The biggest enemy of a CEO: unquestioning agreement
by Valentin Unverricht
The concepts of Groupthink and Psychological Safety have been researched and discussed for a number of years by now, both powerful concepts to be wary of and to encourage if a successful and sustainable business is to be built. Managed properly, they can define the success and failure of any team but nowhere in a given company is its impact more consequential than in the C-Suite. At C-level, realistically, it is the CEO who sets the tone whether a Groupthink dynamic emerges or Psychological Safety is encouraged.
The risk that comes with unquestioning agreement is a direction set exclusively by someone who, relatively speaking, is removed from the “coal face” of the company’s operational end and realistically cannot capture a whole host of unintended consequences just by themselves. Business news are full of examples where companies took certain strategic directions that turned out to be detrimental further down the line. Could a less agreeable C-suite, driven by Psychological Safety, have corrected course and prevented decline caused by flawed strategy? Why was the Psychological Safety in these leadership teams not strong enough for someone to put their hand up and say “hold on a minute”?
To be sure, Psychological Safety is a cultural piece that takes years of working together to build, because it ultimately rests on trust. CEOs (and their People leaders, who are typically in charge of building workplace culture) do not have this time, because executive strategy is typically defined in the first 6-12 months of a CEO’s appointment.
This is where Interim or Fractional support can be transformative.
An Interim leader comes in without the legacy of having built a career in said company and without the notion that they are a “buddy” of the CEO through a long-standing relationship. They are an impartial observer and analyst of the operation and its leadership, serving within a set time frame. This means that they can make their recommendation without fear or favour. If C-level Groupthink produces too much automatic agreement, this impartiality will flag it. Further, Interim leaders have the freedom and experience to bridge the “corridor” between the boardroom and the factory or shop floor – giving them an overview of unintended short- and long-term consequences C-level executives often miss.
Strategy changes are periods of huge uncertainty for everyone in a company and this uncertainty is especially stark for those who take and are measured by business-consequential decisions. Interim support is an effective way to navigate this uncertainty.
6 Group works with an extensive and diverse community of Interim Transformation & Change leaders at CEO-/MD-, COO-, CFO-, and Sales/Marketing-level.
Get in touch today to explore how our Interim leaders could help future-proof your business.
