Take Advice from the Bottom of the Pyramid Part II

Take Advice from the Bottom of the Pyramid Part II: Executive Coaching Services from the Ranks of the Low Office Dwellers

Executive Coaching Services Tip #3: Take Time for Food
I’m not really a meeting type person so I wasn’t exactly excited to hear that we would have company wide lunches and meetings about every two weeks or so. However, after our company was acquired by another company and Charlie left for a greener pasture, I realized how essential those meetings were to the success of our company. They provided a much needed chance to socialize and express thoughts even if those thoughts were just, "What was your name again?" "What is it that you do?" "Why are you on that diet?" "How do I manage this spreadsheet?" "How can I do this or that in Excel?" "How can I be a better writer?" I realized that we all in our own way began to understand what Charlie was saying about our company and it helped us feel that we belonged.

Executive Coaching Services Tip #4: Hire Those You Get Along With
At the time that Charlie hired me, his fledgling company was still a fledgling and I learned that when he hired someone it wasn’t about just marketable skills and an interview. Charlie would make sure that the skills were there and available of course by creating tests that were suitable to his company’s processes and needs and Charlie would also have applicants fill out basic personality type questions. It was only after reviewing this information that Charlie would interview the applicant and it seems that Charlie always chose an employee that would blend right into the "team dynamic." It wasn’t that we were all the same. It was just that we liked each other somehow. How did he do that?

Executive Coaching Services Tip #5: Don’t Throw Guilt Around
I get the feeling from some "bosses" that I should feel guilty if I stop to talk with a co-worker and exchange a few jokes. Charlie wasn’t like that at all. Sometimes he would walk by and he didn’t seem to worry at all that we weren’t working. Charlie wasn’t a micromanager and he knew that he could (and perhaps should) expect only 5 solid hours of work from an employee per day. Sometimes Charlie would even stop on by and chit chat for 20 minutes or so and I really came to enjoy my co-worker friends as if they were my family. I also began to trust that Charlie wasn’t "about numbers" even though he functioned by the numbers. Charlie knew that people had to be happy first and that the business had to be run by the numbers but not at the exclusion of the employees.

Executive Coaching Services Tip #6: Play up the Recognition Factor
Charlie didn’t have a lot of money or prizes to throw around our fledgling company but he did use a little money and the great corporate "weapon" of recognition to drive the up the motivation level of employees. I remember the first time I received employee of the month and $100. It wasn’t much but the email that Charlie wrote to recognize
Included Incentives and Comfort Foods for Employees.

As far as I am concerned being "one of the employees" can give me some good ideas about what kind of a CEO I want to work for. As far as I am concerned, strategic leadership should include a plan for a business that fits within a set mold of principles (i.e. think about people first, make sure to watch the numbers, take time for play, be completely candid when candor will be beneficial for the company, etc.) If a CEO operates on his business plan within a given set of principles he will be guided even more effectively when it is time to "fudge" his plan a little bit because his principles will push him in the direction that he or she believes in. It is like an oil painter who has an image in her mind and yet when the time comes to paint that image she doesn’t have the tools it takes so she thinks of an image that will fit the tools that she does have.

About the Author: Marci Crane is a web content specialist for Innuity. For more information about executive coaching skills, please feel free to contact CMOE.