Not long ago I was hired to provide executive coaching for the CEO of a medium-size company. The Board of Directors hired me because they were concerned about the CEOs "ability to get things done." There had been complaints and even some hard evidence that important responsibilities remained incomplete. Before my first meeting with the CEO I was told that he had the education, experience and desire to be highly successful. Nonetheless, too many projects, tasks, assignments, problems and opportunities somehow didn't get his attention, thus remained incomplete. The company had tried its best internally through the HR department to improve his behavior, but little had been
accomplished. I was, so it seemed, the CEO's last chance.
The point of the CEO's problem was clearly illustrated in the first thirty minutes of our first meeting. These are direct quotes from the notes I took in that meeting, "Claims he can't get things done." Here's another quote, "Claims his direct reports can't think for themselves. They have no initiative." And another quote from my notes, "Claims he
is too busy because too many people bother him." And a final quote, "Claims most of his staff are under qualified—thus causing him to spend too much time fixing things."
I listened to the CEO make these comments and took notes that documented his perspective of what was going on. During this time I observed a critical part of the problem. That first
executive coaching meeting was held in his spacious, modern office in a corner on the top floor of the company's corporate headquarters. In those first thirty minutes my notes also said, "CEO seems unusually bothered by, ring, ding, knock
and slap."
Within the first couple of minutes of our first meeting his phone rang. Even though he had a highly competent administrative assistant just outside the door, he leaped up and answered the phone. After a brief conversation he said, "Sorry about that, I like to get my own calls."
A few minutes later I heard a "ding" from the computer on the CEO's desk. The ding signaled that an email had been received. Instantly the CEO began glancing toward the computer. He appeared to have difficulty focusing on our conversation, as evidenced by his glances at the computer. Finally, he said, "Excuse me I need to see if this is something I need to take care of." He then moved to his desk and after pushing a couple of keys read an email. Coming back to the conference table where I was seated he said, "It's nothing important." I asked, "Exactly how important was that email?" He responded, "To be truthful, advertising spam sometimes gets through our firewall and that's what it was."
It wasn't long before we heard a "knock" on his office door. He said, "Come in." It was an employee who felt some compelling need to deliver a message to the CEO in person, rather than put it in written form. And during that first thirty minutes his administrative assistant entered the room, excused herself, and put a pile of mail on the CEO's desk. It hit the desk with a "slap." As she left she said, "Sorry to interrupt, but you told me to bring the mail in the minute it arrived."
Ring, Ding, Knock and Slap: the sounds of impending leadership failure!
After observing about ninety minutes of the tactical circus, I asked four questions, "Why is it necessary for you to personally view every email message within seconds of it arriving?" (He had excused himself several times in the first hour and a half to do that; I didn't keep track of how many.) I asked, "Why is it necessary for you to personally
answer every telephone call, even when you are in a meeting?" I asked, "Why do so many of your employees believe it is necessary to ask for your permission to do simple things?" (One employee interrupted us to ask if he could go home.) And I asked him, "Why is it necessary for your mail to be placed on your desk immediately after arriving, even when you are in a meeting?"
His answers to the four questions were at best vague. He tried to explain that any message to the CEO could be important and he believed in taking care of important things first. And the only way he could know if an important message had arrived that deserved his immediate attention would be for him to stop whatever he was doing, regardless of how important it may be, and screen the incoming message.
Perhaps by this time you are wondering if this story could possibly be true. Yes, it is absolutely true, every single fact. Near the conclusion of my first
executive coaching session with the CEO I began to piece together the facts and impressions I had collected.
1. The CEO was grossly ineffective in understanding that first things
must come first, not only to executives, but also to the entire
leadership team. This CEO actually thought he was practicing first
things first, but actually he was an activity addict. He was so caught
up in performing simple, tactical, unimportant tasks that he had become
addicted to that activity.
2. The CEO was grossly ineffective in delegating tasks, assignments
and responsibilities to team members. There was no reason why his
highly competent administrative assistant couldn't have screened
incoming messages to find any that were truly "important" as he defined
it. There was no reason why she couldn't have also screened or
categorized his mail to minimize his time reading it.
3. The CEO was grossly ineffective in delegating authority to team
members. The failure to delegate authority, such as that needed to make
a decision to go home or not creates unnecessary burden. It could have
been the CEO's desire to maintain control, or feel needed, or feel
powerful. Whatever the psychological reason, the failure to delegate
adequate authority along with responsibility to team members created a
fearful, untrusting climate where people didn't take risks and
demonstrated minimal initiative.
4. The CEO was grossly ineffective in practicing applied strategic
thinking. Even though he spent up to fifteen hours each day at the
office, and worked most weekends, his time was consumed in tactical,
administrative activities. Thus, he had little time left to "get things
done" or think about making the organization a strategic leader in its industry.
As I left his office that day I thought about a book I had read by Steven J. Stowell and Stephanie S. Mead titled
Ahead of the Curve. In their book the authors describe activity addicts as people who often fail in being able to think strategically. The authors use a cleaver chapter title to describe the ability to control the daily tactical demands of business. They call this ability
Taming the Beast!
Oh, by the way, the CEO was terminated shortly after the executive coaching started. I guess the Board of Directors didn't like my first report on the CEO's progress.
Dr. Richard L. Williams is a business consultant specializing in performance coaching, quality improvement, team development, leadership development and organizational development/diagnostics.
For more information on these aspects, or needs specific to
executive coaching please visit
executive coaching,The Center of Management and Organization Effectiveness.
