Why your 'open door policy' may not be working

BANGKOK — When Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus assumed the top leadership role at the World Health Organization last year, he immediately instituted an “open hour” every Thursday, inviting staff of any level to sign up for a 15-minute face-to-face meeting. In early 2017, after taking on the role of Catholic Relief Services chief executive officer overseeing 5,400 staff around the world, Sean Callahan relocated his own desk from the usual president’s office to a more modest room next door. The former president’s office is now a conference room for all staff — a symbol of good stewardship, Callahan said, and a literal interpretation of inviting staff into the “executive” space more regularly. Both leaders sought to better capitalize on the ideas of their diverse staff and to get a more holistic feel for the pulse of their organizations — two things an overall “open door policy” can plausibly help achieve. A CEO, president, or secretary-general with an open door — or no door at all — has increasingly become a popular strategy within global development institutions wanting to shake the grips of bureaucracy and better understand, communicate with, and motivate staff around the world. It’s a worthwhile approach, but it’s also potentially taxing — especially when a leader’s own personality is more introverted, or when necessary boundaries between staff and leadership break down too far, several career coaches told Devex. And communication — of mission, vision, and expectations — is just the start of expectations from a leader. Staff also need to feel heard, which requires feedback loops and follow-up action that an open office floor plan in itself can’t provide. Devex spoke with two experts who regularly advise CEOs in both the private and nonprofit sectors on best practices to successfully communicate with staff. Here are a few common mistakes organizations make when adopting the popular “open door policy.” 1. You’re not supporting an ‘open door” with’ necessary action. “I am a strong believer in listening to the whole staff, meaning you can convert the whole organization into an advisory machinery, because you will get ideas from all over the world,” Tedros told Devex in a recent interview. This outlook is meaningful from a leader who oversees an organization that employs more than 7,000 people from more than 150 countries. But it’s action, not policy, that will dictate whether an “open-door policy” has a chance at playing the role many leaders hope it will. And contrary to popular belief, just opening the door may not be enough; a company or nonprofit leader likely also needs to step across the C-suite threshold, rather than inviting staff to approach him or her. “I’ve coached people who complain ‘Why does my staff never come to me? I have an open door policy, why aren’t they showing up?’” said Shana Montesol-Johnson, a certified executive coach to global leaders. But in many work environments, especially a multicultural environment, staff will feel varying levels of comfort in approaching a senior level staff member, let alone the president or CEO. And as people climb the ladder in an organization, it can be more difficult to gain information about what’s really going on day to day, given real or perceived hierarchical distances and a natural propensity for staff to tell the CEO what they think he or she wants to hear. “This particular leader was finding that he had to go to [the staff] to touch base, perhaps scheduling regular one-on-one lunches,” Montesol-Johnson said. It sounds similar to what sources tell Devex Tedros is doing at WHO: “He eats in the cafeteria with staff [and] walks with them through the hallways. He doesn’t use the special entrance designated for the director-general in the back,” Tedros’ senior adviser Dr. Senait Fisseha told Devex senior reporter Jenny Lei Ravelo late last year. Callahan, too, is a proponent of walking the halls of CRS’ Baltimore headquarters, where he’s known to meander around the space, saying hello and checking in on his employees. Since connecting directly with a large number of individuals isn’t always a realistic solution in a large global organization, Montesol-Johnson pointed to the example of an NGO country director she coached, who started emailing a written weekly update to his staff with a bulleted list of his previous week’s accomplishments and the upcoming week’s travel, meetings, and priorities. Staff appreciated this, Montesol-Johnson said, because they always knew what their boss was focusing on, and it was “an opportunity for them to say ‘Oh he’s going to X field office, but he’s not checking in with this particular project that I think he should see, let me shoot a response to this email and make that suggestion or stop by his office and suggest that,’” she added. “That kind of sharing of information I think helped this country office operate in a more transparent and effective way.” 2. You’re too focused on the physical ‘open door’ rather than on creating healthy ‘accessibility.’ Both traditional and open floor plan workplaces can face the same issues when it comes to CEO-staff communication, explained Indira Ahluwalia, founder and president of KAUR Strategies, which provides coaching for executives and emerging leaders. “I think the key thing for the leader to realize is whether you have a staff of 20 people or 2,000 people, even if you have an open floor plan or an open door policy, it’s the nonverbal cues you’re putting out that allow people to have access to you,” she said. This can be as simple as making eye contact with staff walking past your desk, Ahluwalia said, but it can extend to organized social interactions outside of the office. Instead of a happy hour, she said — where “boundaries can easily start blurring” — consider hosting a casual gathering during the daytime. “You don’t want to lose the level of accountability you hold in each position by diffusing it with too informal of conversations,” Ahluwalia said. One of Ahluwalia’s mentors made it a habit to host barbecues for his staff, an example of breaking down barriers without going too far, she said: “The idea is that he would be flipping burgers and serving them up, modeling a certain type of behavior in a casual environment where you can see each other as individuals.” “When you’re looking at accessibility, you’re looking to see what’s in common between two people, and you’re trying to build a dialogue from that place of understanding,” she added. “The event was a good way as a leader to say ‘I am accessible, I invite you and host you, and we can be a part of each other lives within these boundaries,’” she added. An informal event can also be a good way to get away from a reliance on one-way feedback mechanisms. Too often, leaders at the very top of private sector or global development organizations rely on anonymous online surveys or other means of one-way dialogue. “Especially when it’s an anonymous survey, somebody often just writes something to get it off their chest, and you [as a leader] then can’t fully address it.” While surveys can serve a purpose at certain points, Ahluwalia instead promotes “listening sessions” facilitated by external parties — “where the leadership sits and listens rather than demonstrating their authority, and the action is coming from the staff” — as a better way to facilitate useful dialogue that can later be acted upon. The most important thing between staff and leadership, she added, is whether the voice of the staff is being heard. 3. You’re not taking your own needs as a leader into account. Montesol-Johnson hasn’t heard many complaints from CEOs in either the private sector or within global development about operating in work spaces with open floor plans. But success in this type of environment does require a leader with strong knowledge of how he or she best functions, she said. Extroverts who are energized by a lot of stimulation and interaction with people may find it naturally easier to handle an open office space approach, for example, versus someone who tends to be more introverted or energized by alone time. If Montesol-Johnson were coaching someone drained by too much social activity who is simultaneously committed to an “open door” approach, she would encourage him or her to check in and refuel themselves throughout the day. “There is so much riding on you being able to perform that you need to be able to keep yourself as fit, energized, and sharp as you can,” Montesol-Johnson said. For some, this will mean blocking out time for yourself each day — whether for a workout or a reflective, solo walk around the block. “When leaders know themselves, they might know ‘OK I start to feel the pressure and stress at about 3 p.m. every day, so rather than scheduling another meeting, what can I do to manage that?” “Communicating with and being accessible to staff is a part of a CEO’s job,” she added. “But it’s important to take stock: Is the style in which that part of the work is being done affecting the quality of other aspects of the CEO’s work?” Too extreme of an “open door” can cause disruption in a CEO’s day, which is why it’s often necessary to have a buffer in the form of an executive assistant, Ahluwalia explained, and also why it’s often a good idea to identify certain hours when a leader is free and available for meetings, as Tedros has done with his Thursday “open hour.” No matter the strategy, great communication is ultimately when “you’re in concert and the leader isn’t doing the solo with everybody else singing back up,” according to Ahluwalia. The level of synergy that comes from all staff levels working as a team and spreading that positive energy throughout the organization, she said, “is one of the most beautiful things I’ve experienced in my life.”