Alignment
with your direct reports: The CEO Challenge
The
most difficult task for CEOs and leaders is to get people
to work
together
to achieve a common goal. Of the resources available to them
(capital, information, knowledge and people), the most difficult
to lead and leverage is people working together in support
of, and in contribution, to one another. It’s no wonder that
the majority of teams in the world of business struggle to
realize their true potential and performance results.
The
Disconnect
Do
you really know what your CEO wants and expects from you?
If so, how do you know? If not, how do you find out? The gap
between what CEOs want from their direct reports and what
those direct reports think their CEOs want are often oceans
apart. Of course, CEOs expect key executives to excel in their
given areas of expertise and responsibility. Beyond that,
however, it is not that cut and dry. Larry King, a colleague
TEC Speaker and Chair has identified the following three things
that CEO’s desperately want from their key executives:
1.
Clarity
2.
Leadership
3.
Generalized Problem Solving
To
read on and learn about each of these 3 areas and how the
disconnect between CEOs and key executives is a wiring problem
and how to close the gap Click
Here .
Carlos’s
Book Pick 
The
FIVE TEMPTATIONS of a CEO – A Leadership Fable by Patrick
Lencioni . The
greatest challenge of being a CEO, or any other leader for
that matter, is to avoid getting trapped by the daily complexities
and details of our “business.” In this book, Lencioni outlines
the five behaviours we must learn to embrace if we are to
rise above this challenge.
The
Premise: These behaviours are difficult to master not because
they are complicated but because each presents us with a corresponding
temptation, a natural tendency toward human frailty. Oddly
enough, Lencioni makes the point that some of these may not
seem like frailties at all in our personal lives, but in our
roles as leaders, the temptations are poison.
The
book is written as a leadership fable from which Lencioni,
very elegantly, outlines a Model containing the 5 temptations
and the specific steps we can take to overcome them. It also
includes a self assessment.
The
5 Temptations: (1) Choosing Status over Results; (2) Choosing
Popularity over Accountability; (3) Choosing Certainty over
Clarity; (4) Choosing Harmony over Conflict and (5) Choosing
Invulnerability over Trust.
Read
on to learn what Lencioni means by each Temptation and also
for his advice on how to overcome them: Click
Here .
Performance
Insight
This
exercise is a companion to the material in The FIVE TEMPTATIONS
of a CEO described above. CEOs/Leaders may fall prey to choosing
(1) Status over Results (2) Popularity over Accountability
(3) Certainty over Clarity (4) Harmony over Conflict (5) Invulnerability
over Trust.
Take
a few minutes, without interruptions, in a quiet place and
reflect on the questions below. be honest with yourself and
whatever you conclude, act on it, it can kae a big difference.
Challenge your direct reports to go through the same reading
and exercise. I have facilitated this with many groups and
it always leads to increased performance of the CEO/executive
team.
Your
personal Temptation:
- Which
of these temptations am I most vulnerable to?
- What
are two or three recent situations where I succumbed to
this temptation?
- How
did my behaviour in this area impact the organization?
- How
did my behaviour in this area impact my effectiveness as
CEO/Leader?
- How
could have I acted differently to have a more posiitive
impact on the organization?
- What
do I need to do, to avoid falling prey to this temptation?
To
view the full exercise, please click
here . You are not done yet ! |
