The descriptions that follow, of the differences in how two very different electronics industry CEOs worked with their executives in two companies I knew well, will give great insight into how you can retain your most valuable managers and executives.
CEO 1
In the first company, a boutique semiconductor company, we will refer to as Msemi, the CEO was a highly talented, brilliant scientist and inventor holding many patents.
He was enamored with new ideas and allowed his engineering (research and development) staff unlimited freedom to experiment and invent new processes.
You’d think this would lead to a superior relationship with his upper management team.
Wrong! It didn’t.
His focus on technology was laser-sharp, his focus on people often rude and dismissive.
Instead of creating long time loyalty, he later learned that when he went abroad, the management of the company went for long, two- and three-hour lunches, didn’t pay attention to business, and were petty and argumentative among them.
When I first met this group of executives, it was at their monthly executive team meeting. What I discovered was they each came to the meeting with beautifully prepared power point presentations, created by their staff.
They pontificated and showed off to each other. There was hardly any spontaneous interaction. This was not a team.
They were individuals competing for favor with each other.
CEO 2
Let me compare this to one of my favorite companies, and a CEO who has become my friend.
In this company, which we will refer to as Gsoft, the CEO developed a team he referred to as his pillars.
These were hand picked men he knew from prior companies, or family-friends. In this case they were all men, and all came from the same country-culture.
When they met together it was to talk with each other. I watched as they shared problems and solutions freely and without need of posturing.
They were truly a team.
When their CEO left on extended trips, the company remained as active and cooperative as it had been when he was there. He trusted his team, he respected them, and they in turn gave him their all.
So what are the lessons to be learned from these two styles of leadership?
1.) Trust and the freedom to communicate freely add to the sense of executive teamwork.
2.) The relationship between the CEO and his or her C-suite staff sets a tone that permeates down the chain of command.
3.) Although it might not be politically correct, it is easier to work comfortably with people from your own background and culture. We need to work harder to understand people from other cultures.
The above might be the most obvious lessons to be learned from the different styles of the CEOs in theirs two companies. But there are other lessons as well.
4.) You must provide your talented executives with interesting work, they need to be kept challenged.
5.) The quality of the work matters to the best and the brightest, they want to know they are making a difference.
6.) Mentoring those going up the executive ladder because it takes time, energy, new learning, and sometimes the ability to take on unpleasant tasks the higher up the ladder you climb.
7.) The importance of regeneration.
Trust and freedom to communicate freely add to sense of executive teamwork
In my first example, the executives didn’t trust each other, or their CEO.
Instead of sharing information with each other, they showed off with power point presentations. Thus, the CEO didn’t get the information he needed to make the best decisions, and the executives didn’t help each other at all.
There were silos throughout the company when I joined them. My first act was to force them away from their presentations and into open communication.
It took several months of actively working with the executives to get them to start opening up to each other. Once trust was established, communication freed up and proper information was shared.
Relationship between CEO and his/her top staff sets tone that permeates through chain of command
CEO Msemi had a brusque and distrustful way of communicating. He was a fault finder, instead of an encourager.
His executives talked about him behind his back and there was one VP who went so far as to whisper to all the other executives that they shouldn’t talk directly to the CEO but should go through the VP for safer communications.
CEO Msemi was primarily a loner, an inventor, a technocrat who in today’s parlance would be diagnosed as having Asperger’s Syndrome – highly functioning Autism.
He was unable to create a comfortable and safe environment. His distrust permeated the culture of the company. This company would probably have survived better if he allowed someone else to be CEO while he remained CTO.
Whereas, in Gsoft, the CEO was a marketing and sales executive prior to starting his own company. He knew how to treat people. He picked carefully and treated them well.
His employees, at all levels in the company spoke highly of him. Not only did they respect him. They liked and trusted him as well.
His pillars, as he called them, were men he liked and trusted. They were given the freedom they needed to do the jobs they were assigned. They had the freedom to discuss anything with him and with each other – and sometimes they offered constructive criticism to each other.
Together, as a real team they grew Gsoft successfully.
Although it might not be politically correct, it is easier to work comfortably with people from your own background and culture. We must work harder to learn about those from other cultures.
I wish this weren’t true – but it is.
We are more comfortable with ‘our own kind’. This is because there is a commonality of childhood experiences, university experience, religious tenants, and customs.
It’s also easier to see the nuances of face and body language of people from our own culture.
I am not proposing we give in to this tendency though.
What I AM proposing is we take the time and trouble to learn as much as possible about those from other cultures, so we can become more comfortable with them.
Instinct about people matters.
Perhaps another part of this lesson is that you get diverse points of view when integrating executives from all over the world, instead of playing it safe with just your own kind.
Great teams understand each other instinctively – so it behooves CEOs to spend the time developing this deeper understanding of your staff – and to allow them the time to develop this style of instinctive communications with one another.
You must provide your talented executives with interesting work, they need to be kept challenged
The quality of the work matters to the best and the brightest, they want to know they are making a difference.
The best and the brightest – your most talented managers and executives – want to know they are making a difference. No busy work for them.
One of my most important lessons learned when I first started working came from our controller, Mr. Mutterperl. I overhead a conversation that went something like this:
Q: Mr. Mutterperl, why do you teach Andy (his assistant) everything you do? Aren’t you afraid he will take your job?
A: No, on the contrary. The more I can teach Andy the more it frees me to do more challenging and creative work.
Mr. Mutterperl made a difference. Not only in the work he did personally, but in his ability to mentor and teach others so that they could grow professionally as well.
Mentoring those going up the executive ladder because it takes time, energy, new learning, and sometimes the ability to take on unpleasant tasks the higher up the ladder you climb.
I think we confuse supervision, teaching, training and coaching with mentoring.
They are all different.
Mentoring is the relationship of a wise, older relative helping a younger niece or nephew develop their talents. It is an easy relationship, dictated more by the questions of the mentee than the needs of the mentor.
Mentors are people you trust and can ask the questions that you wouldn’t ask your parents, teachers, or bosses.
The higher you climb, the more difficult the work – including having to deal with the more unpleasant responsibilities, such as having to fire someone.
Having someone older and wiser you can lean on helps you tackle these difficult tasks.
The importance of regeneration.
When Jack Welch became CEO of General Electric one of the first things he did was take his executives away for long retreats in elegant and luxurious settings.
He knew the importance of treating them well – and allowing them the time and place in which to regenerate.
In short, maintaining the best and brightest of your talented executives requires understanding their needs and wants, building trust, allowing them the freedom to be honest – and creative and being flexible enough to allow them to work at their own pace and regenerate when needed.
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