an analyst is tracking the results of those reality-TV CEOs’ organizations. Could we expect great things from an employer who isn’t chagrined that its top authority figure and champion could move so easily among the troops, undisguised, without comment? I’d say no. Were there Apple employees who didn’t know Steve Jobs’ face, voice, and worldview? Why would any CEO neglect the critical piece of the leadership job called “Sharing my vision (along with my face, voice and leadership message) with the troops”?
Here are five signs your CEO is asleep at the wheel – at best. If any of these sound familiar, you may want to start tuning up the engine for a 2012 job search:
Turnover plagues the executive ranks.
It’s hard to hit aggressive business goals when you don’t know whether the person who was your VP last week is still your VP today. Turnover on the executive floor will cripple your most important projects, but bad CEOs keep good people coming in and burnt-out husks going out the door. If your company can’t keep managers, your CEO may be a manager, but s/he’s not a leader.
The mission is murky.
No business leader has the answer to every question a team member might ask. But every employee should know the company’s mission, and I’m not referring to the generically-worded plaque on the reception-area wall. I’m talking about the employer’s reason for existence, and about its near- and long-term business goals. When people can’t figure out what the team is supposed to be pushing for, someone at the top of the ladder isn’t getting the leadership job done.
The culture screams “Keep your head down.”
Working people aren’t stupid. They learn to deal with a toxic workplace culture by shutting down their personalities when it isn’t safe to advance an independent idea or dare to question whoever’s guarding the chain gang. They do their work and keep their head down – at whose loss? Your shareholders, customers and employees don’t win when the smart and capable people on your payroll walk around on tiptoe, lest they catch the wrong person’s attention. Good CEOs don’t let a fear-based management culture take hold. They get problems aired and dealt with. They promote managers who have enough confidence to manage through mutual respect, rather than the bullwhip.
The wrong people thrive.
My old workmate Chris texted me after six months in his new job. “I like my coworkers, but I can see that the CEO is not in control of this ship,” Chris wrote me. “In the six months I’ve been here, two people have been promoted, and they’re both jaw-dropping bootlickers. Over the same period, the best guy in our department left.” In a dysfunctional culture, the wrong behaviors are celebrated. Good people get lost in the sauce or get out of Dodge entirely. If the CEO isn’t role-modeling and preaching leadership every day, don’t expect to find strong leaders in the ranks below the top.
In the tug-of-war between trust and fear, fear wins every time.
If the culture inside your employer is ugly, that’s the CEO’s problem. His or her number one job is to make sure that the organization s/he’s leading is staffed by mid- and junior-level managers who can lead, and not just bark out orders. Don’t blame it on your HR rep or your distance from headquarters, if the air is thick and toxic on the job. That’s what a leader is supposed to prevent. That’s why CEOs get paid millions of dollars.
If the CEO is out of his depth (or hers), signs of that non-fit will be everywhere you look. In that case, your best bet is to fire up the job-search engine and hit the road. You can’t force the Board of Directors to make a change at the top, and even if you could, the fact that the Board hasn’t spotted the out-of-place CEO and dealt with the problem already is a clear sign from the universe that your future lies elsewhere. You can use the horrendous stories you’re collecting now in your screenplay, down the road. As they say, that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. At least you’re clear-eyed enough to see when your CEO is floundering in the role. That’s more than we can say for the top dog him- or herself.
Forewarned is forearmed, right? There are plenty of employers led by eyes-open and thoughtful CEOs who understand the link between talent and results. If yours isn’t one of those, why stick around?