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How to get your CEO talking (productively) with employeesIssue Date: Journal of Employee Communication Management - November/December 2004 Are you frustrated because your CEO won't take the time to communicate directly with employees? And when he or she does, are you mortified at the result? The author tells how to convince your CEO to communicate regularly with employees, and coach him or her to communicate effectively. "I'm worried about the business; they're worried about deadlines." "I want to take communication off the table as a barrier to company performance. They wouldn't have the slightest idea how to help me with that. My guess is that they'd want to start another intranet or newsletter." Little has changed since Jim Shaffer gave communicators this feedback from CEOs back in 1999(1). But what would your CEO say about you? Of course, you want him or her to say something like this: "I just can't live without him/her…he/she is actively involved at the top strategic level of our business and provides invaluable assistance helping us communicate effectively with the workforce for maximum organizational performance…he/she always knows what content, media and sources we should use to drive the changes we need from our various internal workforce segments…for me personally he/she advises on the best balance of face-to-face and media, provides leverage of what I say right across the organization, and ensures I get the feedback, coaching and counselling I need so that my communication is the best it can be." How can I convince the CEO? Frustrated communicators ask me "how can I convince the CEO there is payoff for talking with and listening to employees?" Sometimes a CEO is not interested in people or culture, he or she may be immersed continually in non-people operational or financial issues, or maybe the business is going well without any attention being paid to the people. So why change? The answer to this is very clear. Apart from academic research there are countless stories about successful companies e.g. Southwest Airlines (2) and General Electric (3); or corporate turnarounds e.g. Continental Airlines(4); or research-based books such as Built to Last (5) or Good to Great (6), revealing the huge impact of excellent internal communication, led by the CEO, on organizational success. Moreover, my research (7) of work forces repeatedly shows that: Only "change communication" and "cross-functional communication" average lower scores than this (9). And only "feedback to management" correlates as strongly with overall communication satisfaction. So improving CEO and, in large organizations, divisional head (executive VP) communication will provide a "big bang for your buck" right across the entire organization (or division or subsidiary). Recognition of this is hardly new. For example, some years ago Harvard professor John Kotter wrote (10) that the CEO should: First, help the group establish some sensible direction (a vision to drive people forward)……Second, great leaders are all good at getting relevant partners aligned with, buying into, and believing in the direction they have set……Third, is the ability to create conditions that energize and inspire people to get off their fannies. If you work for a female CEO, chances are she won't need convincing. In my experience female executives are usually "people-people" who understand that to get things get done they need to get their people committed. For example, I've recently conducted focus groups across Australia for a leading company with 35,000 employees. When I asked about visits by senior executives, one was repeatedly mentioned as often visiting branches, even though (i) she'd been CIO (chief information officer) not in the branch network, and (ii) she had resigned from the company more than a year earlier. This executive is now the high-profile CEO of a smaller but extremely successful competitor. She listens and she understands people. In any case, for the CEO to ask for and value your advice you'll need to demonstrate a good enough understanding of the business by being able to explain how the recommended communication activities will help the business. You may have to argue with the CEO about how he spends his time and what he does. In another organization we knew the 40,000 employees in the retail network would improve service quality if we could convince the CEO to "communicate" to them (by what he did and said) that service quality was critical. I suggested they invite James Strong, then managing director of Qantas, the profitable Australian airline that has won many airline service awards, to lunch. Strong told the CEO "if you're serious about service quality you should be spending at least 40 percent of your time out in the branch network talking about service quality." I had never met Strong but I knew: he had a human resources background, he had symbolically moved his headquarters out of a downtown building to the airport, he scheduled an hour or so for discussions with many training groups, and he ran a highly successful service provider. So I had assumed he'd say the right thing. He sure did. What's going wrong? Neither leadership gurus nor employees are happy with CEO communication. A Harvard professor had this to say: LEADERS are role models, trend-setters, visionaries, and voices for change. This is foreign and fuzzy to most CEOs. And it's not usually in their job descriptions. (11) I conduct focus groups with hundreds of employees each year. Without prompting, most employee groups are vocal about various shortcomings of their leaders. Typical comments include: We don't know where the organization is going. Employees say that if they know the strategic direction of the business they'll know how to manage their own activities and priorities. (12) Retail bank branch employees often tell me that they don't know quite how to balance service quality and productivity. They are told to operate their branches profitably which they can only do by sacrificing service quality, and they are also supposed to provide a high level of service that eats into profits. What are they supposed to do? Should they provide a high level of service to wealthy customers but send older folk making small cash withdrawals outside to use the ATM? On the other hand, the ANZ Bank made it perfectly clear what its strategy was by offering customers $10 if they had to line up for more than five minutes. The message to bank staff was clear: don't worry about the quality of service, just serve customers quickly. In the public