Top 5 Ways CEO’s Can Increase Their Visibility in 2019

As the CEO you fulfill a strategic role, responsible for shaping the success and trajectory of your organization. However, employee engagement research points to the role that CEO visibility can have on the productivity of executive teams and employees throughout all levels of the company. In a Gallup poll, researchers found that when CEOs interacted with managers, on a frequent basis, managers were 39% more engaged in the workplace. Likewise, when highly-engaged managers interacted with their direct reports, frontline employees were found to be 59% more engaged in their work. This goes to show the power that being visible to both department managers and employees can be in helping to increase workplace productivity and satisfaction. According to leading CEO peer groups and CEO professional development groups, here are the top five ways that CEOs can better engage all employees in 2019 and beyond.

1. Schedule monthly luncheons or roundtable meetings. These can be topic-specific events hosted by the CEO or can be great opportunities to highlight recent successes or innovations from various departments. Inviting guest speakers to provide relevant and insightful information to employees that attend is an effective way to ensure company participation is high. Such topics for these meetings can include, but are not limited to: personal financial management, vacation planning, volunteering opportunities, marketing, goal setting, company vacancies, etc. The key is to determine topics that are both engaging and can provide value to attendees.
2. Have weekly roundups. Depending on the structure of your organization, this can be done daily, weekly, or even monthly. This gives each department an opportunity to report their current work, discuss any challenges or concerns, and share important department highlights with the executive team. To increase CEO visibility, it is best if a different employee is tasked with reporting for their department for each roundup meeting. This way each employee will have face time with the executive team and be able to showcase their own individual contributions.
3. Establish an open-door policy. Whether it is every Friday, or every other Monday, having clearly stated and communicated open-door or open hour time for employees to meet with you directly can be an effective way to increase visibility. If needed, you can require employees to schedule ahead of time or you can leave the structure of this time flexible and truly a first come, first serve type of arrangement.
4. Create an employee feedback team. The goal of this is to establish a collaborative culture within your organization. To effectively do this, CEO peer groups recommend first asking for volunteers from each department, and if needed, “appointing” employees to the council. The selection process should be open to all employees, but should accurately represent a cross-section of your employee base. In other words, you want to have a good mix of managers, department heads, as well as frontline employees. The council’s mission is to generate ideas to further productivity and to address company-wide concerns, as they arise. The council’s findings and topics of discussions should be shared with all executive teams at least once a month.
5. Record meetings and share with employees. Visibility goes beyond making yourself available, but it also extends to how you share information with all employees. For non-confidential meetings, make it a point to record them and upload them to a central location for staff to access. Not only does this make information more available to employees throughout your organization, but it also can serve as a repository of new ideas and knowledge that can be referred to later, or as you onboard new staff.

These are just a few proven and practical ways that CEOs can increase their visibility now and well into the next year. Having a wide variety of ways that employees can interact with you, as the CEO, can help to build a tighter-knit work community and improve workplace productivity.