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emily-sander_2_07-29-2025_0 (00:25):
All
right, listener question from
anonymous says, my CEO cansometimes be too ambitious with
his ideas and publicly expressesthem.
This has led to staff losingfaith in him when they don't
happen or just don't believe himat all.
I have to come in after andclean it up.
Some advice on how to approachthis with the CEO?
Yes.
Good and important question.
(00:46):
'cause at the root of thisquestion is a trust factor,
which as I recall, is kind ofimportant to relationships.
Yes, I read that somewhere.
Okay.
Couple things here.
First of all, if I were talkingwith you, I, I would ask, is he
aware of this?
Like, does he like, oh, I know,I'm so sorry I did it again.
Or is he like, what are youtalking about?
I'm, I'm fine.
So figuring out where he is onthis journey and what he would
(01:10):
say about himself if he's notaware or if he's a little bit
aware in theory, but not quiteaware of the, like severity and
like what happens on the ground,the unintended consequences and
ramifications of what hisactions.
transpire to, then I would lethim know that, and not in a
(01:32):
judgemental, demoralizing way.
I would just state factuallywhat, what happens.
So when you say, I have to cleanit up, like maybe some relevant
and helpful examples from someof those cleanup efforts you
could share with him.
If you aren't quite sure if he'saware of this or you're not
quite sure, like, Hey, what doesthis look like to him?
what does he think he's doingbecause he, he thinks he's doing
(01:54):
something good.
No one gets up there and goes,let me get in front of the, the
entire team or entire companyand say something that's gonna
mess everything up.
That's not people's motivationthe vast majority of the time.
So.
If you don't know already, Iwould ask what he's trying to
accomplish when he shares these,these ambitious ideas and
(02:14):
publicly expresses them so he'snot only thinking about.
These ambitious goals, but he'ssaying them in a public forum.
It sounds like it's one thing tokind of say'em in private or in
a one-on-one conversation, butit's another thing if he's
getting up in front of the allhands, meeting and saying, here
we go on this thing, andeveryone's like, what is this
thing?
I thought we were doing thatthing.
So figuring out where he is withthat.
(02:36):
I would ask the question,though.
I would ask the question, evenif you've had.
Maybe some sporadicconversations before on this
topic.
I think it's worth revisitingunless it's like, Emily, we've
had this conversation 12 timesfor the last 12 days.
Then you might need to likeharken back to like, Hey, we've
had some conversations aroundthis.
I need to have a straightforwardconversation with you that's a
(02:57):
little bit more pointed into thenose.
Okay.
So let's just say that it'slike, okay, he is kind of maybe
aware, not quite sure.
Ask him, ask him the question.
Uh.
Then whatever he says back, Iwould listen carefully and use
the words that he uses.
Meaning, let's say that he says,well, I get up there and talk
(03:19):
about these ideas because I wantpeople to be motivated and
excited about where they work.
I want them to be motivatedabout what they're doing and
excited about the place theywork.
Okay, great.
Like that's a fantastic trait ina CEO.
Pairing those words with maybethe what actually happens when
you do that could soundsomething like when you share
(03:44):
every idea, people start todiscount them and it actually
demotivates people and it'suninspiring.
So you kind of fold in what,what is actually happening.
So, and then maybe an examplefrom, from, um, if you have a
recent example, for instance,when you made announcement X at
(04:05):
the all hands meeting, peoplestop what they were doing and
they waited for the quoteunquote new project to start.
And we lost a week ofproductivity.
So if that's a fact on theground, you can collect that,
you can show that, you candemonstrate that.
Then I would bring that up.
That's, that's not, again, it'snot like throwing it in your
face.
How dare you're doing a crappyjob.
(04:25):
How dare you're trying tomotivate our staff.
It's nothing like that.
It's just, Hey, I hear thatyou're trying to do this, which
is awesome.
In reality, what's happening isthis, like you're trying to do
this and this and this otherthing is happening and here's a
specific example.
