Overheard the other day: “You don’t want to have a debate in front of your CEO.”
Are we sure about that?
We all complain that our CEOs are out of touch. Don’t lie, you do too.
It’s out fault.
When we’ve completely insulated them from the sausage making, we can’t get mad when they have no idea how the sausage gets made.
I’m not arguing that your CEO needs to join every second of every standing staff meeting of every department in your entire organization all the time. Meetings are damned expensive. Look around the next time you’re in one, and mentally calculate the per-hour cost of all those people sitting around the table listening to pointless “updates” with no required action or attached decisions. An $80,000 salary means about $40 an hour, plus about another $20 an hour in benefits. $60 for one hour for one person. Tossing the CEO in the mix dramatically ratchets up that cost.
But if your CEO never hears the options or sees the thought processes that go into narrowing them down and selecting one, it’s no wonder she seems constantly in the dark. She is. And you’re the one who’s keeping her there.