In this poignant episode, George Kriza, CEO of Challenging Decisions, shares the lessons he learned over 25 years as CEO of a growing Inc 500 company. If you’re the CEO of an organization with over 30 employees and struggling to keep up with all the decisions that keep landing on your desk, you won’t want to miss this episode.
You will discover:
– How to handle an underperforming leader (especially if they are also a friend)
– What separates high-growth CEOs from everyone else
– Why you may not need to be a better decision-maker and what you should do instead
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome, once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast. And here with us today is the definition of a high demand coach in the one and only George Kriza, who is an experienced C level business consultant gaining 25 years of expertise as the CEO of a privately held Hyper Growth Inc 500 company. He specializes in helping high performing CEOs to navigate the critical and uncomfortable decisions to set the stage for real success and for new CEOs to implement essential business processes and drivers he and his company assist CEOs in solving the challenges that they face, including strategy process, design, software development, finance, product culture, team, effectiveness, marketing and sales. He’s here with us today. George, very excited to have you on the show. I really enjoyed researching and getting ready for this episode. We’ve got a few questions lined up, but before we get to those, I’m wondering if you could just kind of define for us, what is it that separates high growth, high productivity CEOs from everyone else?
George Kriza
Well, it’s not just a matter of energy or enthusiasm. It’s a matter of combining a great vision for a new product or a new offering that the market really may not have even anticipated yet. For example, you’ve heard the word disintermediating. There’s plenty of industries that do things the same old way that they’ve always done them, and if you can identify how your product or service can offer that in a completely new way, you have an opportunity to have a tremendous growth. One other thing that plays into it is finding Class A clients, Gorilla clients. So think a lot of people have the idea that they’re going to start with small clients, which is not a bad idea to, you know, get rid of some rough edges, but if you can get a gorilla client and leverage that into more gorilla clients, hyper growth is right there at the doorstep.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that. So what are in your experience, both from being in the seat yourself to now helping others do the same? What are some of the most common, critical and or uncomfortable decisions that a CEO must make?
George Kriza
I think one of the most uncomfortable decisions is making adjustments to the executive team of the company. You tend to have hired people you thought were really the best possible people for the organization to either be directors or VPS, and then you may find out that someone is not performing up to the level that they need to perform at which point you’re going to try and coach them. But if, under a very short period of time, you cannot coach them to success, you have to make changes in that management team or that particular individual in order to bring in someone that is really running in sync with the vision and with the culture.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah. So I’ve definitely found this to be true. I would say there’s kind of two categories of decisions that I have found the hardest and this employment decision, another layer that I found to it, particularly on in the entrepreneurial world is that not only did we hire them for their competence or promote them for their competence, but they’re oftentimes friends as well, right? These are folks that we’ve kind of built the business on their back, and they’ve got blood, sweat and tears invested like like we do. And I would say, of of all of the moments that I think back to as a CEO when I had to make an uncomfortable decision. Every single one of them was a people decision, you know, and we’ll get into some of the others here in a moment. But if someone’s sitting there CEO who’s wondering if one of their team members has to go, what advice would you give them?
George Kriza
Well, you have to define what high performance really means in your organization. And for example, have you given the organization as a whole appropriate clarity to understand where you’re going? Because, in other words, if you just hire a potentially high performing individual and just let them go on an unmanaged way, you’re asking for trouble, frankly. So, so it has to be clear where they’re going. It also has to be clear to them that they’re going to be accountable. And accountability comes very hard when you feel like you’re a friend of the person that’s the VP, yeah. So, so the most difficult thing of all is to have what you some people call it brutal conversations or difficult conversations. And by them, I don’t mean unkind conversations, but I mean if there is an issue at play that is involving performance, you have got to be able to sit down and. Individual and say, here’s what the expectation is, and here’s where you’re at now, from my perspective, on seeing a gap now, we got to get that gap a lot tighter, or close that gap, and it’s got to be done in the next 90 days. Now, if you can’t have that conversation, you’re liable to perpetuate an organization with, you know, dysfunction. So you want to stay away from that.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The second kind of big category that I have seen is, is stopping things right, starting things even if it’s risky, you know, especially for the more entrepreneurial CEOs that I work with that listen to this conversation. It’s kind of it’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s new. I’ve found that we tend to struggle a lot more, though, when it’s time to stop a strategy or to shut down a big or at one point in time, very consequential part of our organization. How do you help folks to to kind of wrap their mind around whether they need to actually stop doing something that they’re doing right now?
