It may seem those surprise resignations are a part of the reality that organizations have to accept, but the truth of the matter is that a well-attuned CEO will rarely have to deal with such a curve ball, and it all goes down to their ability to ensure that the staff’s personal goals are aligned with the organization’s goals.
The way to tell if your CEO is well-attuned is by being sure that they possess the following 3 qualities:
- Having demonstrable experience in creating bottom-up structures: One of the key jobs of any manager is to build a team. The power of a group of people working to achieve a common goal is immeasurable. At the root of team-building are intangibles such as values, beliefs, identity, and more. Smart CEOs take time to create bottom-up structures to allow their staff to tell them about where they want to go with their life, instead of telling their staff what values and goals they need to try to internalize, which would have a drastically different effect.
- Being impactful communicators and influencers: This should come as no surprise to anyone, seeing as the most senior roles in any organization are all about communication and influence. So how can you put this to the test? It’s actually simple: Powerful communicators are excellent listeners and observers who can identify when their audience is losing interest in what they are saying and unlike amateur communicators, they are less focused on what message they are sending, knowing that it is more important to listen than to be listened to. Powerful communicators have a powerful command of the language, they are confident, their opinions are rooted in data analysis and industry experience, and their body language also influences their audience. You want your CEO to be agile in their communication style, and adapt their approach in relation to their audience (think of how a board may hold many personalities, and how that adaptability would come in handy in their interactions together). Another important note to remember is that an impactful communication will use emotion only in as much as it is needed to make their point more effective in delivering their message. They will not lose their temper, and will never lose sight of the message they want their audience to receive. Conversely, underperformers will not be able to change their communication style and can even lose their temper in an interview. They will be more concerned with what they are saying and less to do with what message is being received.
- Possessing emotional intelligence: defined as the ability of an individual to control emotion within themselves as well as the ability to influence the emotions of others, emotional intelligence is a powerful weapon that top performers wield to convert negative emotions into positive ones, hence transforming negative situations into positive ones. If you put them through a stressful interview the top performer will remain calm, focused and positive, and be able to turn hostile peers into friendly allies. The situation in which this quality comes in handy is when your CEO is able to combine their ability to understand the human condition and their ability to gauge others’ emotions and drivers to ask the right questions and listen to the messages that the team is giving out.
Armed with these 3 qualities, in addition to their ability to set clearly-defined long term goals, your CEO will be able to articulate their future targets and how they will achieve them, which allows them to see how well-aligned the organizational goals are with the staff’s personal goals. This gives your corporation an edge because many companies do not touch on this point in their many performance management systems. Once it is incorporated, it would allow you to better assess your candidates and differentiate between those who have different goals, as is the case of a staff member who has ambitions about moving to the countryside and would not remain in their position in the city, and other employees who are transitional or lack dedication.
Here are 2 questions to help you assess your CEO’s goal-setting ability in an interview:
- How do you communicate the organisational goals to the team and what structures/processes/actions do you take to allow your front line staff and direct reports to provide feedback and input regarding what the goals are [bottom-up instead of top-to-bottom]
- Can you give an example of a time when you noticed that one of your direct reports had personal goals that were incongruent with the overall goals of the business?
The candidate’s answer will allow you to tell if they understand what message is being received and if they have a feedback mechanism to know if there’s a match between what individuals want to achieve and the organisation’s trajectory. If the answer is yes, to both questions, you then know that you have a CEO who will always be ahead of the game.
Looking for more questions to ask a CEO? Read “CEO Assessment and Selection” to learn more about the 7 universal success factors for the Chief Executive Officer, and unlock over 450 fail-safe questions that allow you to recruit top performers. Get more free CEO Assessment tips at https://tpgleadership.com/ceo-assessment-selection-book/ .
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