sector the requirements of service to the community are often quite clear, and the criticisms of senior executives are more often to do with poor communication of change initiatives. They 'don't come clean' about the changes and disruption that always seem to be with us. As mentioned above, change communication is handled poorly by most organizations. Employees rarely get reasons for major change initiatives from the top of the organization (which they want), and consultation about, or involvement in, major change is patchy. I conducted focus groups throughout a state based government department. The CEO was popular for getting around to talk with hundreds of employees in remote locations. But she was not able to explain the rationale of many important changes going on. The result was little or no benefit was gained by the visits and discussions. They are not visible-CEOs and other executives who are "invisible" internally demonstrate to employees that they don't care about their people. Maybe they don't think people are a priority. Maybe they are shy. Whatever the reason, they are not providing leadership and guidance. A few years ago, a colleague was the "culture specialist" in a newly established Australian service provider famous for it's thorough staff induction and "can do" culture. One of many top-class communication and HR people, she had ready access to the very visible CEO (famous for having run the huge McDonald's operation in Australia). This CEO sat in open plan office space and communicated frequently with the thousands of employees. A new CEO arrived and after a few fruitless weeks of trying to see him, my colleague got a message from his PA: "Mr A says to tell you he's not remotely interested in the culture." Not surprisingly, all the communication and HR people I knew there have long ago left, and the word on the street is that this company is no longer regarded as a great place to work and now finds it hard to attract and retain high quality people. They don't know what it's like for us. Many CEOs and senior executives don't get around to talk to employees or, if they do, they do it in large "town hall" meetings where asking a difficult question can be regarded as a "career limiting move." A senior professional said the best communication in his national government agency was a town hall meeting attended by 400 staff at which the divisional chief outlined the way forward and various key strategies. Questions were invited but none were asked, so the executive left the meeting without understanding staff concerns and under the impression that his presentation was understood by all present. They don't live the values. Without question the major determinant of the organizational culture is the example of the senior executives. What the CEO and senior people do "speaks" louder than what they say. In one famous IT company I kept hearing in focus groups that the executives were not living the values. "They're not serious about the cost-cutting campaign-in Accounts we've just seen the bills for the new boardroom furniture," or "the service quality initiative is a joke-I was not allowed to send an desperately needed spare part to a customer by urgent courier." CEOs believe this is a responsibility that can be delegated to communicators. But this is not something that can be successfully delegated to others, it is a management job. Someone once asked "whoever gave communicators the idea that they should do the communicating?" My opinion exactly. Staff in a government agency with 80 overseas locations said they loved getting informative e-mails from the CEO, but suggested he either write his own e-mails or get just one communicator to write them for him. The communicators admitted that up to eight of them were writing the CEO's e-mails. CEOs rely on the intranet, newsletters or town halls-if they communicate at all. This is better than nothing, but unless there are also opportunities for at least some face-to-face communication it is unlikely the CEO will be able to develop a quality relationship with employees. Overseas-based staff in the same agency said that while they loved e-mails from the CEO, the e-mails from their divisional head (executive VP) meant more to them as they'd met their divisional chief and had not met the CEO in most of the 80 locations. Few had the "personal" relationship with the CEO they had with their divisional head. What should communicators do to support the CEO? Clearly putting together a communication strategy and plan for the CEO will be a good start. To do this you'll need to understand the business strategy, how CEO communication can support the strategy, which employee groups the CEO should talk with, (and about what), and what questions he or she should ask to get meaningful feedback and comment. I conducted 20 focus groups in the 7,000-employee head office of a well-known Australian organization. Even though employees saw the CEO often in the media, the closest any of the more than 200 surveyed employees I met had come to the CEO was that one employee thought she'd seen him in the elevator, but she couldn't be sure. If employees are knowledge workers they will be more interested in hearing from the CEO. I was conducting focus groups at a major location of a 2,000-employee research organization and discovered the CEO was conducting staff briefings in the canteen the very same day. I was suspicious that the timing was for my benefit. But the next day I visited the other major research centre in another state where the scientists complained to me that the CEO had never visited nor were there any plans for him to do so. It seems the timing of the CEO's briefings was accidental, and I certainly recommended he make a trip to the other major research centre. Exposing your CEO to various internal audiences is best done by when the CEO makes business visits to various locations. Schedule the visits well ahead, and build in additional time for the CEO to spend with people at the location. But ensure that the CEO does not cancel the employee meetings when management or customer meetings take longer than expected. Employees tell me this happens far too often and confirms they sit right at the bottom of the pecking order. I was once asked to do briefing notes for the CEO of a large bank for his visit to the head of the state government in an interstate capital. I provided the notes and asked his executive assistant which bank branches the CEO was going to visit. "The CEO does not visit branches," I was told firmly. Not surprisingly, this CEO lacked credibility with staff. Ideally, the