Part of this course involves spending time in alternative environments related to your own job as well as personal areas of interest, so I thought it would be worth spending a day or two with the Chief Exec of my own organisation; the LTA.
Up until now, I had gotten the impression that being CEO meant a lot of swanning about, important meetings and opening things! That said, after looking at his schedule for the upcoming week, there were at least three evening business dinners coupled with some early breakfast meetings and a weekend stint quite some distance from home, so not the easiest diary in which to strike the work:life balance.
The weekly Leadership Team meeting was the first stop; a top line view of each department as well a chance to flag issues for concern. From a colleagues perspective, I learnt about what each head of department was responsible for (not always obvious) as well as a huge amount about the wider spectrum of the business. It would be great to listen in and contribute to that every so often as from my perspective it was nice to hear about the 'bigger picture' as well as inform those painting the bigger picture about the day to day reality.
From the meetings that followed it soon became clear that a CEO must have a lot of trust in the people they surround themselves with, as well as an adaptable management style to accommodate the various working styles of those people. Job role aside, relationships appear to be the making and breaking of an organisation; the dynamic of a team is as important within a tennis club committee or a team of coaches as it is within the executive team of a large governing body or commercial business.
The final lesson learnt was 'what next?'...challenging the status quo, testing the existing strategy, breaking a system down to see how it can be improved and doing so in a way that challenges people as well as encourages them to evolve; not a task I envy, but something that no doubt comes with experience.
'The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it' - Theodore Roosevelt
No comments:
Post a Comment