The CEO’s Inside Game

One of the secrets to effective communication between a CEO and their team is fewer secrets. I’m not talking about sensitive company information that’s inappropriate to share in some settings. I’m talking about authenticity and transparency that builds a bond that creates much more effective communication.

The Johari Window:
There’s a great tool called the Johari Window that was created 75 years ago or so that I want to share as a tool to help you improve this.

Known To Others:
And it classifies what is known by you and your team. So in the upper left quadrant, the open quadrant, that’s where things are known by you and known by others. You want that to be as big as possible, because that’s the common understanding of what’s really going on. There’s no elephants in this room.

Not Known To Others:
Below that are the hidden things. These are things that you know that your team does not know. To the right at the top are things in your blind spot. These are things that your team knows about you that you don’t know. And then in the lower right quadrant are the unknowns, things that neither you or your team know about.

So what I want to encourage you to do is focus on expanding that open space in two ways. One, you want to go inside out. You want to share more. You want to be able to decrease that hidden quadrant because your team is, is getting information from you that you haven’t shared with them. You also want to grow that open box by going outside in. And that’s the case where you’re a better listener, you’re asking more questions from your team so that, and you’re more open to what to learning so that you are now getting that more awareness about what’s really going on, things that you can’t see from your team.

B2B Clarity:
The bigger that open box, the more effective your communication is gonna be.