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CEOs spend 72% of their times in meetings, 6% with frontline teams and 3% with customers.
Meaning: most of them live in an artificial bubble that prevents them from seeing the actual world and their workers face.
So it’s not surprising when I see CEOs completely disconnected from the frontline.
They think they know what happens using their own intuition and feedback from their leadership team.
Looking at the future, a new type of CEO will be in high demand.
It’s the ‘Frontline CEO’.
A CEO that turns his/her time upside down.
I read recently some great examples of CEOs who are interpreting their role in this way.
CEO’s Airbnb Brian Chesky spent last 6 months living in his company’s rentals—and found the core problem with his business.
Laxman Narasimhan new CEO of Starbucks is taking the role of barista shifts once a month. And Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi got behind the wheel and moonlighted as a driver that led him to "reevaluate every single assumption that we’ve made," he told the Wall Street Journal.
Consider this:
Spending most of your time with the frontline is not just good for morale and for reinforcing your company culture.
It’s a unique opportunity to see the business with different lens so you can make it better.
And by the way, you don’t need to be the CEO to do that.
This is what any great leader does.
Agree?
(The data about time management are based on a research made a few years ago by HBS professors Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria).
If you're interested to go deeper, listen to the full episode here.
Andrea Petrone
Human Performance & Leadership Advisor to CEOs, CXOs and their Teams | Speaker | Facilitator
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