I was lucky enough to be invited to a town hall meeting with a CEO of a company. For multiple reasons I cannot share with you who the CEO is, or what name of the company is. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is what happened to me. I was inspired by this CEO. I was invited to the meeting by his communications advisor, and she told me beforehand how wonderful he is in town hall meetings, and what a pleasure it is to work with him.
In the meeting he addressed a crowd of around 300 employees, who were just told that their budgets were cut. Employees were given the opportunity to ask questions beforehand. My communications contact there told me that the CEO never wanted her to prepare questions. His philosophy is that he should be capable to formulate the answers himself, and boy do I agree with that!
Now, what did the CEO do that inspired me?
1. He used just one (!) slide, to reiterate the company’s strategy, explaining it in simple words, and stressing the importance of every word, not leaving room for any doubt about the fact that he had thought about it, made the choice, and was ready to defend that strategy to any audience.
2. He did not use any business lingo, on the contrary, he spoke in clear, personal, genuine words.
3. When answering the questions, he picked the most difficult ones, and answered them straight on, with great respect for the feelings behind the question, addressing that feeling and explaining very calmly the rationale behind his decision. Every question, no matter how hard, or sometimes unreasonable, was answered this way. Here, it really showed that he was not prepared by a Q&A session, but that he could answer from his own knowledge of the matter.
4. He took ownership of his decisions, admitting mistakes, explaining which parts were his call, and why he made those calls. He said: “I believe in chance before you have to chance”, which I think is a great one-liner, and explained that that was his duty. To chance the company’s direction before this chance would be enforced.
5. I came out inspired, and so did 300 employees, so whatever he did, it was successful.
Communications, it can be so simple if you keep it simple!
Showing posts with label corporate life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corporate life. Show all posts
07 June 2011
18 January 2011
Feel like a child again, start a new job
So I started a new job. Gone are the days of warm goodbyes (thanks Océ colleagues, what a great way to part), back to reality and the beginning of a new exciting journey. One of the first differences I noticed is the use of social media for external purposes. The pharmaceutical industry is very different from the printing industry. This business is all about quality and safety. Everything that distracts people from these two key performance areas is more or less irrelevant. Moreover, this is a highly regulated business. Companies are very restricted in what they can say or do in the outside world. So, more than ever before, I need to stress that this is a personal blog. I will keep following trends in internal communications, but I will not share any information about my present company.
I noticed first hand now how digitalized our world has become. Fortunately, I have kept up with the trend, but consider all the new things I need to learn: a new phone, a new operating system, a new teleconferencing tool, a new intranet, a new navigation system in my car, you name it. When you need to change all these things you suddenly become aware of how depended we have become on digital communication tools. I felt like a little child that first week, and I am still figuring out Vista, but at least I can answer my phone now ;-)
One of the greatest things for me to pick up will be the staff engagement program (volunteer work, sports, theatre, staff celebrations, you name it). There is a lot available, also from the corporate HQ, but good ideas are more than welcome.
I noticed first hand now how digitalized our world has become. Fortunately, I have kept up with the trend, but consider all the new things I need to learn: a new phone, a new operating system, a new teleconferencing tool, a new intranet, a new navigation system in my car, you name it. When you need to change all these things you suddenly become aware of how depended we have become on digital communication tools. I felt like a little child that first week, and I am still figuring out Vista, but at least I can answer my phone now ;-)
One of the greatest things for me to pick up will be the staff engagement program (volunteer work, sports, theatre, staff celebrations, you name it). There is a lot available, also from the corporate HQ, but good ideas are more than welcome.
16 December 2010
Boost your ego, leave your job
This week I announced that I will be leaving Océ to take on a new challenge as Corporate Communications Senior Manager at Amgen Europe. B.V.
I am really looking forward to my new job, but what I wanted to write about in this blog post is not the content of my current or my new job.
I just wanted to share with you how amazed I am about the enormous amount of sweet, positive, heartwarming messages I got. I talked about this with a few people who had switched jobs too, and they all said the same. All of a sudden people with a role to play become just regular human beings again. Wow, life is so much better if we connect on a human-to-human level instead of a role-to-role level. I know it is impossible not to play a role, but still; I am convinced that it pays out to just be yourself, in any given situation.
In the Netherlands there is a famous book about life in the corporate world, called hoe word ik een rat? (how to become a rat). In a funny way it describes that one needs to become a bit of a rat to survive in the corporate jungle. Push the right buttons at the right time, make yourself visible or invisible at the right time, use you elbows, play the politics game really well. Or, as my manager states it: “success has many fathers, failure one project manager”. Indeed, that is how it often works.
This is a bold statement, but I know I am not a corporate rat. Sure, I loose the occasional battle from a rat. Yes, I am too modest about my successes (although with this blog I am trying to prove the opposite…), but in the long run I still have enough successes to celebrate. My career is still in an upward mode. That’s really nice, but that is not the only reason why I have been walking with a big smile on my face all week. In fact, more important is the fact that all the positive feedback I received proved to me that it pays out to just be yourself. There is room for being genuine in the corporate world, and that is a very encouraging thought.
I’d like to dedicate this blog post to my father. He spent his working life quite high up in the hierarchy of the corporate world, and when he died at the age of 59, his 200 or so business friends disappeared from our lives within two months. Some of these people had worked with him for over 25 years and had seen me grow up. What I learned from that awful experience is that life is too precious to play a game. Or as Stephen Covey states: there is no one who says at their deathbed:’ I really regret that I didn’t spend more time at the office’.
I am really looking forward to my new job, but what I wanted to write about in this blog post is not the content of my current or my new job.
I just wanted to share with you how amazed I am about the enormous amount of sweet, positive, heartwarming messages I got. I talked about this with a few people who had switched jobs too, and they all said the same. All of a sudden people with a role to play become just regular human beings again. Wow, life is so much better if we connect on a human-to-human level instead of a role-to-role level. I know it is impossible not to play a role, but still; I am convinced that it pays out to just be yourself, in any given situation.
In the Netherlands there is a famous book about life in the corporate world, called hoe word ik een rat? (how to become a rat). In a funny way it describes that one needs to become a bit of a rat to survive in the corporate jungle. Push the right buttons at the right time, make yourself visible or invisible at the right time, use you elbows, play the politics game really well. Or, as my manager states it: “success has many fathers, failure one project manager”. Indeed, that is how it often works.
This is a bold statement, but I know I am not a corporate rat. Sure, I loose the occasional battle from a rat. Yes, I am too modest about my successes (although with this blog I am trying to prove the opposite…), but in the long run I still have enough successes to celebrate. My career is still in an upward mode. That’s really nice, but that is not the only reason why I have been walking with a big smile on my face all week. In fact, more important is the fact that all the positive feedback I received proved to me that it pays out to just be yourself. There is room for being genuine in the corporate world, and that is a very encouraging thought.
I’d like to dedicate this blog post to my father. He spent his working life quite high up in the hierarchy of the corporate world, and when he died at the age of 59, his 200 or so business friends disappeared from our lives within two months. Some of these people had worked with him for over 25 years and had seen me grow up. What I learned from that awful experience is that life is too precious to play a game. Or as Stephen Covey states: there is no one who says at their deathbed:’ I really regret that I didn’t spend more time at the office’.
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