New CEOs Don’t Need All the Answers. They Need to Ask the Questions Everyone Else Avoids in the First 100 Days
It’s about knowing what to ask, and having the humility to truly listen.
EXPERT OPINION BY MARCEL SCHWANTES, INC. CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, EXECUTIVE COACH, SPEAKER, AND AUTHOR @MARCELSCHWANTES
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What is one of the easiest mistakes to make when you become CEO? Walking into the job believing everyone expects you to immediately have the answers.
Well, they don’t. What people really want to know is whether you understand the problems worth solving.
That distinction sits at the heart of Paul Griggs and Paul Leinwand’s excellent Harvard Business Review article, “What New CEOs Should Ask Themselves in Their First 100 Days”. The authors put it simply: “No one expects you to solve everything overnight.” Instead, they argue that CEOs should use those critical early months to ask questions across four areas: building the leadership team, engaging stakeholders, shaping the vision, and staying focused.
I would take their argument one step further. Your first 100 days are really a test of leadership humility. The CEO who arrives determined to prove how smart they are will probably start changing things before understanding why they exist. The wiser, more emotionally intelligent CEO spends enough time listening to discover what deserves to change, what needs protecting, and which assumptions everyone has stopped questioning.
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The better questions to ask
That starts with taking a hard look at your leadership team. Griggs and Leinwand pose a question every CEO should sit with: “Who will drive change from the trenches?”They are talking about leaders who coach, empower, and elevate people rather than merely manage the business and track metrics.
That matters for several reasons, but one that stands out is that you need people willing to challenge your thinking, tell you when an idea is half-baked, and lead people through whatever comes next. If everyone around the CEO agrees with the CEO, congratulations, you have created a very expensive echo chamber.
The question about your company culture
Next, find out who actually influences the organization. One of my favorite questions from the article is: “Who are the culture carriers in this organization?” These people may or may not have executive titles. They are the trusted voices employees watch when something changes. Griggs and Leinwand argue that these people should be involved early enough to help shape alignment, rather than merely communicate decisions that have already been made.
Source: www.inc.com