CEO should talk with small rather than large groups. Town hall meetings don't often allow employees to have a discussion with the CEO and have their questions answered. Much better to have the CEO drop in to staff meetings of 40-50 people, make a five minute presentation on the strategic direction or the organization and how the stakeholders think the organization is performing, and then to answer questions. Better still if the CEO can ask "what can we do in head office to make your lives easier (or make you more productive)?" Opinion leaders will tell others of what the CEO said (and did). I was visiting the internal communication manager for a company where it was well known that the CEO had started at the bottom of the organization as a trades apprentice. I had met the CEO, who was friendly and outgoing, and I said "I guess he gets out and about among the employees?" "Sure does," said my host. But I was to discover later that he got out and about in a dark business suit, white shirt, tie and cufflinks to make PowerPoint presentations. This was not what I had imagined. If your organization has many thousands of employees, you may need to restrict the small group appearances of the CEO to groups of managers, as they are critical to the understanding of strategic direction at lower levels. I was about to present the findings of my research to the CEO of Foster's (Australia's global beer). The head of internal communication said the CEO was about to fly out to present a series of roadshows. But, knowing what I must have been thinking, she added "not big presentations, but a series of 15 meetings in different locations with no more than 50-60 managers in each to enable a full and frank discussion." This is certainly the best way to go. You may feel you need to have the CEO and other executives address employees in large (town hall) groups. This is better than nothing, but not as good as small group meetings with meaningful discussions. On the other hand it is clearly over the top for the CEO to try to meet every single employee each year as, many years ago, Victor Kiam (the guy who liked the shaver so much he bought the company) claimed he did with 97,000 employees. I've always thought it curious that (at least here in Australia) many executives get media training, even though they are unlikely to ever appear on television or radio. Yet very few get training or coaching for frequent (and sometimes difficult) interactions they have with employees (e.g. at times of major change such as mergers and downsizing). It is a key responsibility of communicators to help the CEO and other executives prepare for interactions with employees. Just as with media training, it is important to predict the likely questions and practice how to respond openly and honestly without getting tangled up and making promises that can't be honoured. I conducted focus groups in a government rail authority with 6,500 employees and privatization looming. Employees said the CEO (a shy accountant) should get around the state and discuss the future. He had done a round of talks a year earlier when acting in the position. A communicator had recorded all the questions asked of him at these and he practiced his responses. I told him that if he didn't discuss layoffs they would not listen. He did, and when I phoned 25 union officials in the locations he visited, all but one said the CEO had done a great job. Only once did he get tangled up on labour relations issues. Overall a great job with difficult employees. It is critical that executives say if they don't know the answer to any question, and undertake to find out and advise. It's also desirable that the CEO does not get bogged down in detail or undermines other executives or managers. A CEO of a 2,000-employee organization I recently worked with can't resist the temptation to get involved in operational details instead of referring these to his executives. As a result, employees continue to bypass their managers to raise the most mundane of concerns with the CEO, as they might be lucky enough to get the commitment they want from him. He constantly undermines his now-demoralized executives and managers. There are many other things the communicator can do to support the CEO: In particular, you may wish to arrange some of the following sorts of things for your CEO (13): Above all else, employees judge what is important to the organization by what the CEO does and (assuming it is consistent) by what he/she says. It is critical in large organizations that the communicator uses the appropriate internal media (print and electronic13) to leverage what the CEO does, who he/she talks with, what he/she says. Some clients I visit don't have a CEO's column in the staff newsletter, thus missing a great opportunity for the CEO to say what's on his/her mind. One CEO I know did a breakfast meeting with 60 branch managers (out of 1,800) but there was no publicity in the glossy staff magazine (circulation 48,000) or the fortnightly videotape (for 30,000). An opportunity to communicate that retail branches were important as well as what he said was missed. Opinion leaders pay attention to where the CEO goes, who is spoken to and what is said. What is expected of the CEO? I've conducted research in many organizations to find out what media and sources employees prefer for various topics (or subjects). Employees consistently expect the CEO to keep them up-to-date on the organization's future and how the main stakeholders say the organization is going. In addition, employees usually say the CEO should announce major changes both good and bad (e.g. mergers or layoffs). There are plenty of books with advice on leadership and the CEO's communication role. I'd recommend those by Pincus (14), and Mai and Akerson (15). More recently, Mai and Akerson have described the leader's communication role as: Roger D'Aprix (16) in his "text" describes the CEO's leadership tasks as: Basically, the CEO must regard the work force as a "garden" to be tended, not a "machine" he or she can tinker with. Your job is to help the CEO tend the garden. I think you get the drift. The evidence is that most CEOs are not happy with the communication support they get, and most employees are not happy with CEO and senior executive communication with them. So there is plenty to do. Good luck. 1 James Shaffer, Connecting the Dots… Linking People to Strategy - A Change Management Communication Process, IABC International Conference, 21 June 1999. See also his book The Leadership Solution, McGraw-Hill, 2000
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