Next, 15 members of the Forbes Coaching Council shared the challenges that their executive clients are struggling with the most today. Follow their advice to resolve these common issues. These major challenges for CEOs are being faced at a time marked by unprecedented pressures. With a lack of staff and a shortage of talent, organizations are at risk of suffering a leadership crisis.
How they manage this looming crisis will define their success and the future success of their business. By far, the most common business challenge reported is related to growth. CEOs are concerned with managing growth and growing in a predictable way. The complexity of today's business world requires CEOs to communicate on multiple levels.
For example, you have to create the company's vision and persuade your team to turn it into their vision as well. You have to connect on an individual level and inspire people to move from “me” to “we”. And you have to build trust by making sure that your verbal communication and your nonverbal actions are mutually reinforcing. Effective communication is very difficult because it requires commitment.
Effective communication must be made a priority, and that requires discipline, coherence, clarity of the message and the will to continue doing so day after day. By implementing a structured communication system that connects with all stakeholders at the right level, you can dramatically improve your effectiveness as a leader and drive faster revenue and revenue growth. Keeping employees and stakeholders on the same page is also essential, especially in a fast-paced business environment. Communicating with key players about schedule changes, meetings, product performance and obstacles will ensure that everyone involved in your organization is aware of what's happening.
To address this leadership problem, start by being more transparent and honest with yourself and your employees. Transparency is essential to running a successful business, as transparent leaders can build a company culture based on trust and respect. The last thing employees want is to have their organization's performance not explained to them. If you're honest with your employees and tell them both the good news and the bad news, you can motivate them and increase productivity.
If you notice that great things aren't being done and that good ideas are going unnoticed, you lack responsibility within your organization. We all need bookmarks that keep track of the results we want. Most CEOs know this, but implementing this system requires self-discipline and focus. Build the systems you need to support accountability and don't get distracted until they're part of your operations.
To address lack of accountability, it's important to invest in the right resources to hold yourself accountable. At CEO Coaching International, our executive coaches can teach you the skills and best practices that make a leader effective, including how to be held accountable. As a leader, the way you behave has a direct impact on your results. If you're an ineffective leader, you can reduce the productivity of your workforce, increase employee turnover and reduce profits.
Taking responsibility, whether due to a business setback or poor planning, will help you better understand some of your weaknesses. In turn, you can address them and create an action plan to improve in the future. We all envy Google, Facebook and Zappos for their dazzling business cultures. But what we forget is that the creator of culture is the CEO, not HR or anyone else.
Did you create your culture by design or did it just happen by default? When you consciously think about your culture and design it to encourage the desired behavior, your culture becomes a competitive advantage that attracts the best talent and generates massive results. Once you have a company culture where employees feel safe enough to have meaningful conversations without fear of reprisal, you'll see immediate results. As a CEO, you want team leaders who listen to and respect the people they're leading. This is where we move forward and where ideas are shared.
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