Tag Archives: Questions

How Do You Redefine the Top Executive’s Role in the Business? Four Points

Situation: The President of a family-owned business that has been in operation for over 30 years wishes to change her role by increasing delegation of responsibility and accountability within the business in preparation for her eventual retirement. Other family members in the business are happy with their current responsibilities and are resistant to taking on more responsibility. What advice does the group have for this member?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Given that you are preparing for retirement, it is important to let others know about your plans and your desire to increasingly hand off your responsibilities to others. Ideally, one or more of the others will express a desire to take on more leadership, particularly if it includes a boost in pay.
• It is important to clarify responsibilities and prioritize which ones you wish to hand off. Once this is done build and execute a hand-off plan.
• Transition current managers who are misplaced in their position to other roles. Work with them to identify alternate roles where their talents can better benefit the company. They may be aware of their current discomfort and welcome the opportunity to take on a different role more suited to their abilities.
• Focus on removing barriers to delegation that may be in place. For example, bring others into the discussion and review the projects that they are overseeing. Identify the challenges underlying those projects and ask for their suggestions on how to address these. Don’t provide the answers. Ask questions and push them to develop appropriate solutions.

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How Do You Interview for New Hires and Promotions? Part 1, Three Points

Situation: A CEO seeks advice on interviewing both for new hires and promotions. What advice and guidelines do others suggest to improve interviews? How do you interview for new hires and promotions?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Preparation before hiring or promotion is critical.
    • Preparation means having a road map – for what will be accomplished in the new position and for how the company selects and hires or awards promotions.
    • Discipline: have the patience to do it well.
    • Be aware of and watch for possible legal issues. This has become increasingly important under DEI.
  • Raise the bar. Each new addition or promotion should enhance the company’s capabilities instead of just filling a slot.
    • Hire individuals with skills that complement areas of your own or the organization’s weaknesses.
    • Be creative in developing sources or new hires.
  • Ask open-ended questions and follow-up with additional open-ended questions to clarify areas that the response opens.
    • Focus interview questions and processes to identify demonstrated values and habits.
    • Insert pregnant pauses into the interview. How does the interviewee respond?
    • Listen for what is NOT said as much as what is said.

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How Do You Say “No”? Four Suggestions

Situation: A CEO has employees who frequently show up in his office with a request that he solves a problem for them. This takes up the time that he needs to solve bigger picture issues. He’s also concerned that employees should be able to solve these problems themselves. What tactics have others used to address this issue? How do you say “no”?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Don’t say “no.”
    • Saying “no” discourages future questions and reduces communication. Instead, answer their question with a question. Help them to see the next step in the process of solving the problem themselves.
  • What questions do you ask?
    • What do you think is the best solution?
    • Have you tried X, Y, Z?
    • Encourage them to use their peers as resources.
    • Focusing on #2 and #3, may give them insight into solving #1.
    • Have you spoken to (name) about this. (Name) may be able to help.
  • Another good response – “I can’t help you right now. Why don’t you try to solve it and I’ll follow-up with you when I can.”
  • It may be difficult to learn how to say no. Instead work on helping others to understand what you know about a particular technology or issue. Just ask questions to show them how to approach the problem, and then let them work through it.
    • This will take more time than “doing it yourself” at the beginning. However, they will rapidly gain more comfort working through issues and options on their own and will also gain both confidence and competence. Long-term it will save you time.

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How Do You Improve Communication and People Management Skills? Three Points

Situation: As his company grows and adds new employees, a CEO wants to improve his skills working with employees as well as managing time when employees come to him with suggestions or issues. Occasionally there is confusion between what is said and how his directions are interpreted. How do you improve communication and people management skills?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • How can one improve conversational skills when meeting others, breaking the ice and establishing a conversational relationship?
    • The easiest way is to ask benign questions. How was your weekend? How are you doing? Actively listen to what they say.
    • Remember their responses. Probe more deeply to prompt them to go into more detail. Show an interest in them. Most people love to talk about themselves and their experiences.
    • If they in return ask about you, give them a pleasant but brief response, and return with a question about them. This is like a tennis volley – keep on returning the ball.
    • The important point is to show an interest in others, and to improve the ability to recall what they have shared. Don’t cross personal boundary lines of what is “too personal.” Others will appreciate this attention and will warm to you.
  • If the concern is confirming understanding, start by repeating what you hear and confirm your understanding before responding.
  • Some individuals come into the office, plant themselves in a seat and just chat to waste time.
    • When one of these individuals comes into your office, stand to greet them with a smile and a friendly question of how you can help them. Do not sit down. Remain standing as long as they are in your office. This will naturally shorten the conversation and prevents them from “settling in.”
    • When you stand up, smile and greet them with a friendly question you are not putting them off. In fact, you are giving them more attention than they have received in the past. As a result, while preventing them from settling in, this is being done in a way that shows them respect.

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How Do You Hire the Right Person? Three Points

Situation: A CEO is in the process of hiring a new employee for a key position. The company is now writing the position description to post for candidates. What can they do to improve on past hiring experiences? How do you hire the right person?

Advice of the Forum:

  • Two of the members of the Forum have worked with a skilled consultant who taught them a system for improving employee selection. Both companies have experienced excellent results from this system.
  • Key points of this system include:
    • Screening applicants for appropriate skills and inviting for interviews those who have the right background. The interview process is a 2-day affair. Day 1 focuses principally on behavior and culture.
    • Day 1 Interviews: the focus is behavior and adaptability. This involves 2-4 hours of tightly scheduled 15-minute interviews. These are scripted with standardized questions. Several candidates are run through this process simultaneously. The objective is to create the same type of pressure that an employee normally face when the company is chasing a tight deadline. Interviewers are instructed to observe how the individuals being interviewed respond to this pressure. Those who are not right for your culture quickly screen themselves out of the process. Those who pass Day 1 are invited back for Day 2
    • Day 2 Interviews: the focus is on a skill drill down. This includes real-time tests of the key skills that are typical of the position for which the interviewees are interviewing. The objective is to assess the familiarity of the interviewees with the required skills, and to determine who reacts both competently and creatively.

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How Do You Evaluate Business Opportunities? Five Guidelines

Situation: A company is planning for growth and is considering several business opportunities. None are fully baked, but broadly speaking the CEO is interested in a list of pros and cons that will help her team to evaluate the opportunities before them. What questions should the management team be asking? How do you evaluate business opportunities?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Which of the opportunities do you find exciting? Which opportunities ignite your passion? Which opportunities would be exciting to pursue on a daily basis? Use this to create your first cut.
    • When you meet with your team, prompt discussion by asking: why do you come to work each day? What drives you now?
    • Now look at each of the opportunities that you are considering. Which opportunities best reflect your answers?
  • Rank the opportunities in terms of probability of success. For each, do a SWOT analysis – how does each address your current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? How could each make the company stronger or address potential threats that you foresee?
  • Which opportunity provides the best segue to your long-term strategic opportunities over the next 2-3 or 3-5 years?
  • On a personal basis, how important is power and authority to you? What about the personal and work time that is available to you? What is your role, as CEO, in each opportunity? For each opportunity, does this role reflect your personal priorities? Finally, what is your ideal opportunity, in personal terms?
  • Once you have evaluated all of your opportunities – including your personal ideal opportunity – perform a weighted scoring of the opportunities to test your assumptions. Among the opportunities available, which is closest in score to your ideal opportunity?

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