When the CEO suddenly disappeared

We experienced this with a Brainwells client some years ago.

Their CEO was diagnosed with cancer and had to step away from work for an unknown period.

Understandably, there was uncertainty.

The executive team consisted of very capable people. But they were used to operating primarily as strong individual leaders of their own departments.

And they were dependent on the CEO to connect the dots.

So we started working with them differently.

Not by stepping in and making the decisions for them.

We helped them learn how to make the decisions together.

We used structured involvement to activate their Collective Genius, while at the same time making the methods visible so they could continue using them without us.

And something changed. Trust increased, and they understood each other’s perspectives better. They started taking collective responsibility.

Eventually, head office offered to send them a temporary CEO.

 They said no.

They had discovered that they could lead the organization together.

When the CEO eventually returned, the company had maintained its speed and focus.

For us, there is an important leadership lesson in this:

The job of a leader is not to make the organization dependent on you.

It is to build the capacity of the people around you.

That is also a big part of what we try to do at Brainwells.

Not create dependency, but create stronger teams.