Welcome to episode 171 of our podcast, The Executive Edge with Andrea Petrone
Andrea is a performance coach who works with Executives and their top teams. His background is as one himself, so he understands much of what they need and what he calls ‘blind spots’.
The future needs a different type of CEO he feels. Many have become successful through their own abilities but once you reach the top level, the way they relate to others is vital. They may not be aware of this. Andrea feels they can be short of something he refers to as ‘humanity’. It is a missing human element where many still feel ‘command and control’ is the right way to do things.
I asked ‘how does being too driven or too demanding prove a problem?
He feels it’s all about conversations. The real role of leadership is having conversations with their team. He sees two different typical types; one is the very removed style where they typically want other people to get on with the job and need very little from them. The other is a closer leader who sparks conversations about purpose, the future, how they’ll get there, what people need and who is trying to facilitate quality discussions. He feels this is the way forward.
This is his view, but he genuinely sees business is more successful with the latter style at the top. Removing yourself and being instructive is not as influential as a style. When these conversations are missing, there are consequences. He sees silos develop because there is no unity or cohesion. Better conversations result in fewer side effects like this. Senior team members feel part of something ‘bigger’ so the retreats or off-sites they attend achieve something. Instead of going away for a day or two but returning to much the same behaviour as before.
What else does he see?
Open and transparent conversations drive better performance. Whereas teams that are not performing well also feel a disconnect from the leader. This creates a gap between the top team around the leaders and other teams lower down in the company
Andrea finds in these situations the teams lower down go to their own team for answers and they drive results in their own way. There is no collective ownership for results. High performing teams are about open, transparent, tough conversations but that also means individuals cannot feel fear at what they say or think. It’s important to feel able to share your opinions.
Engagement is also key. Leaders ‘light the fire’ in others. Deeper perceptions and views result in value for the CEO but if they’re not asking, they might not get that insight. A sort of ‘What is really working versus what is not’ type of conversation. These deeper views are essential if the business is going to correct issues or processes that might otherwise be clunky or hold them back.
Discover more with Andrea
You can find Andrea on LinkedIn and he runs his own podcast as well as writing a book on this topic.
Here’s where you can find Andrea online:
