Near-Sighted Leadership: What You Can’t See from 10,000 Feet

As I write this post, I am currently onboard an airplane, 10,000 feet up in the sky – the same perch (metaphorically, anyway) that leaders use to view their businesses. From way up here, it is possible to see your company as a whole: what it looks like, where it’s headed, and how you will get there. What this vantage point will not tell you, however, is what’s happening down on the ground.

From a managerial standpoint, this is arguably fine; as the decision maker, it is your job to plot strategic direction which produces sales, satisfies customers and makes shareholders happy, not to get tied up with operational details. Yet still, the work of the firm is done by real people – your people – and they are looking to you for guidance, approval and job satisfaction as they go about their daily routine.

Leaders could – and should – spend the majority of their time dealing with the big questions, challenges and decisions necessary to run their firms effectively. However, in order to truly motivate and inspire your staff, it is essential to maintain a constant vigilance of how things are going on the ground, and provide employees with the tools, experience and environment they need to enact your strategic vision.

Which ground-level facets of the operation should you be monitoring, in order to ensure staff is producing the results you need? Here is a list of crucial questions to ask yourself on a regular basis to maintain an accurate macro and micro view of your shop:

• How is workplace morale?
• How satisfied are customers with our service and staff?
• Are our facility and workspace conditions up to par?
• How effective are our staff recreation, recognition and reward programs?
• Do our HR policies make sense? Are they being adhered to?
• How are our employee absenteeism and attrition rates?
• How effective are our various teams? Do they collaborate well?
• How clear are our employee performance evaluation/improvement procedures?
• How useful is our internship/summer associate program?
• What is the quality/variety of offerings down at our staff cafeteria?
• How inconvenient are our office/informational security protocols?
• How complicated are our employee expense reimbursement procedures?
• What do we offer staff by way of professional training and development?
• Do we have an employee tuition reimbursement program?
• How utilized are our babysitting, dry cleaning or other employee amenities?
• How easy is it for staff to use current technology/workflow systems?
• What do our employees find most rewarding about working here?
• What could we be doing to allow our employees to do their jobs more effectively?

As a leader, if your sole focus is on big picture, you will not have an accurate understanding of the true health of your business. Do you agree or disagree that senior managers should maintain awareness of the daily grind of rank-and-file employees? Is this or is this not an effective use of management’s time? Share your thoughts below!