I’ve coached and advised C-level executives for decades, and our current context serves as a call to action for high-growth CEOs to step-up and lead environments where honest, open debate and constructive disagreement thrive.
Consider three recent scenarios:
2024 will surely add fuel to these respective challenges. According to Time.com, more voters than ever in history will head to the polls this year as at least 64 countries (plus the European Union) —representing a combined population of about 49% of world’s population—will hold national elections; the outcomes, and implications of which will undoubtedly be thought-provoking and polarizing.
Productive Dissent with Positive Intent
I’ve seen similar movies before. In 2010, while serving as chief people officer at LivePerson, a conversational AI software company, rapid growth required us to focus on the critical behaviors of discourse and disagreement as catalysts for innovation. We implemented a global leadership framework focused on conscious, connected, informed and influential leadership abilities. Embedded in our system was a leader’s conscious ability to “express and facilitate productive dissent with positive intent.” This was not a coincidence but instead a decision made in response to behavioral undercurrents unfolding around us. A few years later, as chief people officer at the USGA (an antithetical operating environment experiencing strategic and cultural transformation to a digital-first mindset), we focused on a similar set of skills to stay ahead of and respond to rapid change and disruption in sports. And now, in our post-pandemic world and massively disrupted workplace, a leader’s conscious ability to “express and facilitate productive dissent with positive intent” and the many connected skills we had forecasted, are highly sought after and prioritized.
Still, it’s challenging to encourage employees to speak up and create an environment where they feel empowered to voice ideas, concerns, and thoughts on how to solve problems or be opportunistic. Predictably, some high-growth CEOs are “surprised” that in a “see something, say something” world in public spaces, they don’t see the same principles carry over into their workplaces, as employees don’t always abide by the same tenets and ideals. Many of these leaders are often not aware or honest enough with themselves to see that they may be enabling the wrong behaviors or preventing the right behaviors and processes others in their organizations see or want to see and may not be saying something about.
A high-growth CEO may …
Starting Fresh or Getting Re-Tracked
To start or rekindle a leadership environment that promotes productive and healthy debate and disagreement, high-growth CEOs must remember that often-talked about leadership traits (ones they might cynically minimize) such as cultivating psychological safety, active listening, and empathy really do matter. And, while navigating the uncertainties of growth requires situationally directive leadership, leaning in on your roles as active facilitator should not be minimized.
So, as you mobilize your leaders and teams to achieve 2024 goals and objectives in another year of clear uncertainty, consider the following approaches designed to improve the health, quality, and openness of discourse across the executive table and down through your organization:
For high-growth CEOs and the companies they built or lead, winning is the end game. Still the journey is marked by stress, wins, losses, pivots, crisis, opportunity, and, of course, conflict. Those who free themselves from the constraints which discourage and even stymie healthy and open discourse and disagreement will almost assuredly thrive.