18 Sep 2019 Leadership Qualities – The Bullet CEO
Leadership Qualities – The Bullet CEO
Insights from my Executive Coaching work
In this series of short articles, I will share real-life cases from my experience as an Executive Coach and how I worked with my clients to build their leadership skills and behaviors.
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Note that while the core of these case stories is real, I sometimes modify them to make a stronger point.
The Case Story
“How did you earn the Bullet nick-name?” I asked my new client? “Oh.” He said. “My team thinks that I am as fast as a bullet.” “Are you also as lethal as a bullet?” I asked. There was an uncomfortable pause and then he answered: “Sometimes I come across that way. I guess that’s why you’re here.”
John was the CEO of a fast-growing company. It grew 10% to 15% a year for the last ten years, which was unheard of in his industry. John was an exceptional CEO. He was visionary, smart, fast, confident, and charismatic.
When I asked him: “How were you able to grow the company so fast over the last ten years?” He answered: “I have a strong leadership team reporting to me. I provide the vision and detailed direction, and they just execute the tasks.” “Evidently, this approach has been going very well for you,” I said. “Yes.” He said. “But last year things started falling apart.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“Well.” He said. “About a year ago, I thought that we can no longer just keep growing organically. So, I went to the Board and I told them we should start looking for an acquisition. The Board agreed, and I started looking for the right candidates. As things progressed, I started spending more and more time on the road. Naturally, I expected my leadership team to pick up the load, but to my grave disappointment they could not do it.”
“John,” I asked, “What is more important to you, to do this acquisition or to save the company?”
John was much faster than any executive I’ve ever known, but it still took him a few seconds to think about it. To give up or postpone the acquisition was not easy for John, but he realized that if he continued to spend all his time on the acquisition, the company will be gone.
“OK,” he said, “What do you suggest we do?”
How We Addressed The Challenge
“You have to put your acquisition on hold, and build the strongest leadership team ever. Once you achieve this goal, you can go back on the road.” I said.
The Board agreed immediately.
But it was easier said than done. For 20 years John grew used to giving fast orders and got very frustrated if his leadership team took five minutes to understand where he was going
, or god forbid dared to disagree with him.
Step 1 –Come Clean
“This will take a lot of vulnerability, guts, and self-control,” I said. “The decision is yours.”
“I’ll try my best.” He said. “What’s our next step?”
“Here is my recommendation,” I said. “Sleep on it tonight and let’s brainstorm on it tomorrow.”
“I suggest that you open up and level with your team. Tell them that you want to change things. That you want to help them grow and become the best and the most independent leadership team in the industry. I suggest that you do it first one-on-one and then integrate it all in a group meeting.”
To my surprise, when we met a couple of days later, John agreed to my suggested approach.
Step 2 – Listen
Next, we worked on how John will run his leadership meetings and how he will interact with his team one-on-one.
“For each meeting,” I said, “I suggest that you send them your high-level objective in advance. Then you set up the overall direction, and you let them discuss ways to achieve the goal, while you just listen.”
“And what if they fail to reach a consensus on the way forward?” He asked.
“That is your job and your challenge, to coach and facilitate a productive discussion that will lead them to their own conclusion, even if it takes twice as long to get there.”
“And what if I don’t like their conclusion?” He asked.
“As long as it is not a fatal mistake for the company, you let them go with it, even if it is very different from your view.”
How It Turned Out
The first few months were very bumpy. But John understood that he’d rather save the company than be right.
I used to sit at the back of the room, observe what was going on, and share my observations with John after the meetings.
As the year progressed, a couple of members of the leadership team left the company. They were just not cut out from the right cloth. But the majority stayed, made mistakes, grew, developed, and became solid and independent leaders.
After about 15 months John told his secretary one day: “I am ready to fly again. Please book me a ticket to New York City next week.”
Author: Uri Galimidi, MSc, MBA
