I'm a relatively inexperienced HR professional. I've been with my organization for 1 year and have a situation that I feel very positive about, but am unclear about my next steps.
Here is a little history.
Our CEO is a very good person with very poor people/ management skills. He uses "machine-gun" style questioning in meetings, believes everyone should just "grow-a-pair", has somewhat unreasonable expectations and doesn't transfer knowledge without belittling the person for having to ask.
He's been very approachable with me, because I don't respond with any emotion. I've been able to coach him on not talking about other employees with employees, no more yelling, doing PIPs, weekly 1 on 1's, and regular reviews. Things are getting much better. Everybody wants the company to succeed and grow, and they are willing to put the work in for us to get there...
But there is still a sense of overall fear. The employees are afraid that if they make a mistake they will get fired, even though there is NO evidence to support that. There has been only 2 people fired in the last 2 years; 1 for theft and 1 for poor performance; and both were allowed to work until they found another position.
My two main questions are:
How do I get the CEO to understand that better training will prevent the slow transfer of knowledge and that softening his approach will get better results from the staff?
How do I help the staff in getting past their fear response?
Thanks in advance for any assistance you may provide. Chris