Oh.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Okay.
No one told me that.
Now that I see that.
Then I can do something with it.
(04:46):
So if you're at that level orstage of the conversation, then
I would make sure you ask thequestion and then you share with
him the reality on the ground orpart of the reality, or at least
your reality or experience onthe ground.
So that's, I think the firstcouple things you can do.
Okay.
Next thing to think about issometimes people need.
A idea box or a brainstormingsession where it's like, let's
(05:10):
just brainstorm.
Let's just have ideas.
And it's like, okay, we're notcommitting to anything.
No one do anything about this.
Let's just talk about it.
I wanna talk about it.
Some people are talkers.
They get very excited.
Creating a distinction between,Hey, here's a one-on-one
setting, or a small groupsetting, or even a larger group
setting, but it's clearlylabeled as we're just
(05:31):
brainstorming.
We're talking about ideas.
We're throwing stuff against thewall, we're shooting the stuff,
like whatever.
There's no bad ideas, no one doanything, and it's very.
Clear that this, this space andthis time is dedicated toward
brainstorming versus here is anofficial all hands meeting.
Here is an official leadershipmeeting where a brainstorm could
(05:51):
easily get confused with adirective.
I, oh, I guess we're doing thatnow.
I guess that's what he's decidedtype of thing.
Oh, he's committing us to thatright now.
Those two things are separateand I think it's important to
have both kinds of conversationsand both kinds of communication,
but maybe it's a more of a, of adistinction for him and for
(06:12):
other people around him.
'cause I've been in cases whereare are you saying to do that?
Like, are, do we do that now?
Do we not do anything else andgo do the thing you just said
now?
Okay.
We can, but then we dropeverything else.
So.
Just maybe being clear aboutthat and maybe it might be
holding a space for him.
As chief of staff saying, Hey,let's have a brainstorm box
(06:32):
session every week, and this iswhere we can talk through
things.
And you know what, one out ofseven things that comes out of
that might be worth bringing tothe leadership meeting for
continued discussion.
And then if that has legs and wecan put resources to it, then
maybe we announce that at theall hands.
Something like that.
So maybe distinctions aroundwhat, what type of conversation
it is.
(06:54):
Another tactical and practicalthing you can do is equip him
with talk tracks.
So maybe the way he's phrasingthings or the way he's framing
them up is confusing to tohimself or other people around
him.
So it could be we're exploringthe possibility of.dot do.
It could be An idea that I'mhaving is.do do not, I'm
(07:17):
committing us to this.
Not I'm directing you to dothis.
An idea that I'm having an ideaworth exploring.
It could be, um, if we make Xhappen, here's the impact.
I could see that having and openup a discussion like that where
again, it's not like, go do thisthing right now.
It's, you know, I really feellike there could be some benefit
in talking about this.
(07:37):
I think that's a greatdiscussion opener.
So I think arming him with the,so I think arming him with some
tactical and practical talktracks like that might be
helpful.
Other frameworks to maybediscuss with him is.
There's kind of like a why partof the conversation and then a
what?
It would take part of theconversation.
(07:59):
So like, why we're doing this?
'cause it would have a hugeimpact.
Imagine what would happen in ourindustry.
Imagine what would happen forour customers.
Okay.
That's the why, which is hugelyimportant, right?
And then it's what would it taketo get us there on the ground?
In reality, what would it take?
And it might be.
Making that distinction in hismind like, Hey, there's a huge
part of this that is the whydiscussion and is the big ideas
(08:21):
and motivating, inspiring likewe, and we need that.
Like a company needs that forsure.
And a founder usually has thatin spades.
And there's also equallyimportant is how do we do that?
What would it take?
And sometimes there's resourceconstraints and sometimes
there's sequencing and sometimesthere's, oh my gosh.
That is, that is the best ideathat trumps everything else.
We should drop everything elseand go do that.
(08:43):
Like all hands on deck, let's godo that.
