When an executive committee seminar goes off script

The CEO and I had spent weeks preparing this seminar. Strategic priorities for the next three years, individual interviews with every team member, a full day architecture. Then the subject shifted — as it sometimes does when what was planned is not what truly needs to be said.

What needed to be said

We had to name it: part of the team needed to step back. And more importantly — to recalibrate an executive committee that had become too dependent on the CEO’s approval, that was not taking its share of responsibility without his green light.

An entire day repeating, in different forms, the same thing: you do not need his authorization to exist as a decision-making body. You are a collective that can move forward on its own, through your own collaboration.

An executive committee and a flight attendant — the same absence

That evening, on the flight home, a flight attendant asked if I was an actress or a journalist. After two and a half hours, she still could not place who I reminded her of. I could not be recognized for who I am — only for who I resembled.

I recognized in that discomfort exactly what I had just named during the seminar. An executive committee waiting for CEO approval before deciding, and a woman no one could recognize for herself: the same absence. The inability to see oneself without external validation.

The question I asked them — and now ask you

Before making a call that clearly falls within your scope, how many times do you still wait for someone else to tell you that you have the right to decide?

An autonomous executive committee is not built overnight. It takes method and psychological safety. To support your leadership team in this work, discover Manentiel’s collective coaching at manentiel.com.