Q. How did you decide what
to change?
One of the most important
things for a CEO — probably
throughout their entire tenure
with a company but certainly
at the beginning — is to shut
up for a while. There’s a tendency for CEOs to want to
have a viewpoint and always
want to talk and express that
viewpoint and articulate a
vision and be a leader. Sometimes, being a leader can stop
you from listening.
It’s real important when a
CEO comes into a company to
talk to as many people in the
organization as you can — all
the way down to the lowest
person on the totem pole. Ask
questions, but don’t feel obligated to articulate your own
view of how things are going
faster than you can.
A lot of folks want to come
in and take charge, show
their stuff, and really impress
everyone with their vision
and energy and operating
skills. The fastest and surest
way to make mistakes is to
stop listening. So I listen. I
walk around and talk to people. I take them out to lunch.
I try to put the informational pieces together to create
the puzzle in my mind of
how it all fits together. It’s an
important time for CEOs to
listen and to be thinking but
not necessarily to feel compelled to take fast action.
Q. How did you get everyone
on board with the vision?
Part of it was talking and
listening and discussing it
with people. The vision that
emerges is not me going off
into the desert and coming
back with tablets and a view
of the world. The vision that
emerges from that process is
a vision that is organic —
from the business itself and
the people in the business.
Any time we have been
successful in articulating a
vision for the company and
moving forward, I don’t
know that I’ve ever been
solely responsible for that
vision or that I had somehow
seen something that other
people didn’t see.
What I think I’m very good
at is condensing information
that other people have,
weaving it into a story and
seeing what the milestones
along that path have to be to
get there. <<
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