They should know, right?

Learning to Put It Together

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

“I know how to do it. They should know how to do it. What’s their problem?”

A CEO client said this to me recently. To her credit, she has hired CAT3 to help her answer the question.

She may be right that some people lack the initiative, capability, or accountability their roles require. But there’s another possibility: what has become intuitive to an experienced CEO may never have been made explicit or teachable to others.

For example: How does she assess a situation? What does she notice that others miss? What standards guide her judgment? What decisions should others make without her?

Beliefs drive behavior.

Leadership performance starts with what you believe. If a CEO believes capable people should simply “figure it out,” that belief will shape how she communicates, delegates, develops, and responds when people fall short. Our work is to determine what kind of problem she actually has, then we can address the right problem. Is it:

• Clarity?

• Capability?

• Commitment?

• Accountability?

• A limiting belief?

Clear expectations help others succeed.

The goal isn’t to lower expectations. It’s to make those expectations clear, develop the capacity to meet them, then hold people appropriately accountable. Knowing how to do something is executive competence. Building an organization that knows how to do it is executive leadership.

CAT3 helps leaders get clear about the leadership their future requires, then build what it takes to provide it.