Leadership Is Not Showing Favoritism
A reason that CEOs rarely get unfiltered information is that they are often inadvertently surrounded by sycophants, and you may not even know it.
If you were surveyed about your performance and one of the questions asked was “do you play favorites,” you might not do as well on that question as you think.
Unfair access to the CEO can happen for several reasons. You will spend more time with your immediate reports, such as your CFO, CIO, etc., based on their functionality. This is perfectly acceptable and employees understand it. You may spend a lot of time with your star performers, those who regularly deliver outstanding results - Creativity, Productivity and Effectivity - this also makes sense and inspires employees to do better so that they too can get more attention from the CEO.
What is demotivating is the CEO spending an inordinate amount of time with someone you have a relationship with outside of the office due to interests - cycling, church, children, a working relative, etc. Or sycophants who are just darn good actors, complimenting you and laughing at all of your jokes.
It’s statistically likely that you spend an unfair amount of your corporate time with people who seem to really like you than you do with the people who are really productive and contributing the most to the organization.
To use Marshall Goldsmith’s (author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There) example, think about the family dog. For most folks, the pet will receive more affection than even the spouse, because the pet loves unconditionally.
Your leadership can be undermined by the fact that you show unreasonable favoritism, whether or not you know you’re playing favorites.
High-performing leaders don’t play that game.
The head coach might be on a cycling team with the second string place kicker, their kids might attend the same school, they might live in the same neighborhood and arrive to the training facility at the same time. Yet the coach is focused on his assistant coaches (your executives) and his star players (your high achievers) at practice, on the field, and on the sidelines. The head coach does not spend an inordinate amount of time with his/her second string place kicker at work.
Your CEO Challenge this week? Identify who you spend the most time with and why. Step back and look at it from another angle. Are these people the most Productive, Creative and Effective? Or do you share your time with those with whom you are most comfortable?
