January is traditionally a kick-off meeting month.
I’ve been attending and participating at quite a few of them over the last years.

Driving back from one of those, I  kept on asking myself why are some executives playing down on the brutal facts expressed by a direct report?  The one I just witnessed was a VP sales stating: “We will have to solve some serious internal challenges in order to make our numbers this year. The current economic situation will only be an excuse in our case because…” and he continued by briefly explaining why the company should hardly be affected by the situation and some internal issues which they have been unable to solve in the last couple of years.

His speech was followed by the CEO introducing the next speaker and at the same time down played the challenges by stating:  “During my decennia long tenure these problems have always been there so there is no need to be worried”.

What could be the reason and how to find the right balance?

Could this behaviour come from convictions such as:

• My people can’t handle the hard reality. That’s why I’m a CxO.
• They will be so worried that their performance will decrease.
• Boosting motivation is best achieved by good news and pep talk.
• They will think I’m a bad CxO.

I’d love to see some comments on this topic and maybe some idea’s on how to tackle such problems.