When working as an operations director, I was assisted by a very talented woman who thrived on challenge. When a marketing position opened, she saw this as a new challenge, applied and was accepted.

She was high-energy, well-organized, and had great people skills. In 12 months, she was the organization’s top-producing sales associate. While fellow sales staff admired her, the marketing director disliked her constant thinking outside the box and boasting of her accomplishments. He was strictly a process person. She was person centered, connected well and closed sales where others had failed.

One afternoon, she appeared at my office following a sales meeting. There she introduced an idea that excited everyone, including the marketing director. Suddenly, he turned somber. He announced, “This is a great idea, except for one small problem: It came from the wrong person.” He then adjourned the meeting. When she later approached him, he refused to speak any further about her proposal. Two months later she resigned, knowing he would never allow her to fully use her skills.

Socially, the marketing director was bright, witty and an interesting conversationalist. Unfortunately, he saw this talented associate as competition. He refused to act on her proposal. The company lost sales, but more important, it lost an inventive thinker and energetic contributor. 

I’m a firm believer that ideas should never be dismissed because of their origin. I relish fresh thinking as a way of staying on top of the game. Toward that end I would occasionally open meetings with the following statement: “I have an idea that has to be too good to be true. Tell me what’s wrong with it.”

This was the cue for brainstorming. Who originated what idea was totally irrelevant. Results were all that mattered. Our best ideas seemed to rise from the middle of the table as one idea built on another.

Top-down approaches assume that people in the C-suite know it all. We are there to serve one function: Manage the big picture. Personnel closer to the ground have access to information that allows us to make better decisions. Using them as informants is smart management.

These individuals interact with customers, hear off-hand comments about customer wants and needs and how others view us compared to competitors, and directions of thinking among our customer base. This is valuable information, but to access it, we must make it very safe for our people to sometimes disagree with us and to be recognized for their contribution. Unless both elements are present, the pipeline will quickly run dry.

CEOs are hired to deal with complexity, but with proper analysis, many problems we face are amenable to simple solutions. Here’s a true-life illustration of that: A semi trailer became lodged under an overpass. Experts spent hours trying to dislodge the trailer without damaging the bridge. The experts were ready to use a cutting torch to cut off the top of the trailer. They were lighting the torch when a seventh-grade boy happened by. The boy saw the problem and asked a fireman if it would help to let some air out of the trailer’s tires. Partially deflating the tires lowered the trailer enough that it was easily freed.

Effective CEOs know that they do not know it all. They use personnel at all levels as intelligence agents, making sure to give credit where credit is due. This practice buoys morale, enhances productivity, creates happier customers and keeps the company ahead of the game.

By John Macek

Janesville-based John Macek has been in management for more than 30 years, 17 years as a CEO. He originated the Macek Management Checklist of 20 critical management skills. He writes short-format management training material that he publishes through Bosshandbooks (www.bosshandbooks.com).