CEO COMMUNICATION
CEO: “What do sales look like for the
second quarter?”
A: “It depends on how much confidence
there is in the pipeline.”
CEO: “Of course it does, I just want to
know what your best guess is for Q2
sales, given how we estimate pipeline
probability.”
The CEO is thinking: Quit avoiding my
question – just answer it! A better answer
would be, “My best guess is $35 million for
the second quarter, which of course comes
with some important assumptions.” If the
CEO wants more of an explanation of the
assumptions, wait to be asked.
COMMUNICATIONS IRRITANT #2: “LET
ME EXPLAIN HOW TO BUILD A WATCH.”
The metaphor is this: When a CEO asks
what time it is, don’t explain how to build
a watch. This is related to #1, but a bit
different. The CEO asks a question and
the subordinate is fearful that a direct
answer will be rejected, so the temptation
might be to respond, “It depends.” An
alternative way to beat around the bush
is to build a case for the answer using a
wordy rationale first (explaining how to
build a watch), before finally answering
the question. But that will irritate most
CEOs, who don’t like waiting, waiting,
waiting for the answer.
CEO: “What do sales look like for the
second quarter?”
A: “Well, it looks like the economy will
grow at three percent, our top two
competitors have new products that
will eat into our sales, offsetting our 20
percent revenue growth projection and
I hear Pat, our top sales rep, is looking
for another job. Add to that our faltering
international strategy, blah, blah.”
The CEO is apt to say, “Stop with the long
answer – just answer my question.” If the
subordinate asks, “I’m sorry, what was
your question?” you know the CEO will be
even more irritated.
Here’s some advice for Human Resources
or any interviewers of candidates for jobs
reporting to the CEO: Watch out for these
irritants! As a professional interviewer I
ask, metaphorically, what time it is and
when interviewees respond by saying “It
depends” or by telling me how to “build
a watch,” I cut them off: “Joe, please just
give me the answer, and based on that
answer if I want a longer explanation, I’ll
ask for it.”
A players get the hint, C players don’t; so
I’ll give them one more chance: “Joe, the
CEO insists that when she asks a question,
people answer directly and not build a
wordy case for the answer first. I’ve asked
you to answer me directly and sometimes
you do, sometimes you don’t, but so I can
judge whether you and the CEO would
get along, please listen carefully to my
questions and answer more directly for
the rest of this interview.”
COMMUNICATION IRRITANT #3: “I
WANTED TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM
BEFORE WORRYING YOU WITH IT.”
Why would anyone hide crucial
information from the CEO? Simple —
they know the CEO will blast them with
questions: “Why didn’t you anticipate
this? Why didn’t you do A, B, and C to
prevent it? Why haven’t you done X, Y, and
Z to fix it?”
Too often CEOs are part of the
problem – they punish open, prompt
communications when people say
they discovered a problem. What can a
manager do who is aware of a serious
problem but hasn’t yet dug into it and
hasn’t notified the CEO? Manage their
boss, the CEO. Here’s an example:
Early in his career Bob Smith, Division
VP at Acme (names changed), was offered
a promotion to Division President. Bob
would report to a CEO who, if he thought
a division president was hiding anything,
would send an army of analysts to
question everyone. Bob knew this. Shortly
after Bob was promoted to Division
President he said to the CEO, “I know you
hate to get negative surprises, so I promise
that within an hour of my learning of a
serious problem (and taking that hour to
verify it), I’ll let you know what I know.
And I ask a favor of you – please give
me a day or so after that to investigate
why it occurred and then I’ll get back to
you, hopefully with what should have
been done to prevent it, what we’re doing
to correct it, and how we’ll prevent a
recurrence.”
Bob never was visited by that “army” of
analysts. He managed his boss, the CEO,
well.
Hopefully this has been helpful advice:
1. Answer the CEO’s questions directly;
2. Get to the point. When CEOs asks the
time, tell them; do not explain how to
build a watch.
3. Don’t hide problems from the CEO.
Manage the CEO by asking for a day to
research the problem. +
Dr. Brad Smart is an internationally
renowned management psychologist
and is generally regarded as the world’s
leading expert on hiring best practices.
He is frequently acknowledged to be the
world’s foremost expert on hiring. The
company consults with many leading
companies and hundreds of small and
growth companies. Brad has conducted
in-depth interviews with over 6,500
executives. He is author of seven books
and videos, including Topgrading
3rd Edition: The Proven Hiring And
Promoting Method That Turbocharges
Company Performance; The Smart
Interviewer: Tools and Techniques for
Hiring the Best; and the training series
Topgrading Toolkit, featuring the 12
Topgrading hiring steps and demos of
all the interviews. Topgrading methods
have helped leading companies such
General Electric, Honeywell, Barclays,
and American Heart Association
plus hundreds of small and mid-sized
companies improve their hiring methods.
TOPGRADING.COM
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