Page 69 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

48 CHAPTER 2

conducting business through processes that are aligned with their true belief systems.
Having the right people in leadership positions is key. Having alignment among those
leaders takes work. 3
A leader’s job is to develop people and create a real team that accomplishes the mis-
sion of the company. Therefore, as a coach, I asked the Melaver leadership team to
assess their beliefs, leadership styles, and the impacts they were having on each per-
son on the team. Some decided they were not aligned with the new direction, some
were unaware of the impact they had on others. It’s not uncommon. You have a vision-
ary leadership executive or team and a superb group of dedicated people working with
that leadership team to execute, build, and maintain what’s being envisioned. Also not
uncommon in such a structure are misunderstandings.
The CEO thinks he (in this case) is clearly articulating a vision for the company over
and over, ad nauseam. The rest of the staff just doesn’t get it. Or do they? The staff may
think the CEO is focusing too much on the long-term future and missing out on the crit-
ical problems in the here and now. The CEO just doesn’t seem to get it. Or does he?
Such misunderstandings are compounded in a values-centric company where there is a
considerable amount of shared leadership. The CEO throws ideas out on the table in the
interest of brainstorming about the long-term direction of the company. Others around
the table seem hesitant. The CEO thinks the team is being resistant to change and gets
frustrated. By contrast, the team wonders what in the hell their CEO wants from them.
He keeps throwing out various ideas. Sure wish he would make up his mind. If he really
wants our input, why does he get so frustrated when people challenge him?
CEOs are from Mars, everyone else is from clueless.

The CEO’s Vision

Early in my work with Melaver, Inc., I asked the management team to think
about a vision for the company and to try to articulate it at our next get-
together. I got one response, from CEO Martin Melaver. What he wrote—
almost ten years ago—and the responses from his staff are revealing.

There once was an amazing child of boundless curiosity. S/he was
always asking “why” and “why not,” always challenging, learning,
and growing. This child was also wise.
And s/he knew that, to others, s/he would not always look like a
child of boundless curiosity. S/he might look like an astronaut one day,
or a teacher, or a businessman. And that was OK. But s/he wanted to
take something along on this journey into becoming something else, so
that s/he would always be reminded of the child of boundless curiosity
that s/he really was.