Impact of CEO ‘presence’ on Staff Engagement

It’s been seven years since he attended the Strategic Leadership Programme at Millbrook and during that time I have noticed how he has grappled with the challenges of his expanding role. For a long time he became busier and busier and I often wondered if he might explode.

So it was a great surprise that I noticed yesterday the huge change in his ‘presence’ – softer, calmer, reasoned, deeper voice tones, and an engaging smile.

Apparently the company’s staff engagement scores have risen dramatically and as a consequence, so has customer satisfaction.

Here are some tips I gained from our learning conversation that I would like to share with you:

1. Focusing on supervisor level leadership is vital as these people motivate the customer facing staff in the organisation.
2. Senior leaders act as role models, energisers, advisors and resource allocators for these vitally important supervisors.
3. Stopping the car before arriving home to breath deeply gets this CEO relaxed and in a great space so he can be ‘present’ with his family when he gets home.
4. The last thing he says to his kids before they go to sleep is, “What were the three exciting things you experienced today?“.  As they sleep and as they dream, their minds and bodies are being positively charged and all the not-so-good stuff they pick up throughout the day gets put in the delete box.

There is no magic bullet – leadership development is an ongoing step-by-step journey, and it’s always inspiring to hear and notice strategic leaders taking the next step up.

I hope this anecdote serves as a reminder of the powerful impact of ‘presence’.  And of course, it only takes 90 minutes for the energy and presence of the CEO to radiate its way out through to their followers and on to customers and other important stakeholders.