CEO Pain #2: All Talk, No Action
The Second of Three CEO Pains: Being Stuck
Recap: Over the next few weeks we’re going to discuss the “Three Pains” of CEOs in further detail, as first mentioned in ‘A CEO’s Journey’ previously; these pain points are experienced as very specific frustrations and fears, and have addressable solutions.
Last week we discussed the first CEO pain.
As a quick reminder:
The first CEO Pain focuses on visibility.
This shows up in the short-term as frustration with fogginess or “opacity” of direction.
Longer-term the team risks being “taken by surprise”.
How does this show up in practice?
Read more in the previous article, here.
Let’s continue with CEO pain #2.
We once worked with a energy company that was incredibly productive.
The division we worked with had about 200 people.
Everyone was always generating reports, attending meetings, and clocking overtime.
But, months would go by and the same issues would be discussed.
No meaningful decisions would be made.
I sat down with one of the executives and tried to understand the issues at play, and he explained.
“There’s always another Board or Exco report to write, usually to justify what we’re currently doing. And I’m incredibly busy, every day, in back-to-back meetings.”
We wanted to get to the root of the issue, so we decided to gather some facts and reconvened a few days later.
It turned out that two things we’re happening.
First, he was always fighting fires. A very common issue.
These fires were usually based on justifying previous decisions.
Worse still, he was usually doing the work himself, without delegating to his team. He was taking the “player” role vs. “coach” or leader, and it was not working.
Second, he was busy in meetings. Forty-three hours of meetings in an average week, to be precise. And 30-40% of these meetings had no clear outcomes or need for him.
How can you get things done when you spend the equivalent of your entire working week in meetings?
And imagine the change in productivity if he spend 3-4 hours a day less in unproductive meetings!
Some meetings are productive, so be careful what you cull, but many are there for legacy reasons, and not useful.
The three pains are shown in the image above; in this article we’re focusing on #2 here.
So, at a fundamental level, the second CEO pain is focused in:
Productivity.
Individually AND collectively.
This shows up in the short-term as frustrations with being “stuck” in terms of outputs, results, and progress.
Longer-term the team risks being “left in the dust”.
If I was faced with the challenge above I would previously have said: “I wouldn’t let things get this way! I would never accept it!”
You’re probably saying the same things right now.
However, the truth is probably three-fold.
One, organizational inertia is much stronger than we admit. It’s very hard to swim upstream when a torrent of corporate habit is pushing you downstream.
Two, there is always a strong tension between individual productivity and collective productivity, and it’s easy for leaders to mix up their productive roles at any given point, and work sub-optimally in this context.
Three, it is always much easier to add than subtract, as already discussed around the first pain. Another report, another meetings. It’s hard to fault someone for doing more.
Which is precisely why many leaders, CEO, CXO, or otherwise, feel like they are getting stuck in the mud, actually doing much less than they could be, as at team.
Question: how has this pain manifested for you?
Reply to this email if you’d like to let us know.
We will dig into the third pain in the coming article.
We will be digging into team “drama”, and how perfectly rational people can lose their minds entirely with very little provocation!
Thanks,
The Impactful Executive Team
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