After roughly three decades at PwC, senior partner and US CEO Paul Griggs said he still isn’t above criticism.
He’s also not exempt from changing his mind based on feedback he gets from across the firm. Griggs said he appreciates working at a company where leaders aren’t afraid to change their minds in response to feedback.
For example, Griggs said he’s “a big believer in the power of communication without over-communication.” As CEO, he makes decisions and doesn’t expect everyone to agree with every call. As a result, he didn’t always explain his reasoning.
After taking over as CEO two years ago, however, he realized that he had been communicating less than some employees would like. He said he came in with a bias against overwhelming others with too much communication. Over time, he said he had grown tired of reading emails that were too long.
“So, I simplified communication,” Griggs said. “Slowed it down.”
Griggs said not everyone needs to agree with all decisions all the time, but they need to understand the reasoning behind it. That’s where leadership and communication play a crucial role, he said.
“‘If you don’t communicate the nature of that decision and the outcome of that decision, then I fill the void, fill the vacuum with my own story,'” Griggs said employees told him.
It’s feedback he has worked on incorporating, he added. He has been advised to share messages more than once, even though it wasn’t his default approach.
“My team would tell me: ‘No, seven times,'” Griggs said, adding that he’s learned he should relay the message in different styles and mediums.
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