Forbes/Brian Anderson: A Leader's Cautionary Tale: Town Halls

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A Leader's Cautionary Tale: Town Halls
Forbes Communications Council
Brian Anderson CommunityVoice
Forbes Communications Council

Jul 18, 2018, 09:00am #LikeABoss

Post written by

Brian Anderson

CMO of POPin, with over 30 years of global marketing experience in technology, business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets.

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Leaders beware: This is a cautionary tale of two leaders and their approaches to being more approachable and thus more successful as leaders. Today we traverse the fine line between success and failure for the ubiquitous town hall/all-hands meeting.

Town hall meetings harken back to colonial times when political leaders incited the American Revolution by bringing together citizens to discuss issues of taxation without representation. Business leaders have long since cooped the concept in order to periodically address the entire organization for issues ranging from general business updates to dealing with massive (usually negative) change.

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review notes that a leader’s time is exceedingly limited, and the scope of their work is vast. This includes agendas, organizational levels and external issues. In this modern business reality, it is critical for leaders to ensure that their messages are effectively communicated, heard and understood by all of their constituents.

Today’s tale starts with an observation of two leaders, alike in almost every aspect. Fred and Barney are both CEOs of large companies with similar education and business backgrounds. Both face a highly competitive market fraught with regulatory requirements, a workforce changing with the influx of millennials and the daily challenge of staying ahead of consumer preferences. Both have read the management books that pontificate visibility and approachability as a way to promote higher productivity and, in turn, profitability.

The Vocal Minority

Fred is very proud of his monthly town hall meetings with the entire company. He personally crafts the agenda and spends a solid 45 minutes updating everyone on all corporate metrics with a 42-slide presentation. Fred closes every meeting by opening up the microphone to anyone who has any questions on everything he just presented. Invariably, the only people coming forward with questions seem to be about inconsequential things that are easily addressed. Month after month, it's the same people spouting the same personal agendas, but Fred gives them the opportunity to speak to show how approachable he is as a leader.

At the end of every meeting, his direct reports praise his performance, assuring him that everything went great, which furthers Fred’s opinion of his success. Unfortunately, there always seem to be fire drills between town hall meetings that require restating and resetting expectations down through the ranks of the organization.

Fred also sends out a survey at the end of every town hall to quantify feedback. It usually takes a week to get enough people to complete the 10-question survey in order to make it meaningful, and then another three to four weeks to compile and analyze the data. The feedback from the organization is that it feels like they are being tested and never know the outcome, while Fred feels like he is being graded and usually discounts what he sees in the summary.

The Silent Majority

Barney’s approach is dramatically different. He always has three or four topics that he knows must be addressed, but he understands that in an organization as large as his, there are items of importance to different organizational levels that may not be on his radar.

Three days before every town hall meeting, he invites the entire organization to collaborate in an anonymous crowdsourcing tool with the question, “What questions or topics do you want us to address at our next all-hands meeting?” [Full disclosure: My company offers an anonymous crowdsourcing platform.] The entire organization can then safely add their ideas as well as vote and comment on other ideas to create a consensus on what is truly important for everyone. Barney even adds his own ideas anonymously to see how the organization rates what he feels is mission critical to success.

During the town hall, Barney starts by bringing up the crowdsourcing session and addresses the issues voted to the top, even when they may be difficult topics, because he knows it is better to address everything head on than to let them fester and negatively impact productivity. His town halls always feel more like a true company conversation because everyone has had some say through their votes and comments, and he can ensure that mission-critical issues are also addressed.

Immediately after the meeting he launches another session to ask, “How effective were the topics covered in today’s all-hands meeting, and where do you need more clarity?” In this way, he can see where more information is needed to succeed and where potential hot spots may flare in the future. Barney comes away with a clear understanding of critical success factors and the organization comes to trust him even more because of his actions.

An Invitation To Excel

In short, I’d invite you to be a Barney. The world already has too many leaders who are more interested in their own opinions and that of their direct reports than that of the entire team they manage. I’m not suggesting management by mob rule, but more often than not, while leaders know what needs to be done, employees know why and how best it can be done.

Recognizing and tapping into this can be the difference between success and failure, or at least the difference between getting something done quickly and smoothly versus constantly battling confusion and resetting expectations.

Bottom line: Whether the ideas and strategies implemented were in fact your idea to start with, you will find that when your entire organization feels like it was their idea, they will feel emotionally invested in the outcome. You will gain not only their trust but their ongoing buy-in for success and, ultimately, your organization’s market dominance.
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