George Kriza
Well, I think you’re asking that in two different senses. One is, should the organization stop doing something, and the other is, should a particular department stopped doing something. Yes, so, so I prefer to talk about whether the organization should stop doing something now, particularly in SMBs or lower middle market companies, the CEO is just super engaged and super influential. And so in many cases, you’re going to find that the company’s executing the CEO’s vision, but that vision is, to your point, is often going to be imperfect, and visions need to be adapted as circumstances change. Will the CEO recognize that on their own, or does the management team have the ability to speak freely in a group or individually, to one another as a team, to the CEO privately, but what’s ever in their heart of hearts, in terms of what’s going on in the company? Again, whether it’s people or process or strategy or planning, if they can’t freely express themselves, you’re not going to be able to see what that pivot point ought to be. And so the more you can create engagement by the entire management team, the more likely you are, not just as a CEO, but the more likely you are as the entire team to get clarity on why your direction needs to be adjusted. So it’s just super important to let people be comfortable, to freely express themselves.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, and one of the things that I’ve found along those lines is a lot of folks will come and and I there’s almost an irony to your answer where this conversation goes. A lot of folks are saying, hey, how do I be a better decision maker? And I’ve found the team is often to make better decisions. The The answer is to make better decisions with your team. And it sounds like it speaks to a lot of what you’re talking about. Would you agree with that?
George Kriza
Absolutely, absolutely. Now, one of the one of the real temptations that a CEO has to watch out for is thinking that they need to be invulnerable. So in other words, if you think that you can’t admit that you’re raw in front of your team. That’s a problem, you know, because we’re all human beings, and we are all imperfect in our way of thinking, managing whatever it may be. So, you know, we just have to lower our own ego. You need a, you know, to be a CEO. You need a really strong ego. It’s very rare to have a CEO that is not self confident and self assured. That said, you still have to recognize someone else may have a better idea than you. Someone else may need to coach you back, and you need to make that available to them.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah. I love that. I love the kind of dual nature of that, of being strong, being courageous, having opinions, and being able to push through those difficult conversations, not shying away from them, but also having the openness to learn and admit that we’re wrong.
George Kriza
And you know, Scott, the thing that happens if you don’t do that is not only dysfunction, but you know, there is resentment that will build up among the key individuals that are managing the company, and if they resent others on the management team, because. They really haven’t expressed themselves. If they resent you as a CEO because you’re not really intimately connected with them, that’s a problem. So you got to lower that barrier, so all that connection and and openness can happen.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, George, I want to kind of take a look at some of the mechanics of this, because I’ve found that a lot of these conversations tend to center on the actual decision and implementing that decision. But have you found that there kind of common thread or pattern for high growth CEOs and how they spend their time, or even structure their week when and what do they do when they’re not making those decisions to best prepare them to make the best decisions.
George Kriza
I would say two or three things. Number one, a CEO needs to manage at a very high level and still have clarity on what’s going on in each and every department. So what I would do is I would maintain a dashboard in the form of a mind map, not just a checklist, but a mind map for each department. And I would work with every group leader on their mind map so that we’re on the same page on every area of interest that they’re working on. And we would know all the time, both of us would know all the time where where we’re at. We would agree on the priorities inside that department and and then the progress would be clear. In fact, I would use a system of like a gray box is one we’re not paying attention to right now. A green means that we’re in a great situation, and a red means that we’ve got to work on it quickly. So so each operating manager and myself would have great clarity on where we’re at together. And then ultimately, you as the CEO have to work on the business more so than in the business. So if you find yourself doing all of the the frontline work and maintaining all the client relationships, and you’re doing all those things by yourself, you’re shooting yourself in the foot, you have to have the organization be self sufficient and self sustaining.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, what would you say? And this, you’ve kind of answered this question already, but maybe we can unpack it a little further. What are the things that we tend to do that distract us from or diminish our ability to make great decisions as CEOs?
