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Boardrooms are boring - get up and get out!

Writer's picture: Stephanie KirkStephanie Kirk

Although I have had the pleasure of working alongside my share of excellent senior leaders and CEOs, we all from time to time fall into the awful habit of disconnecting from the real heart of the company.


Those glass boxed offices with endless powerpoints and streams of jargon can drain the life out of anyone faster than you can say "annual report." Also, I can’t think of a time when I’ve been sitting in a typical senior leadership meeting and thought to myself ‘ah, it’s good to see everyone bringing their authentic selves to this meeting’.


The heart of a company beats well away from those settings. It's with your teams—the people who do the most important work. The ones who know the company inside out because they're knee-deep in the day-to-day, making shit happen whilst trying to keep an eye on how they can be part of the company’s key goals, whilst building relationships with each other, other teams, your clients and trying to get seen by you to help further their career.


They are juggling the most and having the biggest impact. Yet, somehow, they're often left out of the loop when it comes to the big decisions.


Yes, you might pay them lip service, you will definitely say "I'm not one of those CEOs who sits in an ivory tower all day" when you're in a networking session about 'inspiring authentic leadership' but do you? Not just when clients visit, but regularly and in times when you need to see through another lens?


A crap sketch of stick people trying to shout through a glass wall whilst a CEO looks at a depressing graph
I can't believe I shared this sketch with the world

A stroll out of that stuffy boardroom to chat with the people who keep your company ticking teaches you far more about the ‘low hanging fruit’* opportunities than sitting with your peers, staring for hours at nice to have but non-essential data.  Trust me, the teams at the front of what you do are the ones with the real insights, the fresh perspectives, and the keys to why the process you built isn’t helping them achieve the goals you set.


As much as I’ve worked with some amazing leaders, I’ve all too often had to drag them out of the boardroom to go seek the really useful information from the people in the know.  Half an hour shadowing a willing member on the team will enlighten you to far more about your business than poring over carefully conditionally coloured data cells.


Here’s your reminder to say farewell to the boardroom blues and embrace the power of having a good chat. Your teams hold the keys to all those niggles your data describes—all you've got to do is ask.


💡 OR - ask me! If you’re not hitting your goals as expected, and the data doesn’t tell you what you expect, I can support you with an audit and analysis of your current digital production process, employee experience or client journey. Connect to tap into my toolkit. Prepare to be dragged from your glass box though...... 💡


*I hated even typing this phrase….


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