I asked a veteran biotech CEO what was one of the biggest lessons he had learned in his career.

He said, “I love talking to the more junior people in the company. I get a lot of pleasure out of that. I love coaching them and brainstorming with them.

But, when the CEO throws out opinions to a junior person, these opinions are highly impactful.

And there could be two layers of managers between you and that junior person. So, if you get too hotheaded with the scientist, then you’re really disempowering their manager, or their manager’s manager—and their managers get really pissed off with you!

You’ll say, well, I just wanted them to know that the CEO cares. I wanted to show them that the CEO understands a little bit about what they’re doing, etc.

Sure, you can do that but you have to be clear about the conversation.

You can say, I’d love to meet with you and grab a cup of coffee, but we are not making decisions here, we are only brainstorming. And you (talking to the scientist) have to go back to your boss and make that decision before you ever come back to me with a recommendation or anything.

As a CEO, you have to be very careful respecting all the management layers in between.”