Waiting for the CEO

I sometimes meet two very different kinds of CEOs.

One is OK to have their team wait. After all, the CEO is the most important person in the organization and they have lots of very important meetings with important clients and partners. Please ask their assistant for a new appointment.

The other thinks that it’s not OK to let anyone wait. Not their team, not their partners, not their customers.

If anything, CEOs should have a higher standard for how they treat people. Not only as a role model. But also because it’s the right thing to do.

That doesn’t mean that you’ll never re-schedule a meeting but that you create the conditions that make this unlikely and a rare exception.