When clients hold offsites that I’m a part of, it always strikes me how much is going on at these gatherings that are going unnoticed.
On the face of it, it’s a bunch of people in a room, with a flipchart or slides, having a conversation. Look a bit deeper, however, and a mix of the following is going down:
- People’s minds are starting to change
- People’s motivations are shifting
- Relationships are deepening
- ‘The Riddle’ of performance is being solved
- Capabilities are being being built
- New ambition is being activated
These shifts explain why good CEOship takes time to achieve results. Usually, in my experience, 3 – 6 months.
This is consequential because it illustrates why leadership is a process of inch gains that accumulate over time, and why no single act of leadership is enough to permanently change anything. Reminders, prompts, nudges, steers and challenges are required to permanently imbed that changes a leader seeks.
This calls for patience as mindsets and thinking patterns take time to rewire. Neural pathways, trauma patterns and stuck beliefs take time to loosen and complex leadership tasks leadership – which is the final outcome – require layers of provocations.
I refer to leadership as ‘a body of work’ for a reason. Single acts of bravado don’t work and can paint a skewed picture of how effective one’s leadership is. But, taken as a collection of acts over time that come together in a single representation of a leader’s total contribution, this is the true reflection of a leader’s efficacy.
When I work with CEOs, the engagement is always underpinned by an A -> B view of where the CEO wants to take the business.
This transition provides the pathway for the CEO’s work. It might be a pivot, it might be a scaling process, it might be a cost rationalisation, it might be a change in culture. Any of these scenarios requires a methodical approach that ties together a variety of organisational initiatives: communication; capability-building; project management; culture change; personal development; and capital allocation.
In time – again, 3 – 6 months is typical – these come together to move a ‘system’ – and thus a business – forward.
Give yourself time, have a plan, stay active throughout that plan, and watch closely. If you lead well, your business will eventually reflect your skill.
Just don’t expect it overnight.