Organizations have unintentional ways of creating burnout, exhaustion, and churn for employees.
Do you frequently interact with the C-suite? If so, you’ve probably heard some version of the following: C-level leaders are impatient, time-starved, and need you to get to the point quickly. They want you to appreciate the bigger picture and address the relevant enterprise challenges that they’re facing. They are sophisticated and have heard it all before, so be prepared to offer new, relevant insights and fresh thinking. And let’s not forget this one: They will ask tough questions.
Good advice, but here’s the problem: We’ve created a bit of a monster when it comes to the ways we understand the executive audience, where we’ve collectively created a story about how the C-suite is an incredibly difficult group to present to, requiring brilliance, perfection, and lots of preparation.
Don’t believe me? Do a simple calculation adding up the amount of time and energy leaders spend preparing to present to senior executives. It isn’t uncommon for that number to add up to hundreds, even thousands of hours annually. (Consider the example from HBR about the weekly meeting that took 300,000 employee hours a year of preparation inside one global company.)
When you really do the math, the numbers can be staggering, and the opportunity cost is high for organizations and teams: The approach creates significant employee burnout, hurts morale, and pulls time, energy, and resources away from what most companies want employees to be doing, like focusing on strategy execution or growing revenue.
If you’re wondering whether this might be happening across your team or organization, ask yourself the following:
Have you confused paranoia with preparation? There’s a difference between thoughtful, even rigorous preparation and paranoia, and it’s easier to confuse the two than you might think. The clues are usually obvious, starting with the many drafts, iterations, and rounds it takes for something to be “executive ready” before presenting. Certainly, we want to provide strong insights and materials to our senior leaders, but what we’re describing here creates exhaustion and depletes employees, because it’s driven by a fear that we’ll be asked something we didn’t anticipate or know the answer to, that we’ll somehow miss the mark, frustrate the audience, and lose credibility in the process.
Do you have a ‘final presentation’ or ‘rough draft’ mindset? There may be some aspects of running your business that do, in fact, require “perfection” or an error-free experience. Even if that is the case, consider how the thought “this has to be perfect” may be floating through your organization. It’s why pulling together ideas for senior audiences can quickly go from smart preparation to overkill. It’s not uncommon for executives to comment on how this behavior shows up among their own leaders and hear feedback like, “My team shows up with a perfectly polished presentation and plan, but what I’m looking for is a concept that we’ll discuss together.” Another said: “I want a conversation, not a presentation.”
Are you reluctant to find out what your audience really wants? Over the years, I’ve worked with teams who are simultaneously thrilled about the opportunity to interact with their CEO, board, or high stakes audience, and equally concerned about the fact that they don’t know the real objective of the conversation or what is on the minds of the audience, because they are often a few steps removed from the audience. Instead, they’ll make assumptions about the audience or take an educated guess about how to best prepare, risking missing the mark and losing an opportunity. If this is happening for you or your teams, consider how a thought that sounds like, “I can’t ask an executive audience clarifying questions in advance of a meeting,” may be doing you a real disservice. It stands to reason that most audiences will respond to a thoughtful email if it helps generate a high value discussion and minimizes unproductive interactions that waste time.
How to address? Start with math. If you’re not sure whether these scenarios are happening inside your company, pick a few recurring meetings (board meetings, earnings calls, quarterly business reviews) and do the math. How many hours does your organization collectively spend pulling the materials, messaging, strategy, and approach for these each week, month, year? Add it up and consider whether you’ve creating a culture of smart preparation or contributing to burnout.
Define ‘smart’ preparation. How much time should it really take to pull a strong, executive ready message together? What aspects of your current processes are creating drag, inefficiency, and burnout? What behaviors do leaders need to demonstrate to prepare thoughtfully in order to create a strong final product? For example, leaders can strengthen their ability to co-create with executives, rather than show up with a perfect presentation. Or, they may need to develop the skill we teach to leaders called 180 Thinking – a process that quickly helps identify what is really on the minds of the audience, and what isn’t. Organizations that take time to define these elements can quickly cut down on burnout, low morale, and employee frustration.
Clarify expectations. When it comes to the C-suite, an old, outdated narrative about executive audiences drives much of our behavior. The good news is that dispelling this myth can happen quickly. Where to begin? For senior executives, acknowledge this myth exists, consider how it might be showing up for you, and get input from your teams to understand the impact it is having on them. And when you tell your teams, “I don’t expect perfection,” or, “I am looking for a conversation, not a presentation,” act in ways that are consistent with that guidance.
When you do, you’ll reduce the churn and frustration that comes with processes that are excessive or exhausting. You’ll increase the odds of receiving something of high quality sooner in your preparation process. Best of all, you’ll help your employees move past burnout and into enjoyment as they provide you with the executive-ready materials and thinking that can move your business forward.
