I will be there for you

Management, like everything else, has its fair share of unspoken dictats and advisories and there was a phase (which still lingers) when there were so many open doors leading into the CEO's / MD's office that there was a very healthy cross-ventilation!

On a serious note, accessibility means far more than just maintaining an "open-door"? policy and inviting employees in for a chat. In fact the downside of having a super-successful open-door policy may well be that one might never get any work done at all and morph from the organisational head into the complaints/ feedback box instead.

But there is, thankfully, a happy mean between that and a closed door. And walking the tightrope between the two is essential to retaining credibility as a leader. And a lot of it boils down to communication. The last that I read of Isadore Sharp, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Four Seasons, a luxury hotel chain, I was tremendously impressed with his ability to connect with people. One of his mantras is that every phone call to him or a company manager is returned promptly. Is it any wonder that he has established loyalty with both employees and customers? And the results show for themselves. Four Seasons is consistently ranked as the best Luxury hotel chain in the world and for six straight years and they have also been part of Fortune Magazine