Fire Drills and False Alarms: Navigating Urgent Communications with Your CEO

1. Fire Drills and False Alarms: Navigating Urgent Communications with Your CEO

If you report to your CEO, like many of my clients do, when something dramatic happens that causes panic, you might be tempted to shoot off an equally panicked message to the CEO to talk immediately. Regret sets in when you realize that what you thought was a fire is not a fire to the CEO and you’re caught having falsely pulled the alarm. 

I know, all you want to do is a good job…and come off as strategic, poised, and able to read the room. So, here are a few tips to be a good (and composed) partner to your CEO:

1. Detection first

What even qualifies as a fire to your CEO? New competitor! Upset client! Exec team members duking out! The truth is, some things are fires, most are not. Your CEO is busy. They have a calendar that looks like a rainbow traffic jam, are managing pressure from the board and investors, don’t want to play favorites with direct reports, including you, and have their own inner critic yapping away at them. Some CEOs want to be more in the loop than others, so it’s your job managing up to learn what they need to know pronto versus what can wait for the next 1:1. If you don’t already know, you can ask about what constitutes a fire as an item in your next 1:1. Frame it as wanting to better understand how to share the necessary info at the necessary time given all they have on their plate. 

2. Find your headline

Let’s say there is something you deem worthy of telling your CEO ASAP. Remember that “ASAP” is misleading because it doesn’t mean as soon as it is possible for you to get your fingers tips on a keyboard. Think of ASAP meaning as soon as it is possible for you to get clear on the challenge, which may take a few moments. The conversation with your CEO is not the place to start by recounting events in sequential order as a way to process out loud. “A happened and then B interrupted and then C asked this question and then…” etc. Instead, come prepared having done some sense-making in advance and understand what this exchange with your CEO is about. Make this your headline and lead with, “I want you to know about [headline].”

3. Share your progress

Strategic team members understand tradeoffs. Share what you have already initiated to mitigate the challenge and your rationale. Tie your rationale to company goals. Your CEO has likely given you some big strategic goals for the year. What is the ultimate strategic business goal this challenge relates to? Calling out what’s at stake will help orient your CEO to the nature of the conversation and signal its importance.

4. Make your ask

You’ve led with clarity and strategy. These are mini deposits in the relationship bank account you share with your CEO. Now make the ask. This sounds obvious, but some people recount the challenge only to pause and leave the CEO thinking, “Well, what would you like me to do about it??” Come with a request and ask for it in, if possible, two sentences. Your communication may be giving the CEO a heads up and the request is to stand by if executive support is needed. Or, you may need that executive support to approve a change right away. If you are asking your CEO to provide their executive support and change an approach, anticipate their objections and share the merits of the status quo as you make the ask. You’ll save a round of back-and-forth of your CEO defending their point of view. By listening well and reflecting back the nuggets of truth in what they say, you’ll increase the chances that they’ll listen to your nuggets, too. 

5. Respond to No

Depending on the day, whether your CEO is hungry, or any other number of things that don’t actually have to do with you or your request, your CEO might say No to your request. Your goal as a strategic partner is to not be rebuffed in this moment, but to stay curious so you can discover together whether there is actually a blind spot in your idea. 

“Can you share more of your thinking?”, “What makes you say that?”, “What am I not seeing?”. 

If it becomes clear that now is not the time to have this conversation, you can show your skills of reading the room by reading the room and offering a graceful offramp. “Can we think about this more and revisit in the morning?”

6. Food for thought

A common lament I hear from CEOs is, “If everyone could just do their jobs…”. So, help your CEO understand how your communication with them is you doing your job, and doing it well. Information is constantly being filtered up, which often leaves CEOs blind to what’s actually going on. Instead, this is your chance to curate information up. Get your CEO the necessary information at the necessary time (and refrain from falsely pulling the fire alarm).

2. Recommendation

Role Play

When I was in sales I practiced my demo until I knew it like the back of my hand. I practiced responding to objections, and when I came across a new objection that stumped me, I added this new objection paired with a new rebuttal to my playbook and continued to practice. I also practiced what I would say when I got stumped. When I say practice, I mean I would say my message out loud as if I were having the conversation with my audience right then and there, and continue to finesse language until it was succinct, empathetic, and sounded like me.

When I attended Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, role plays made a common appearance in leadership and communication classes using case studies. It was astounding to see the difference in people’s comfort level saying, “If I were the case study protagonist, I would tell the disgruntled employee ABC” in theoretical terms versus role playing, pretending they were actually the case study protagonist talking to the disgruntled employee. 

In my experience role playing helps bridge the gap from theory to application. It’s one thing to know we want to respond empathetically. It’s another thing to actually find the words, the turns of phrase, that get your point across and sound like you. 

Even if all you have time for is a couple quick rounds to iterate before going into your next meeting where you’re make an ask, I feel confident your preparation will pay off 10x.

3. The Goings On

Speaking of iterating, I once again had the privilege of facilitating Building Interpersonal Skills at Stanford University this summer for its 53rd (I hope I got that right) iteration. I love this class for many reasons. I’ve written about the impact of our preparation. This time it’s noteworthy to highlight the impact of our iteration. Over a dozen years into teaching this course, Sue Neville, Campbell Frank, and my colleagues keep making it better. Sometimes we finesse the design of an exercise. Other times we come up with new examples to bring concepts to life. The openness to hone the content and flow means we as facilitators are always sharpening our skills, which pays off big time for the students. We use the interpersonal skills taught in the class with each other in our preparation and iteration of the course. As a result, I can say time after time I come away feeling assured that I’m in the right place, feeling joy and warmth towards the people I get to work with. 

If you want to be notified the next time Interpersonal Skills is offered, drop your info here.

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Want to learn more about how I help hungry leaders quiet their inner critic, discover what they want, and ask for it? Hit reply and let’s chat!

Jennifer Ouyang Altman is the CEO and Founder of Inner Radio and communication and leadership course facilitator at Stanford Graduate School of Business.