Your CEO or boss has little time for you, even when you meet, and then asks only pointed questions and has no time to mull over issues, lacks spontaneity, is often on a plane or away from the office, seldom sees customers and communicates with you mostly via email or through others.

Sound familiar? Incompetence? Perhaps! Or maybe it’s just the demands of a current day CEO or boss in the busiest commercial climate the world has ever known.
In their efforts to mange market-driven organizations, CEOs must first guard against getting caught in the weeds. Instead, they need to be most active and engaged at the strategic level, focused on “what is driving the business.” When they aren’t, the company falls prey to market positioning of it by others—a costly mishandling of an organization’s brand and market value, and the minutia that chews up time and energy with exponential zeal.

More than anything, the style of a leader, especially the CEO or boss, must be that of a delegator. It’s the approach most necessary to the effective management of market driven organizations. And, while directing, supporting, and coaching are important subordinate skills; they too must be at the command of the CEO.

Why is delegating so critical to the effectiveness of CEOs? Because organizations work best by the elusive “president’s view.” When knowledge workers (stakeholders) have it, only then can they begin to carry the vision of the organization through every activity and function, demonstrating the competence in team that enables a CEOs success. It’s the same for all managers. The CEO is best when s/he looks (confidently) more like the description in the first sentence than when out of control and without apparent resource to regain the market composure of the organization.

Organizations are moved by the demands of customers and by its own people. Both change from opportunities to burdens when a clear view of the future and next steps are missing, leaving the market and employees guessing about what to do. A decisive, action-oriented, and thoughtful approach is the stuff that informs both, and helps build a competent managerial force to handle the load. CEOs as “micro managers” fail because their focus on the gears of organizational workings deflects a concentration on the engine that drives them. The “big picture” is vital to a CEO’s success, which is why every detail must have a connection to the strategic outlook.

This applies equally to all owners and managers; each must seek the larger view of the organization going forward, while giving careful attention to the details. That usually means delegating effectively to those who are positioned to carry them out.

The boss’ primary goal is to influence the others for the good—both in the community at large and stakeholders in the customer and employee arenas. Influence over all of these environments, indeed, over employees, is one of a leader’s most useful assets. With sufficient influence a leader (CEO, manager) can take important initiatives and implement them, drive PEL (Productivity, Efficiency, Lowered Costs) significantly, and enable change.
These are not only the opportunities in leadership but the responsibility in it as well. If we mean for trees to be moved by the wind becoming a tree doesn’t help much; taking on the guise of Mariah will. Influence theory is a science in its own right, something I’ll write about in the future. But to be clear, CEOs and managers do well to consider all the ways in which they communicate their intentions.

In a recent meeting the key participant failed to show. A call to him elicited no response. Clearly, there were circumstances that prohibited his being there, but it reduced the meeting to something less than wholly productive. He called the next day to explain. It could have been to award the exigencies of our daily ardor for the missed meeting without notice. It was not his way. Instead, he took full responsibility for the mishap, agreeing to any terms to rebuild the lost trust that obtained from his miscue—a quality approach. What remains is for him to be consistent in that response, or long memories will prevail.

A leader must consider all communications—written, oral, and behavioral--either of his making or another’s—in his efforts to influence those he serves. This includes the steady stream of data that reaches his charges. Without some knowledge and understanding of it, he risks the judgment strategy known as the availability heuristic. It suggests that we make conclusions about things based on the frequency of occurrences in our experience, not necessarily related to statistical data. We then assume that the data are correct and so give it priority — usually, a mistake.

Much of what we see in editorial columns is the result of this practice; too often just opinion, though it may harm another, and without supportive facts, hearsay may turn into evidence, but not before it is washed of its bias.

Keeping one’s head above water is the complaint of the desperate. A more purposed approach is one that prioritizes well after thorough assessment of the needs and the resources to satisfy them. The “weeds’ are full of distractions, the pattering that moves us off chosen pathways. They are also lousy with thieves, those that would steal time and priority from the uncommitted to clear purpose. CEOs and managers must rise above the spin; above the weeds, to gain a clear view. It’s a detachment, often misunderstood, that distinguishes the productive from mere look-alikes.

Frank J. Rich is founder and CEO of Encore Prist International, an organizational development company that helps individuals and organizations reach their full potential through the practice of effective business fundamentals. You may reach him at fjr@encoreprist.com or by phone at 866-858-4EPI.