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Listen up, leaders. To start, an admission: I have made mistakes in the past because I thought my main job was making the big decisions. I believed that because I had the big title, my job was doingwhat I thought was best — and that what was best for the company was listening to the data. Thankfully, I learned that while the data is important, there is a more meaningful information stream that should be heeded above all. That is your people.
If my years of experience have taught me anything, it is that we need to dispel the tired idea that once you have a C-suite title, you should be making all the decisions and you have to be “Right,” with a capital R.
In actuality, it is pretty much the opposite. Once you have reached loftier heights, your main job is not to make the decisions. Of course, you have to make hard calls and consider the data points to do so. But the farther up the food chain you get, the further away you are from the people doing the work — the boots on the ground. The more removed you are, the less you have your finger on the pulse.
That is why the CEO’s and executive team’s main job is listening. Otherwise, things could go wildly southward, leading to failure.
But First, Find People You Want to Listen to
Here is the clincher, though — to stay attuned to the beating heart of your business, you have to hire people you trust and who you will actually listen to.
A collaborative, open environment means that your people will be safe enough to surface the true issues. Without safety, there is no trust. If people are worried about job security or hesitant to open their mouths for fear of being wrong, then you are not going to get the essential ground truth. You will be left with a C-suite who is inadvertently making decisions based on fear or job preservation. Probably unlikely to lead to the market-leading results you are after.
Unfortunately, that is how corporate America usually works, and it is not healthy or fun. That is why the best ideas come from the bottom. So, what does that look like operationally?
The Rolling Stone Culture Council is an invitation-only community for Influencers, Innovators and Creatives. Do I qualify?
Open Up and Connect
In order to listen, people must first talk. This is core to culture building. From the word “go,” your team has to know and believe in your open-door policy. It is non-negotiable; the door must be off the proverbial hinges.
So, how do we do this?
Margaritas anyone? At my company, we regularly do happy hours and Tuesday coffee collaborations as an informal opportunities to shoot the breeze.
It’s vital to make time to check in with people on and off the record. Such experiences can be worth their weight in gold and stand as a demonstration that your respect for work-life balance is not just lip service. Employees are people and CEOs are people. The more we see each other’s humanity, the more trust is baked in.
Hire Humans Who Work and Play
What is routinely lost in work culture, regrettably, is people’s best selves. Their playful, silly, off-the-clock versions are often checked at the office door. When our work selves and our personal selves are separate islands, you only ever get half a person.
If you do not treat employees like whole people, you are not doing a good job as a leader. I heard it put so well recently: Our jobs as managers are not to put out fires but to light fires. That means it is your duty to ignite passion and inspire creativity by creating a safe space to explore, play and make mistakes.
Culture Trumps All
This brings us to culture. Your unique culture should be your bread and butter — something you instill in every meeting with every individual. That means asking yourself, as a leader: How do I build a team and a company that can stay on track with our ethos? As you grow, if you have people who do not believe in your culture or mission, the wheels will come off. Live a philosophy of exploration, creativity and open communication.
Dedicating yourself to the philosophy is what makes it jive. It is not something you do when you feel like it. It is something you do every day when you wake up and something you do before you go to bed. It is how you live. It is how you run your business and how you live your life. It has to be the lens through which you make decisions.
When your team is connected — through work, fun and taking care of each other — then you have trust. Rapport and honesty are the byproducts of trust. Trust allows ideas to flow from the bottom, up.
Pay Attention
The job of the C-suite is to communicate, listen to the team and drive the boat forward. A prerequisite is checking your arrogance at the door. When we are problem-solving at Unity Rd., we try to engage with the team as much as possible. Even if I am confident that I have the right answer, I still go back to the team for buy-in. It makes the process a little bit slower and more methodical but can leave you with a much stronger organization.
This also leads to a team with sharper instincts and broader skills — you can shape future VPs and CEOs by letting people build resilience through making mistakes. That does not mean you let them fall down a flight of stairs, nor do you keep them sheltered.
It is critical to put your money where your mouth is when you say you believe in people. Openness, transparency and curiosity get you way further than certainty. So, listen up, fellow leaders — and drive results.
