Knowles says it is also important to keep an eye on what is going on externally, as well as internally.
“You also need to know what’s going on externally, what your suppliers are doing, what your competitors are doing. Where businesses come a cropper is continuing to go along doing what they have always done and just ignoring change,” he says.
“There are a million examples of people thinking what they have always done is just the best. So you need to be staying in touch with all aspects of your business internally and externally so you are aware of the opportunities and risks.
“Really, it is a risk management exercise as much as anything. But the flip side of risks is opportunity, so you can do both on the one tour.”
Travis Kemp, the head of leadership and coaching at Lee Hecht Harrison, a global talent management company, also recommends visiting every part of your business.
“The bigger your organisation, the more complex your organisational structure and the less in touch with the coalface you are, and the more levels of Chinese whispering occur between your organisation and you. That is the real challenge for chief executives, getting good, clean data from the client database,” he says.
“It provides the opportunity to be able to connect across organisational layers and to be able to source data.”
Kemp says he encourages business leaders that he works with to maintain “high levels of engagement” across their business.
“A lot of those guys devise creative ways to be accessible and be open to receive feedback across various challenges,” he says.
“Focusing on openness and authenticity, in terms of leadership behaviour, gives you the ability to be able to present very authentically to the organisation, and not just by words.”
He says the dialogue and feedback between leaders and employees leads to a virtuous loop that can then improve the culture of the business.
Cara Waters is the editor of SmartCompany. Cara was previously a senior reporter at the Financial Times website FT Adviser in London and has also worked for The Sunday Times.
