This article was first published on http://www.hbrascend.org. HBR Ascend is a digital learning platform for graduating students and young professionals.can easily cascade through the organisation, 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 said. Or, as an airline CEO reflected in a recent
conversation with us: “In any company I’ve been in, there
haven’t been 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 custom-
ers – 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.”
The CEO says: “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 sell-
ing. 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 realise they need
to have good questions, such as “How does this activity
help translate our strategy into frontline behaviours 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 com-
panies 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 organisation 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. A strategy is meaning-
less without execution. Execution
is where strategy turns into re-
sults. 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 com-
pany. In the long run, these simple messages make your
job much easier. Performance management gets linked
to these simple themes. That, in turn, encourages lead-
ers throughout the organisation 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 oppor-
tunity for mutual discovery, for mutual insight. You
can be successful as a CEO only if you can mobilise the
hearts and minds of thousands, so you must love this
mobilisation 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
84 I BUSINESS TODAY I August 11 I 2019MANAGEMENT