A few years ago, I had a candidate interviewing for a Global Head role managing a geographically dispersed team that was also client facing. The final interview was with the CEO, and he asked a question which I thought was amazing:
What do you prioritise – your customers, your team or the management team at the company?
Now it’s a deliberately open-ended question which would circumstantially change for most people, but what a question to see how people think and answer in the moment…so I wrote more about it here.
The candidate was interviewing for a Global Head of Client Support managing a team across all time zones. The final interview was with the CEO, and he asked a question which I thought was amazing:
What do you prioritise – your customers, your team or the management team of the company?
It's amazing because it's open ended, puts the person on the spot and derives real insight in to the way someone thinks about work.
The candidate answered that he felt like his allegiance would be towards his team. His thinking here was that if he looked after his team he would be exerting control over his sphere of influence – controlling the controllables.
Whereas, a lot of what happened and what was decided by the management team/company would be out of his control and while he’d be happy to implement it and give feedback on the ideas, that where they took the company was up to them.
Similarly, he didn’t have heaps of control over what customers needed support with or how they reacted to the product. But if he had a happy productive team they would do their best by the customers and give them a positive experience.
The CEO disagreed and said that he felt like his allegiances should be with the management team & company. The reasoning was that he wanted to hire leadership that trust in the management and the direction they’re taking the company in and can cascade the companies messaging. Being honest, that is probably want you want as the CEO of a business - loyalty and belief in the mission are great traits to hire against.
I admire the honesty and we shouldn’t discourage business leaders from being authentic. But at the same time the candidate was left questioning whether he was going to be stepping in to an autocratic culture after the interview.
This part is just my opinion but – I think the career paths of those who answer with the customer or the management team emphatically, probably have their career paths fairly well mapped by their way of thinking.
I’d have thought that most people who prioritise their customers end up being the top sales & relationship people, the unbelievable individual contributors, the top billers etc.
The people who prioritise their company and management teams end up climbing the ranks and reaching the C-Suite or becoming MDs in larger organisations.
But what of the noble leader who answers they prioritise their team…their career path is less clear. But what I do know, is that to enhance the world of work we need to work out ways to find out who these people are and promote them.
I've actually since answered the question myself about my own career. I almost always prioritise clients - what would your answer be?
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