CFO & CEO: How to Avoid Organizational Mood Swings
CEOs and CFOs must deliver a carefully crafted duet when they communicate to the team, balancing optimistic messages and cautionary ones.
Sometimes the CEO and the CFO collectively message too much optimism or too much pessimism, creating overblown reactions in the leadership team or employees at large. Projecting too much optimism takes the performance pressure off the team, and will leave them emotionally unprepared to deal with setbacks in a positive manner. Too much pessimism—usually coming during setbacks—risks destroying morale and productivity, and the best talent may flee, fearing layoffs or worse. Read my newest article on CFO.com.
Tags: communication, culture and morale, finding and retaining talent, human resources, interpersonal acumen, leadership acumen
Robert Sher is founding principal of CEO to CEO, a consulting firm of former chief executives that improves the leadership infrastructure of midsized companies seeking to accelerate their performance. He was chief executive of Bentley Publishing Group from 1984 to 2006 and steered the firm to become a leading player in its industry (decorative art publishing).