Chief executive officers are traditionally seen as leaders – at the helm, responsible for the work of steering their company in the right direction. For this reason, CEOs have to learn to make hard decisions and be confident in all their judgments, lest they be seen as negative and indecisive. Everyone else in the room should just put their trust in their chief exec and take on the same level of confidence.
However, this level of confidence has its pitfalls; supposedly solid, data-driven plans may end up failing, tarnishing the CEO’s reputation as a result. That said, should a CEO take a step back, bench their initial leanings, and partner with stakeholders in the decision-making process?
Why CEOs should be thought partners
It is not unusual for CEOs to come up with decisions based on experience, advice from their top team and available facts and information. Working with other stakeholders, in this regard, is often seen as rookie behaviour best left to the newbies,
However, working with all the relevant people when it comes to making decisions may be the better course of action for the CEO. This puts them in the role of a thought partner – one that shares ideas and experiences with other stakeholders to get through complex challenges.
By doing so, they open themselves up to the following advantages:
- Generate more ideas. Butting heads in a brainstorming session can help a company generate more ideas; the longer it goes, the greater the quantity and refinement of the options you’re getting.
- Broader perspective. Involving your company in the decision-making process injects more perspectives into the work. This should allow CEOs to develop a course of action that practically works for everyone.
- Better teamwork. As a thought partner, a CEO can help create an atmosphere that facilitates teamwork and higher workplace engagement.
How can a CEO become a thought partner?
It does not take much for a CEO to step down from the throne of a thought leader and work with their people as a thought partner. QZ explains how these executives can embrace a mentality of uncertainty to make this happen. Here’s a quick summary:
- Use uncertainty to think carefully and deliberately. CEOs should reflect on their decisions before they act on them. By doing so, they shut off all biases and allow their mind to consider all the options on and off the table.
- Share your uncertainty with your team. Thought partners involve their team in everything that has to do with thinking, and in doing so, they end up sharing each other’s uncertainties. To do this, CEOs should imply uncertainty in all communications, asking for their team’s input in the process.
- Draw on uncertainty to create a more agile organisation. CEOs should not consider plans as absolute; they are merely guides that are still subject to errors and uncertainties. They should then leverage their uncertainty to make room for error and be able to act to all scenarios accordingly.