Connecting The Dots

Although I still maintain that the three primary roles of a CEO are to set Strategy and communicate it, develop Talent, and ensure that the business has proper Resources to run (see post here), I am increasingly finding that I play a fourth role in the organization thats probably somewhat important, which is Connecting the Dots.

What do I mean by Connecting the Dots? I mean helping others network internally, or helping others connect their work to the work of others, or helping others connect their work to the mission of the company, or even to the outside world.

Here are a few examples of how Ive done this kind of work recently:

• I joined an Engineering all-hands and stood up after each segment to talk about the business impact of that teams work during the prior quarter

• I met with a new senior employee and connected him to someone internally that he wouldnt have otherwise met withbut with whom he had a common outside interest

• I helped a team thats a classic support team understand why their work was directly, but not obviously, contributing to one of the companys strategic initiatives

• I connected someone in one of our international offices who had expressed an interest to me in a new role with an operational leader in the US who was thinking of adding someone to his team outside the US

I talked to our professional services team about a customer visit Id recently done where we got really good feedback on the next release of a product but which also pointed out some needs for services that we hadnt focused on yet

As a business leader, you are in a really good position to help Connect the Dots in a growing organization because you have a pretty unique view across the organization and you tend to spend time with people internally across different functions and teams and offices.

I am not going to change my position that there are three primary roles, because Im not sure that a CEO is required to Connect the Dots hopefully that role can be delegated and replicated. Its something to think about, for sure. But in the meantime, I like doing that and find it useful for me as well as the organization.

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