How Accessible Is Your CEO?

Have you heard of CAI?  CEO Accessibility Index (CAI)?  Don't worry I just made it up.  How accessible is your CEO?  Or If you are the CEO then how accessible are you?  I wish there was a metric like CAI which would measure a CEO's accessibility within a company.  Of course that would be subjective to each company and wouldn't be too realistic.  But try to find out how accessible if your CEO.  For example.

1.) Can anybody email the CEO?
2.) Can anybody meet CEO?
3.) How often does your CEO addresses employees? Once a year, twice a year or frequently.
4.) Is the CEO often found behind closed doors?
5.) How far is the CEO's office from the main entrance of the company?  In short how many steps it would normally take to reach to the CEO's office.
6.) Does your CEO hold open meetings?
7.) Does your CEO conducts video conferencing company wide?

I know many of the above cases, some are not realistic for many companies because of their company culture.  If anybody (of course within company) can reach the CEO then wouldn't it be like CEO would be meeting everyone and will not have time to get things done?  No it is not like that.  If everyone has issues with the CEO and wants to talk to the CEO then there are big problems within the company, which the CEO should address in a forum.   But tell me isn't it the duty of the CEO to reply to its Tribe.  Isn't that a CEO's formal duty?

Secretaries sometimes act like, "The Great Wall of China".  They make your CEO almost inaccessible.  Even though secretaries are friendly and super cool but still it sends feeling of inaccessibility.  CEO's and front line managers should often conduct open friendly meetings and discussions via company's intranet or in that French Cafeteria across the street.

When companies are founded there are no wall and almost everyone in the company is reachable and often within sight.  As they grow they start adding layers and layers of bureaucratic nonsense that prevents open discussions and spreads cynicism  across departments.  In technology this slows down many companies that initially grew so fast.  Remember Microsoft, Google.  These companies are now fighting back and coming strong.

A growing company CEO is and always will be facing with challenges and in the midst of this he/she should make every effort so they don't become guarded and inaccessible.  




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