Over the past ten years I’ve spent 784 nights in a Marriott hotel and another 126 at Intercontinental properties. Two and a half years were spent away from home office in order to be where life and business were really happening. If we are to effectively lead we must leave the comfort of our offices.
Executives are frequently lulled into the bad habit of spending too much time behind the desk and away from the people who make the company run. Ivory Tower Syndrome can be infectious and deadly. This fatal error may cause managers to miss changing attitudes, trends, and tech which will impact their company in minutes, days, weeks or years. Spreadsheets and report dashboards tell stories, but none more telling than conversations with clients, employees, partners, politicians and vendors.
Managers are permitting the culture of email, texting and data dashboards to rob them of the most valuable of actions, face to face conversations.