The Hindu Business Line : Commitments embedded in comments

CEOs and business owners better watch out! Every word they utter is recorded, interpreted, amplified and transmitted across the organisation and beyond. Furthermore, perceptions, attitudes, behaviour and performance are shaped by these utterances. It is common to find public relations agencies tasked with media appearances for CEOs and companies. Rarely do we encounter communications specialists entrusted with managing communication to internal publics.

In focus

For the rest of the organisation the CEO is a beacon and focal point rolled into one. It’s rather odd but true that binoculars and microscopes are simultaneously trained on the leadership. You can’t escape continuous scrutiny when you are top dog! It’s not surprising that many CEOs are permanent residents of Page 3, mostly for all the wrong reasons.

It is well known that CEOs and business owners are under intense time, financial and performance pressure. It is therefore natural for them to have short attention spans and shorter tempers. Many of them possess minimal attention spans and have a compulsive tendency to multitask; some of them also suffer from attention deficit syndrome; the result is often poor listening and consequential difficulties in maintaining and strengthening relationships.

In such a highly charged scenario, many CEOs and business owners run into difficulties in managing the expectations of their team. Let me explain. In the heat of the moment they say something, just to tide over an embarrassing situation or to placate a disgruntled colleague or reportee. So, to them the comment is not imbued with much meaning. To the listener however the meaning is an entirely different ballgame; to him the comment is the truth because it came from the CEO himself.

For example, to mollify an employee who has been hurt by a poor performance rating the CEO could say something like, “don’t worry, I’ll take care of you soon”. This delightfully vague “let me get out of jail now and worry later” kind of comment is the seed that sprouts into a really sticky problem.

The employee misunderstands that the CEO also agrees that he has been wronged and so will correct the situation soon. He expects the performance rating to be changed from a C to A by the CEO soon. And so he waits and waits. Nothing happens since this is the last thing on the CEO’s mind. Finally, the employee is disappointed, disgruntled and de-motivated. He takes a position that the CEO can’t be trusted, that his words have no meaning and therefore deserve no respect.

Imagine if this scenario is repeated with many people and many different comments. The pattern is repeated over and over again and the negative fallout is reinforced. The CEO makes a comment lightly, the organisation believes and waits for action to validate the comment. The expected action doesn’t follow. So what did the organisation learn? That the CEO’s words cannot be believed. That he says one thing and does another; that he doesn’t mean what he says. Can it get any worse from a leadership and organisational morale perspective?

From CEO’S angle

Let’s change the point of view for a moment and look at it from the CEO’s angle. CEO’s interact with many, many people through every single day by email, telephone, meetings, one-to-ones, videoconferences, speeches, presentations… the list goes on and on. The issues and subjects they confront are myriad from processes to problems to solutions to opportunities! They switch their emotions and intellect, energy and focus, from people to places, by car, by aircraft from locale to locale to hotel….. Is it any surprise that they lose track of what they’ve said to whom and when? It’s entirely natural for them to forget commitments embedded in comments, particularly if they’ve not attached much importance to passing remarks. So it’s quite traumatic for them to discover later either through direct 360 degree feedback or indirectly from long-time friends and associates that there is a disconnect between what they say and what they actually do.

Many CEOs suffer from selective amnesia, often subconsciously. They cannot remember things that are not of immediate relevance. Perhaps the quarterly performance reward-punishment cycle has trained them to develop tunnel vision! Often the promises that they make or hints that they throw are unwitting invitations to disaster, particularly in interpersonal relationships. Therefore retaining a balanced state of awareness is a very important priority for them. Equally important is a documentation system that captures what the CEO himself has said he would deliver; most often the documentation is confined to what others have to deliver.

Furthering own interests

But there is another type of CEO that lurks in the highest echelons of corporate and business leadership. This is the kind of CEO who deliberately leads people up the garden path to achieve his short-term goals. These are generally highly competent, high IQ individuals who are convinced about their own invincibility; they feel that no one can see through the web of deceit that they weave around them. For them, other people mean nothing and the organisation exists only to further their own interests. They are just a heartbeat away from bringing the entire organisation crashing down, no matter how big the organisation. That’s because managers in companies today are far too smart to be fooled all the time!

CEO’s therefore need to keep a constant vigil on what they say and how they behave. It is indeed a great challenge to maintain a balance between watchfulness and spontaneity. How successfully they pursue this balance determines their leadership legacy.

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