The further away an employee sits from the C-suite, the less familiar they’re likely to be with the CEO’s vision and strategies for success. Without that understanding, it’s very difficult for employees to see how their individual roles can support that success. On the other hand, having that sightline can boost both alignment and engagement.
Whether your CEO is communicating with employees through town halls, podcasts, articles, videos or even email, here are five attributes that can help employees embrace the CEO’s vision:
The first step is for the CEO to be visible, through employee communications and whenever possible, in the offices, facilities or locations of the company. Town halls, site visits and even videos all help employees put a face to the name and title. By simply showing up, in person or via communications, the CEO demonstrates that they respect and value employees.
This goes beyond being honest. It involves being one’s true self. CEOs can build emotional connections with employees by showing vulnerability, humility and even humor. It also helps if the CEO can share some personal history or news with employees. It can be as trivial as mentioning their first after-school job or as significant as a new grandchild.
In Tribe’s research with employees of large companies on change management, respondents emphasized their desire for the CEO to shoot straight with them. They wanted to be in the loop on what was happening, especially if what was happening would be bad news for them. Ironically, sharing negative news with employees seems to build trust in the CEO.
Showing empathy begins with listening to others. Two-way channels of communication, such as town hall questions or an employee survey, give CEOs an opportunity to hear what employees are experiencing. From there, the CEO can communicate understanding and support, and ideally, offer some real solutions or practical next steps.
The point of the CEO communicating their vision is to inspire employees to do whatever they can to help achieve that vision. This is a lot easier to do when the vision is something more than being the industry leader or achieving a certain revenue goal. Communicate the human benefit of the vision, or how it helps make the world a better place.
