Advice From A CEO: Don't Be Afraid To Speak Up

I have been giving talks to corporate leadership teams, including my own, on how to make it safe for people on their teams to speak up. Leaders are often in a position of power, and it's hard for employees to speak their minds in fear of the fallout. In one of my recent leadership talks, a person asked me, "How do you go about speaking up if you truly are scared of the outcome." This is a tricky question to answer. But it's such a good question. The reason it's hard to answer is that it depends on the situation. I wanted to answer the question carefully; I didn't know this woman's situation, and I didn't want to give her bad advice. Listen to find out my tips. Ok, the question of the episode comes from a listener of Reflect Forward and he asks, "Kerry, I know you use an executive coach. Do you also get coaches for your employees?" YES! YES! YES! Many of my employees have coaches and it's the best investment I have made in terms of people development. I hire coaches to help high performers gain new insights about themselves and others and help them build new skills. I hire coaches to help high-potential employees who are struggling. I hire coaches for employees at all levels of the organization, not just the executive level. I also use my executive coach for team coaching, which has been tremendous in helping us create a disciplined management system and has dramatically improved our ability to execute our strategy. Overall, the investment I've made in coaching has paid dividends. I think all leaders who are looking to be exceptional should hire a coach. And all leaders looking to develop exceptionally high-performing teams should use coaches to help develop their teams.