One thing all successful leaders need to do

The senior leadership ranks of businesses are more often than not filled with agenda-driven people who like to get things done. As a result, it can be easy for leaders to spend the day boxed in their offices or rushing from meeting room to meeting room.

Within large, geographically dispersed organisations, this can make it quite a challenge to be a ‘visible’ CEO. Of course, we work in an age where we are rich in shiny new communications tools; intranets, social media and on-the-go technology make it easy to share our thoughts with people across the organisation, wherever they may be physically. But I believe that despite all the benefits technology can bring, it’s still so important to be seen and heard in the physical sense – particularly when it comes to communicating strategy and vision.

At ASB we recently completed our annual road show – a major two week-long initiative held nationally in which my executive leadership team and I host people from across the organisation offsite for a day at a time, giving them the opportunity to hear personally from each of us as we talk about goals and strategy. With thousands of people spread over multiple locations across the country, it’s hard for most people to get that sort of face time with the leadership team on a regular basis. But the road show is an effective way we make that time to share and interact, and for our people, both inside our head office and from around the business, to feel part of the organisation as a whole.

There’s no doubt it’s a tremendous logistical exercise along with being a huge time commitment and a significant cost for the leadership team to put on the road show each year. But the anecdotal and formal feedback we receive from our people confirm it’s worth the investment.

The road show is also a valuable opportunity to get teams on board with new strategies and goals and also for our people to get hands-on exposure to some of the new products and services in the pipeline. And conversely, as a leadership team, we also benefit enormously from being able to talk informally to people across the Bank and to hear from them about their daily experiences – including their challenges and their suggestions for how to make our business better. Most times I come away with greater awareness of what’s happening around the business and the market more broadly along with plenty of new ideas.

The fast-paced digital world is certainly bringing lots of change to the way we communicate. And this year I found the roadshow particularly valuable for bringing clarity to our vision, goals and strategic direction. In such a dynamic environment it’s important to lead change and electronic communication tools are playing an increasingly important role. But the roadshow, and the face-to-face engagement it enables, was the perfect platform for my leadership team to encourage our people to embrace our vision and take ownership of change, so they are ready to take on the future challenges we face.

Published in collaboration with LinkedIn

Author: Barbara Chapman is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of ASB Bank.

Image: A worker arrives at his office in the Canary Wharf business district in London February 26, 2014. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh.