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Tip one, never call them underlings again.
If you don’t already have relationships with non-direct reports (which it sounds like you don’t) maybe you should have small coffee mixers with groups before doing the individual meetups. That way you won’t have as much fear or initial awkwardness at the individual coffees or lunches.
I know people are ragging on you for the underling language, but I really appreciate the heart behind this. Many times I wish that my executives met with managers and below to really learn how they’re impacted by upper management’s decisions because it’s ridiculous that directors and up get performance reviews without anyone asking the people below them how they’re doing.
The fact that you call them underlings lets me know your first step might be to get some executive coaching before you start meeting with people. Yikes.
Your staff will 100% see through any inauthentic attempts to "be one with the people" if you don't actually respect and value them.
Underlings? Lol
Exactly, right? I guess this CEO will either hear nothing or a lot. At least the CEO is open to hear. Which is good.
Little meetings with underlings?
Coffee or lunch connections with your employees will never be effective if you consider the people to be “under” you, and if you consider the time spent with them to be “little”.
Our CEO is fantastic about making time to connect with individuals across every layer in our organizations. She never treats you as “less than” or “under” anyone else (and this was true when I was a software engineer as much as it is now that I’m a senior director) and always indicates that she values the time with you as worthwhile. As a result, our teams admire and respect her. Remember, you may be at the top of the org chart, but you won’t go anywhere without the people who are in there day to day doing the work. Those individuals, though lower in the org chart than you, are valuable humans and play an important role in your organization’s success.
Underlings? hmmm 🤔
How on earth did you get to be a CEO if you don’t have the social skills to get through a lunch without it being awkward? Good god man, get it together. They are people, not underlings, and this shouldn’t be difficult.
These things are done naturally throughout the day month year. It's obvious you have a few concerns but it may start with you "underlings" was the tell tell factor of how you perceive them and it shows in your actions toward them
I would say start with a self check and address issues within and let things happen naturally developing relationships with them if it's genuine on your part you will know how they felt about you and company
Highly suggest eliminating “underlings” from your vocabulary. Hopefully you don’t radiate that vibe when you meet staff, they’ll sniff that out in a nanosecond.
Lunch is their time. No business should be involved. Maybe after work, if they agree to meet up. But not lunch.
Coach
We have a potluck lunch once a month in ours office. The office manager provides a main course or two (family style), and anyone who wants to bring sides. There’s no expectation of attendance but most folks in the office come at least sometimes, because it’s nice.
I do this all the time. Sometimes it’s one on one, sometimes it’s the management and sometimes the entire team for a team building event.
Our CEO does this with us from time to time and it’s a great way to connect informally and have split conversations (work/personal). We get to know each other better and he gets better visibility to how I’m doing and how members of my team are doing. I’m a big fan of doing these. I in turn will take some of my key team members out to lunch from time to time but I also hold weekly 1:1s with everyone to guarantee I get time with everyone.
Unless you’re the Director the of a large department I can guarantee those “non-key” team members are feeling less than valued even if they aren’t saying it.
Underling: a person of low rank and little authority who works for someone more important.
Man- how in this world you have the nerve of calling a person who reports to you an underling?
Anyways- no, is not a good idea, unless you are planning to do exactly the same thing with all your direct reports.
Sure, but I don’t call them underlings like you, ya fuckin’ tool.
They’re people you twit!
Underlings? Little meetings?
Check yourself.
Just walk and talk to people and sit near them for lunch. As simple as that. I would love that.
It might be best to start with an official employee engagement survey. Gallup has a really good one, very simple (12 questions) but incredibly insightful when done right and regularly to see how the org is doing.
When you do the engagement survey, be totally transparent why, in your own words: “I want to understand employees’ mood”.
THEN you can start doing 1x1s with skip-levels to get to know them and demonstrate you care about their wellbeing, feeling engaged at work, etc.
If you have an EA, ask their opinion how the employees are feeling about things. EAs typically have a LOT of valuable intel and will share if they feel safe to share.
I worked for CEOs as an EA for many years and always had a very good 360-degree view of everything that’s going on. People would come to me with lots of issues that they would not bring to their manager and especially CEO.
Listen to your EA. If you hear that employees typically refer to C-suite as “they” and to the rest of the org as “we”, you might be in trouble. When employees separate themselves from the c-levels, it means they have ZERO trust in their leaders, so taking them for coffee won’t do anything. They won’t tell you anything meaningful.
If they don’t trust the c-suite, start with the engagement survey. 😁
Good luck!
Based on the words you used to ask the question the likely conclusion is that you're just doing this to check the box and not to connect with the humans who run your business.
If that's the case, don't do it. You'll make things worse.
How many levels down are we talking?
Are you meeting with your direct reports or doing skip levels?
Until trust is established and you have built rapport with your teams, keep all 1:1 interactions in the office - You can order and have lunch in the office and have coffee and pastries delivered to the office as well.
Taking the entire team out for a meal is fine, depending on the work you all do, dinner and drinks after work will mean the outing doesn’t impact productivity, but give them enough time to make the necessary arrangements so everyone has the opportunity to attend.
If you want to know your team, don’t go in with an agenda. Just go out with them as a person looking to know other people better.
If this is a fact finding mission regarding engagement and company culture - surveys and town halls are your best bet.
Reward and gamify participation to get people excited about sharing their thoughts. You want to aim for 80-85% response rate, minimum.
The questions you ask in the survey will determine what feedback you get so design them with that in mind.
Feel free to reach out if you need help with this process.
Most of my departments are remote workers so it’s hard to connect like that. I do take my in office employees to lunch or a walk to Starbucks or a drink after work.