George Kriza
Well, that’s an interesting that’s an interesting question. You can be distracted by lots of things. Some people allow themselves just too much discretion to be away from the business. You know, again, it’s one thing to be above everything that’s going on, and it’s quite another thing to be absent from what’s going on. So you have got to stay engaged. And in the game, you know, really, the CEO sets the tone for the culture. The CEO sets the tone for the vision of the company. And the CEO should also set the tone for execution in the company. And by that, we don’t mean shooting people. We want to get the job done and make sure everyone understands what our goals are, what the time elements are for achieving those goals, and then following through every step of the way to make sure they happen. And so that’s the kind of level you want to be engaged on. And don’t get too deep, you know, let them if you have the right managers in place, the right VPs in place, they should be fully capable of executing their department’s role. You know, at the same time, there are times when you will need to get pulled in, but it should be at a much higher level than than, you know, low level tactical.
Scott Ritzheimer
It actually brings me to the next question that I had here, which is, when you’re looking at a decision, how do you know if it’s a decision that you should make yourself, if it’s a decision you should make with your team, or maybe, like you just mentioned, it’s something that should be delegated to and handled by the manager or department leader and someone other than you.
George Kriza
That’s a great question. I like it from the standpoint of several reasons. Number one, most decisions in a department or operating area of a company ought to be able to be made by the divisional leader. And why? Because they should have enough experience, they should have enough intellectual chops, and they should have enough context to make the decision you. But I so one of the things we didn’t talk about, which is a very good management practice, is the CEO ought to have a 30 to 60 minute one on one meeting with each of their direct reports every single week. And during that one on one, they should be surfacing to you, those things they might be struggling with or need advice on. And once again, if you can talk them through it and and they’ll make their own decision. That’s great. On the other hand, sometimes things will surface where they’re not really fully getting the sense of the importance of Plan A versus Plan B, at which point you want to help them grow in their ability to assess and execute. But ideally, it should be rare where you have to overrule the operating manager. What you really want to do is, I like to say, bring them to the party where they can grasp what you’re thinking is on it and then, and then move forward.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I love that. So George, there’s a question I like to ask all my guests, and I’m interested to see what you would have to say. What would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
George Kriza
Well, if you’re operating a company, I think the biggest secret is not to think of yourself. We already covered it, but I’m going to repeat it again, because I think it is just super important. You have to have humility as a leader. You have to not feel that you need to be flawless in front of your organization. And you know that is a really hard one discussion. You know, you there. There should be times if you, let’s say you run an all company meeting every month, which I would do if you run an all company meeting and something that you created and you brought forth to the company isn’t working. You know, there’s absolutely nothing wrong to say was to the group. You know what, ladies and gentlemen, I think that I made a mistake with this initiative, and we’re going to pivot. We’re going to shift and and in fact, it would be so nice that you could give credit if someone in the organization helped you get to that decision at regardless of rank, sometimes it can be a front line. I don’t mean this in any demeaning way, but the like the lowest level employee in the organization might help you, the CEO, to understand you you have got to change and the way you’re thinking about something, yeah, and if you could honor that person that helps you see your own flaws and do it in front of the whole company, you will earn the respect of the company like nobody’s business.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, it’s so true, and it feels like the exact opposite is going to happen, right? It feels like if I say that, I’m going to lose everyone’s respect. But I’ve just seen it too many times to know it’s the exact opposite. It’s one of the best things that you can do. I love that you brought that up, George, there’s some folks listening to this, and they’re just resonating with every word that you’ve said. They they want to be a better decision maker. They want to be able to step into those critical or or difficult decisions with confidence. How can they reach out to you? How can they find more out about the work that you do?
George Kriza
Our company is Challenging Decisions. Reachable at challengingdecisions.com. You can just call me if you want to do a brief phone call. And, you know, get, get the dialog going. I’m at 312-320-7760, and I’d love to have conversations, you know, where people can begin to explore what we bring to the table in terms of senior management thought process.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I love that. Well, George, thanks so much for being on this show. Just a ton of wisdom and gold in this episode, I appreciate every bit of it that you’ve you’ve shared with us today. Thanks for being here, and for those of you watching and listening, you know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact George Kriza
George Kriza is an experienced C-level Business Consultant. Gaining 25 years of expertise as the CEO of a privately held hypergrowth INC 500 company, he specializes in helping high-performing CEOs navigate critical and uncomfortable decisions to set the stage for real success and new CEOs to implement essential business processes and drivers. He and his company assist CEOs in solving challenges they face, including strategy, process design, software development, finance, product, culture, team effectiveness, marketing, and sales.
Want to learn more about George Kriza’s work at Challenging Decisions? Check out his website at https://challengingdecisions.com/
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