What people want in a CEO

I recently posed a question on LinkedIn and my network came back with some very interesting answers. What makes a good chief executive?

The most popular responses fell into the communications category. This is fascinating to me. Perhaps it is only anecdotal, but my recollection is that we've seen dozens of surveys about how employees want more communication. So, no real surprise there, other than some execs still aren't getting it. Communicate with your people, people.

I also look at this from an organizational behavior perspective. How does your organization function if you're not communicating? Answer is, you are communicating, but perhaps not what you want. Many companies have long term goals or strategic plans - excellent! But do all their employees know their fit into that plan? I believe that every employee from the CEO to the janitor has a vial (literally life giving) role to play in that organization. With out them what would have happened? Would their work have been done by another, would the company have lost money, what? Each person has value. If they don't, then why are they there. If they don't know their value and their place in the strategic plan then chances are they are not performing optimally. Read, not meeting strategic targets, or making money.

So, as I see it, it is up to a chief executive to arrange for adequate communications plans so that all employees know their role in an organization. What's the mission, vision, values... Often times these are covered in a new hire orientation. Other times, their just understood, or are they. A wise man once said, "If common sense were common, why don't they teach a class in it?" We need to be careful about assumptions. Good to Great author Jim Collins speaks about a Hedgehog concept and I couldn't agree more, though I've used different words to describe decision making. In my language, what happens in a struck by lightening or hit by a bus scenario? Are employees, all employees sufficiently aware of the direction they should take, without asking? This is after all the basic definition of organization, being able to accomplish more as a group than an individual could by themselves. But too often, we see ego, not values, common cause or direction leading. Cross purposes define silos and infighting, all to the competitive disadvantage of not just an organization but to an economy.

Sure people want job stability, good livable wages, benefits, but they also want to contribute to something larger than themselves, to know that they belong to something better, something bigger than they are alone. A good CEO challenges every employee to stretch, to do just a bit more, to grow, to reach, to strive, to belong. A good CEO communicates and is a role model, forgives and learns, makes the hard decisions, and listens.