I was at a stage in my career when visits to HQ were rare. I had been ,” liaising “ with HR and was now walking down the corridor where the Assistant Directors (AD’s ) had their offices. Each office was glass fronted but most had the blinds down. As I passed the only office with the blinds up the figure sitting at the imposing desk rose and beckons me in. It was my recently promoted former boss who was now acting AD. My first response was ,”oh no what now?” assuming HR had told him about my recent unorthodoxy approach to filling vacancies. But no he was all smiles, asked me what I was doing at HQ and said he was finding it rather lonely compared to the area office!
An unguarded moment of vulnerability. His team of area managers were based in area offices spread out across the region, he met them as a group only once a month unlike when he was based in an area office with his managers around him. He wasn’t lonely in the everyday sense of the word but the absence of daily, mostly informal contact, with his team members was making him feel out of touch and isolated. He must have found away to adjust because he went on to become a Director and eventually a CE.
This experience of isolation is very common amongst senior managers and those leading organisations. As an individual moves up the corporate ladder their reference group shrinks, their informal encounters with employees reduces, as it gets increasingly harder to get a meeting with them ,never mind a one to one there is an increased danger of operating in a bubble. Within this bubble there are fewer dissenting voices people able or willing to challenge the leaders views and bad news is filtered out. The leader risks becoming out of touch but also feeling isolated, they alone carry the weight of responsibility.
To counter this senior managers /leaders need to choose who they listen to carefully, their advisors may be sound but too like minded. Many have found a mentor/ coach very helpful as an impartial sounding board. In setting the tone for the organisation they need to encourage opening up debate not closing it down just because it might be negative.
They must get information from a range of sources , employee surveys and focus groups, customer feedback, exit interviews, peer group audits encouraging their managers to resist the temptation to dismiss unwelcome news with, comments like ” they would say that wouldn’t they”. Keeping the feedback channels as open as possible reduces the danger of the bubble.