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"In the end, a CEO has got to know her limitations." I love how he switches between gendered pronouns in this article, and ends with a female one.
It is a shame we can't use "it" or another pronoun to avoid the issue entirely. They/their sometimes works but feels wrong when talking about a person in singular.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is fine in theory, but most solutions require time, resources, people, money... all things that employees lower down the hierarchy are unlikely to have. If you're saying 'Bring a suggested solution but don't try to implement it without buy-in', that's a slightly different process. The issue of who notices/fixes/prioritises/analyses tactical and strategic problems, and who assigns resources for the fixes, can mak…
True, if we get down to the nitty gritty, its not as simple as I portrayed. My intent was to say, bring an idea for a solution, don't just bring a problem. If I had two employees who came to me with the same problem, and one came prepared with a recommended solution and the other one didn't, it would be clear to me who the more valuable employee is.
I mean, "hire someone who knows how to fix this" is obvious enough that it needn't be stated, nor defended behind this "bring an idea for a solution, don't just bring a problem" talk.
Which frankly sounds like something a motivational poster writer should be saying, not someone concerned with running a business. Platitudes are rarely the solution to a meaningful problem, in my experience.
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Why is it that binary, though? Surely somewhere between "incompetent" and "world-class" there's space for execs who are "good enough to earn their reports' respect but with room to grow in a few areas"?
It's not binary, from an objective perspective. The thing is, if you even think that his advice might apply to your situation, the exec in question has lost your respect . That means that they lost their reports' respect several months ago (the CEO is always the last to know), and you have a major problem on your hands.
Yeah, once you've lost the respect of your reports (or failed to ever gain it) you can't do your job as a manager or executive, period. But that doesn't mean that great execs are born rather than made or that nobody should put any effort into developing a great manager into a new exec or a new exec into a great one, which the article seems to fallaciously suggest.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
True, if we get down to the nitty gritty, its not as simple as I portrayed. My intent was to say, bring an idea for a solution, don't just bring a problem. If I had two employees who came to me with the same problem, and one came prepared with a recommended solution and the other one didn't, it would be clear to me who the more valuable employee is.
If my CEO is going to demand internal pre-prepared solutions to everything, then I'd demand that they be competent enough to not need my input anymore. I mean, "hire someone who knows how to fix this" is obvious enough that it needn't be stated, nor defended behind this "bring an idea for a solution, don't just bring a problem" talk. Which frankly sounds like something a motivational poster writer should be saying, n…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If my CEO is going to demand internal pre-prepared solutions to everything, then I'd demand that they be competent enough to not need my input anymore. I mean, "hire someone who knows how to fix this" is obvious enough that it needn't be stated, nor defended behind this "bring an idea for a solution, don't just bring a problem" talk. Which frankly sounds like something a motivational poster writer should be saying, n…
No one said demand.