I would be proactive with your CEO and come back with an action plan for improving. Any feedback is a gift, embrace it. I would take the ideas that are positive above and integrate them into a simple skill development plan. Active Listening-Listen to a book on the topic vs. read it. Tell your CEO you plan to be a leader and do it in a positive way, like Susie you mentioned a great idea the other day about X, can you tell the group what you told me. Who is a role model for leadership that you know and ask them how they approach this situation...for me, it is all about asking the questions vs. telling people the answer. So in your meetings, ask the questions of the group, get them to give the answer even though you might know the answer. Be the coach. Life is Sweet

I agree with so many of the responses, however I want you to always go with your gut. If you feel something there is some truth to what you feel. Before you do any 360 feedback or anything else I do think you should have a talk with the CEO and get clear feedback. Do not mention the other employees but make it about getting clear clarification about the 2 items that were mentioned about you. On another note I have seen how the person that speaks up the most does get a bad break even if its not there intention to always take the lead and ask questions. I would definitely get clarity from the CEO and also speak with your coworkers. You are in a small group so the team dynamic is important, however if everyone is doing their job successfully I think there needs to be clarity on what position each person plays on the team. The CEO may want or expect something from the other two employees that is not realistic. My bestfriend does a great job as a manager, she likes being a manager and does not want to move from a manager role. She does not speak up often and deals with issues and people with a one on one style. She would be uncomfortable speaking up in meetings but does give great one on one feedback. In your role as director I would think the other employees report to you and you report to the CEO. I think the CEO needs to know that you have a great working relationship with your employees and because they do not speak up does not mean there is an issue or you do not regard their position on things. This would be better coming from them but make sure they are comfortable and satisfied with their roles on the team. Good luck!

A couple of suggestions: 1. Perhaps you could take on the role of facilitator in these meetings, and it would be your role to elicit the opinions of others and make sure all voices have the opportunity to be heard. I would run this idea past the CEO so that s/he can see that you have taken the feedback to heart and are trying to come up with solutions. 2. I have found it helpful to send out questions in advance of a meeting. Some people need more time to think and prepare their responses. Asking employees to respond on the spot to a question asked by the CEO can be intimidating. Giving employees a chance to think about issues in advance can help them be more confident in their responses.

If you have casual conversations with your co-workers to get feedback for your own professional growth, you will better understand if this perspective is just coming from the CEO.

While your intention is good, if you are "trying to give them a little encouragement" by being the first on to respond to a question, this may be what the CEO means. My two observations are: 1. Give your coworkers a chance to grow by letting them break the silence. In the long run, they are better served by taking care of themselves. 2. Allowing silence to continue is challenging. You can exercise your 'patient during silence' muscle and realize the power in doing so. Yes, how we handle silence can be powerful. After practicing this, you may have your answer to what your CEO wants when he no longer pulls you aside or pulls you aside and asks you to help keep meeting dialogue going. You will remain true to yourself if he requests this. His management and communication abilities are sorely lacking; my sympathies.

Since we're not in the room when this happens, we do have to speculate a bit. Even with good intentions, it is a good idea to listen. One thought I have is to think more about asking questions rather than speaking for the group (or appearing that way). It may be that someone has talked to the boss about this. Anyway, asking clarifying questions (for example: what will the impact be of the a specific issue, or offering a comment but asking others to share their thoughts as well, could be a way to have your voice heard when you have an opinion, and potentially encouraging others in your team to also share their thoughts.

Finding a solution shows integrity. Many have offered great ideas and solutions. So in this case the CEO maybe implying he wants to hear from everyone, when given the opportunity. When in doubt of a person’s words and actions, just step back and observe. You are best to not be reactive or jump in. Let others take the lead or show their leadership qualities. And don’t take it personally, even though it’s hard not to. Just be present, enjoy your work and watch others grow as you grow. The dynamics are set by the leader , the CEO. Let him come to you or ask for input when need be. If by chance, you have outgrown this role, then yes perhaps it’s time to move on.

There's a fairly easy fix to this situation: rotating speakers. You know roughly what meetings are being held and their content and context. Assign a rotating "speaker of the house" each meeting, where that person is the person who gets to speak for everyone. Have them take notes on slack discussions beforehand, collect opinions and have them be the director of the meeting for the period of the meeting. Ive also found that when I'm getting feedback and the person who's giving it to me doesn't know the instances - it's often that the feedback is actually coming from someone else. It may be that someone else went to the ceo (sometimes this is innocuous, they were having a beer, it came up in a 1:1, etc, other times there is a back channel communication happening) and the ceo doesn't want to rat out who's complaining. I notice even in this forum a lot of very gendered expectations around conversation are being reinforced - but the data shows that when a woman speaks up 30% of the time the world acts like she has dominated the conversation. You may be falling prey to the "women are only successful when they present and act very feminine," crux. The solution isn't to speak up less y'all. The solution is to find smarter ways to speak up that are unimpeachable. It's ok to share the spotlight, but you also get to stand there too. You mention tech, so I am going to assume a very small initial stage startup? Maybe someone is feeling threatened by you? For more on the psychological data: https://hbr.org/2013/04/for-women-leaders-likability-a

It sounds like you really want to make this better -- that really says a lot about who you are as a manager. Without example, I understand why you would feel you're at a complete loss on how to move forward. A few questions: > I am not sure of the context of this feedback, what it kind of off the cuff or more like a directive where it is a formal area of focus for you? > It sounds like you're concerned about speaking to your direct reports without the CEO being looped in. Is it possible to present this to your CEO that you want to improve the communication here at that you are going to talk to your direct reports and ask for feedback?

First of all I would say listen to your gut. Our intuition is a powerful force and often is guiding us in the best path. One other word of advice however while you are still there though is to look at what you have been doing and change. If twice there has been a comment in six months, change what you are doing. What you are trying to do possibly is just not effective with this group and so trying to approach it differently may get you those results you want without getting pulled aside.