The Communications Challenges Of A Ceo

Introduction:
The purpose of this paper is to examine the communications challenges and aspects of a CEO. A CEO, or chief executive officer, is the person who determines and formulates policies and provide the overall direction of companies or private and public sector organizations within the guidelines set up by a board of directs or similar governing body. He or she has to plan, direct orcoordinate operational activities at the highest level of management with the help of subordinate executives and staff managers. A chief executive is expected to have very good communication skills because some of his or her tasks are to deliver speeches, write articles, and present information at meetings or conventions to promote services, exchange ideas and accomplish objectives. The chiefexecutive has to provide information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person; receive information from all relevant sources; and develop constructive and cooperative working relationships with others and maintaining them over time.

Profile:
Aaron Samson is the Chief Executive and founder of Lush Lawn Inc. Lush Lawn is a local company thathas been in business for 13 years, and is based in Grand Blanc since 2003. It provides lawn care, tree care, pest control as well as animal control and mole control. Aaron is a member of the Grand Blanc Chamber of Commerce and the Michigan Landscape Association, as well as the Better Business Bureau. Aaron has to constantly use communication tasks as part of his job, such as writing periodicalreports about the performance of the company and its employees; preparing and addressing meetings with the staff, interviewing potential employees, among many others. Aaron’s main duty is to develop an strategy that will head Lush Lawn into the right direction. He needs great communication skills in order to transmit his plans and vision to his management team so they can work on it. Aaron requirescritical and creative thinking in order to deal with information, persuasion and ethical and/or legal problems presented at his job.

Information Problem:
As the executive of Lush Lawn, Aaron has the responsibility of study the performance of the workers of the company and determine if they are getting positive or negative results and if they are meeting the goals and vision of the company. Oneof the positions he has to carefully analyze every two weeks is the lawn fertilizer applicator. This job is particularly important for the company because the costumer final satisfaction and the company reputation are based on it. In order to determine the applicators performance, Aaron follows these steps: First, he studies the reports of the service calls per applicator. Second, he does thestatistics of the cancel service rate per applicator. Third, he determine the output per applicator, measured in dollars produced. Fourth, he checks the applicators attendance records. And then, he looks at their diagnosis reports, to see which lawn diagnosing problems they had. When Aaron finishes these steps, he writes a report with the conclusions of the performance of each one of the applicators,highlighting their capabilities, production and possible problems. With this report Aaron determines the applicators bonuses and decides if any of the applicators needs to be dismissed for showing low or unacceptable results on his job.

Persuasion Problem:
Aaron found himself in a very complicated situation with one of his employees. She is the office manager and has been working at Lush Lawnfor over four years, therefore is a very valuable employee for the company. She had been having personal problems and communication issues with Aaron, her direct supervisor, so she decided to resign in late February, when the busiest season at the company was about to begin. She argued that she did not feel treated with respect and fairness by Aaron sometimes, and that she needed more free time...