What are you pretending not to see? Hmm. That’s a question that I asked The Council of bank CEOs, a round table of some of the highest performing bank CEOs in the country, just a few weeks ago. We all lie to ourselves about things we don’t want to see. When I asked that question and I said, “Let’s have a safe place to talk here and really bring some things up,” I heard all kinds of things. I heard, “I’m trying to pretend and not address the fact that my CEO’s performance is declining,” or “I’m trying to pretend like this COVID thing isn’t having a huge toll on the emotions of my team and the culture within this organization,” or, “Hey, I’m pretending that this new superstar that I hired to solve all my problems is performing well and probably always will because I’ve already spent so much in a finder fee and salary that I don’t want to admit to the mistake.”
Video: What Are You Pretending You Don’t See?
You see, the more we spend investing in something, the more we want to pretend that something right in front of us isn’t happening. Yet, as executives, we have to ask ourselves those hard questions, because the longer we pretend not to know something that’s right in front of our face, the more costly those problems become. Authenticity and real questions are imperative in being a good CEO and executive of a bank. Are you being authentic enough, and are you asking yourself that tough question? Incidentally, what are you pretending not to see?
– Roxanne Emmerich
Please watch the video above and share it with your exec team and board.