Many years ago, I was working for a large multinational corporation. My direct line manager, the CIO, was on vacation, so he asked me to sit in on the monthly management meeting (chaired by the CEO) on his behalf. It was the first time I had attended the meeting and I had only ever met the CEO a couple of times prior to this (the company had over 25,000 employees).

During the meeting, which was focused on customer service, the CEO mentioned that he had taken a call from a large/important customer who was unhappy with our software application. As such, he wanted us to address the problem by building a specific feature for them. The CEO turned to me and relayed the problem and then asked me what we could do about it. I thought about it for a short while and then began to respond with several reasons as to why what was being asked for was difficult, may not be achievable, couldn't be done, or may take a very long time to solve.

The CEO listened to my ‘speech' and then, without looking at me directly, asked me to collect all my things and leave the meeting (there were approx 15 people in the room). I sat for a few seconds wondering whether he was joking or waiting for him to say something else, however he just sat there. A few seconds later he told me to hurry up, at which point I realised he wasn't joking. As I collected my stuff he said something along the lines of “if you've got no value to add, you don't need to be here”. I then left and headed back down to my office wondering how I would explain what had just happened to the CIO.

About 1 hour later, while I was still mulling over the implications of the earlier incident, my office door opened and the CEO walked in. They had broken for lunch and he had some extra sandwiches which he had brought down for me. He sat down, gave me the food, and asked whether I had a few minutes for a chat. I was absolutely terrified, thinking he was going to fire me. He then asked me whether I understood why he had asked me to leave the meeting, to which I replied “No, not really”. He pointed to the window and said “See that window? There are thousands of people out there that will have no problem whatsoever telling me why we can't do something, why it's impossible, or why it's difficult. And they will most likely do it for free. Because, one doesn’t need to know anything about anything to take that option. But the whole reason why you are here and are getting paid is to tell me how to make it happen.”

That was the turning point in my career. Later that day I came back to him with several options (some not viable mind you).

I ended up staying with that company for nearly 20 years.

I now reuse that same phrase everytime I inherit a new team to make make sure they are clear on why they work for me and the organisation.

EDIT

I've added this extra information based on a few comments I received regarding the ‘lesson’ learned.

The lesson learned here is, in the words of the CEO, the use of words ‘value' and ‘make it happen'.

Every corporation wants and expects some sort of value from all of their employees. In my case, I was hired to find (technical/product related) solutions to customer/business ‘problems'. The value that you are expected to bring may be different.

Our CEO's view on the value I brought to the company hinged on my ability to find solutions and present them as options when required. Once I realised that, things were much clearer and I worked my way up the organisation through that value proposition.

I trust that is clearer now.