And that's the thing.
So, but those discussions haveto happen, right?
So the why and what will it takeare two different parts of the
discussion.
Maybe that's a framework you canhelp build into his his thought
process.
another thing you could do, thiswould be really interesting.
This would be, this might be atall order, but I think it's
worth, I think it's worthmentioning here if you can get
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'em around to, okay, yes, I'veovercommitted, or I've said
things and, um, not done themover and over again.
And people just think that I'mahead of my skis.
I'm, I'm out in front of my skisall the time.
if you can get him to saypublicly something like.
We don't have A, B and C linedup yet.
(09:26):
Therefore, we can't move forwardwith this.
We're not quite there yet.
And people are like, huh?
Like what?
Okay.
So now he has two sides going onhere.
It's not always big ideas overcommitting all that stuff.
Okay, hold on.
He's kind of.
That's like a logical answer,and maybe he's like, let's say
this for later.
(09:46):
I still want this on the radar,but right now we're just not in
position to do that yet.
That might help other peoplecome around oh, okay, maybe
something is different.
Maybe something is changing.
Maybe his chief of staff isworking with him and coaching
him and all these things, sothat might be an interesting
public display of, Hey, I'm, I'mnow being more.
(10:09):
I don't wanna say open-minded,but more well-rounded maybe in
my thought process.
I think that might be a goodthing to demonstrate for folks.
This might be a, Hey Emily,that's a great idea.
That might not happen for thenext few months.
I got a long ways to go, andthat's fine.
Maybe that's just something towork toward, or maybe that's
something.
To keep an eye out for, for anexample, like a good example
(10:29):
where it's like, okay, not thisone, not that one.
That one's kind of messy.
Oh, this is a perfect one.
This is perfect timing.
This is a clean example.
People will get it.
It's he.
He can get on board with it.
This one lines up, well, let'suse this one right now for that
example.
And then finally I would just, Iwould just repeat that.
A private conversation, justcandid one-on-one when you're
(10:51):
both in a good space about it.
Say, I really want to rallypeople behind your vision.
I think what we're doing is soimportant and you are a
visionary and you are leadingthe way.
And here's what I see getting inthe way of that.
And here's how I can seebreaking through that.
and it might be giving him likeone.
Theme, like over and over, likepick, uh, pick, pick, follow
through as the theme.
(11:11):
Like follow through as the thingyou need to actually have your,
your vision go forward.
Have people get behind you orhave people not lose faith in
you.
Follow through is the theme.
Pick whatever word you want,whatever sentiment you want
there.
This is just an example, but.
If he gets through his brain, Ineed to follow through.
People need to see me followthrough with what I say.
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Boom, boom, boom.
Over and over and over again.
And then slow drip, slow drip,slow drip, follow through,
follow through, follow through.
We didn't quite follow throughthere.
Oh my gosh.
That was a great example offollow through.
Look at the look at.
Look at.
Look at the result.
Look at how people areresponding.
That's great.
That's what happens when youfollow through, follow through,
follow through, follow throughwhatever theme it is.
That could be, that could be.
(11:52):
What you talk with him about andkeep coming back to if this is a
habit.
That he's built up for a longtime.
It might take him a little bitto get out of that worth the
discussion and maybe you needhim to be doing, you know,
adding more things to his toolbelt right now.
So having this discussion aroundfollow through is really
important.
And I would set up small winsfor him.
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I would set up successes andmomentum he can build on.
I would give him positiveexamples.
I would give him examples ofhairs, how he didn't quite meet
the mark again.
But here's what went well aboutthat.
I would give him ongoingfeedback about the follow
through piece.
But if you have this ongoingconversation, I think it can be
really, really fruitful.
So great question.
Thank you for submitting that.
If anyone listening has anadditional question they'd like
(12:34):
to send in, feel free to emailme directly at Emily at next
level coach, find me on LinkedInor drop a question in the
comments and I'll catch you nexttime on leveraging leadership.