How Do We Convince Our Executives of the Value of Its' Employees?

QUESTION:  I am the senior member of a company “steering committee” that is have a difficult time convincing our president of the results of our due diligence, dedicated research and other investigatory tools with reference the growth of our company within our marketplace.  He has an outside mentor whom we suspect unwittingly undermines our work because the mentor is only hearing one side.  We are an ESOP company and this committee believes our work directly impacts all of our employees.  Can you offer us any suggestions?

ANSWER:  I am going to make the assumption that your skills in presenting the materials to the president are not flawed.  Because many times emotion takes over from logic when it comes to the decision making process.  Your team sees it as being “all right” and he sees it as the unknown or unclear.

It all comes down to the relationship the president has with the committee.  If he doesn’t believe in your work then another path needs to be taken because that would be a grave injustice to the employees.  Or even worse, he and possibly his mentor are just not willing to allow change, which of course is a monster from within itself.

Because you are the senior member of this committee, it appears that it is your place to get behind closed doors with your president in a meeting that has no interruptions and get it all on the table.  Offer facts, times, dates, places and any other details that bolster your position(s).  If the evidence is compelling for or against any given decision, then you must help him understand your position(s) in his decisions to grow the company or not.

It is interesting that he has a mentor, yet he has allowed a steering committee in the organization which acts a great deal like a mentor or counselor. Because I have not been personally witness to his actions or lack thereof, it is very difficult to put my finger on the cause. 
But my suspicions are that he is possibly a micro-managing president that doesn’t embrace change.  Micro-managing comes is two forms…subtle and blatant.

It is way too easy to do the same old thing over and over even if it gets him or the company no farther down the road on Friday than it did on Monday.  It is like rewarding a bad decision by doing it all over again next week.

If his inaction's, actions or limited decision making processes become detrimental to the organization, you probably have an avenue available to you.  Employees in an ESOP have the ability to vote executives in and vote executives out. 

Regards,

George F. Mancuso, President
Client Growth Consultants
Grinnell, Iowa

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