Senior Management: Misguided or just Disconnected?

With all the recent CEO terminations, I started thinking about my and my friend's experiences. And although one can argue that the CEO owns and drives the corporate culture and senior management team (aka, the Board), it's often a chicken-and-egg syndrome and all are partially to blame when things go wrong.

So are senior management teams misguided...or just disconnected?

In my opinion, it's a combination of the two.

1. The Board is inherently a bit too disconnected from the frontline--the people who actually run the business.
2. This is further exacerbated if they make poor hiring decisions and insert managers/directors who do not have the skills and experience to lead their staff and the business to success. 
3. The result is that not only is the Board not aware of what is important to its staff  (and therefore business), but they also have a false impression, as fed to them by their mishires in an attempt to protect their own self interests.

So what are some possible solutions?

First off, as I've mentioned before, value human resources as your most precious asset. You are nothing without your people and if you motivate them, they will gladly think of ideas to take your company to the next level. So why not combine the two? Reward good ideas and overachievers by taking them to lunch. Turn off all your electronics for the hour and really listen to your shining star. Ask him/her what works and what doesn't. What would they do differently. How could x product/process be improved. And try to take this feedback to heart and if you can't, let the employee know why. Either way, they'll feel vested and valued, share this with everyone else on the team, and before you know it, everyone will be trying to earn that hour of your time.

If the above sounds too optimistic, try it before you discount it. And if this method doesn't work in your company, find something that does. But remember that the purpose is to reconnect with your frontline staff and make them feel like their ideas matter; it's not to "pay them off" with a nominal fiscal reward (which does have its place and time, but this isn't it.)