Heather Lavallee had already spent more than a decade in executive roles at Voya Financial when she became CEO more than three years ago. Despite being a familiar face to employees-to whom she was "just Heather," she said during a recent visit to the WSJ Leadership Institute-she noticed that many began treating her differently.

"I said something," she told me, describing an incident from early in her tenure at the workplace retirement, benefits and insurance provider, "and all of a sudden a 25-page deck came back." The bewildered CEO was reminded that she had asked a question on the deck's topic. "I said, 'Oh, no, no, no, I didn't mean it in that way.'"

"You recognize that everybody is watching and paying attention to what you're doing, so that's a little bit of a different energy, where you are always on in the role," she said.

The surprise deck taught her to be clear about what was a request and what was "just Heather" making conversation.

She shared a few other instructive points about her communication habits.

The soccer analogy: The company has a 10-person executive committee that meets every two weeks and often holds dinners together "and that connection is really important," Lavallee said.

The CEO-who said she played a lot of sports growing up-asked the group to think of itself as akin to a soccer team: The executives play slightly different positions but must communicate to be effective as a whole. So she asks, "Are you getting what you need from one another? Are you anticipating things?"

"[O]ne of the things I noticed early on in the role was you'd get people who would come to you with an issue, and then you might get their counterpart to come with another issue, and my questions were: Have you talked to so-and-so?" she said. "I don't like things going up the ladder and down the ladder."

Sunday catch-ups: Lavallee has weekly one-to-ones with her executive team members during regular work hours, but she also occasionally chats with them before the workweek begins. For CFO Michael Katz, a two-hour Sunday phone call with the boss has become the norm.

"We've worked together for many years and have developed a strong partnership," Lavallee said of Katz. "Sunday we have a catch-up and we kind of go through a whole host of issues. ...It's a time we can be thoughtful."

Their Sunday calls don't have an agenda and were never planned. The routine came about organically, she said, and has become "a great practice."

Listening to investors: CEOs also work with external stakeholders, of course. For Voya, this includes TOMS Capital, an activist fund that recently took a stake in Voya and has taken issue with part of its insurance business. It has also pressured the company to sell itself. (Voya has called the activist's actions "manipulative and deceptive.")

Lavallee said she couldn't comment directly on the matter and instead underscored Voya's "robust" investor engagement program, explaining, "We constantly run the company as though we are looking at it from an outside-in perspective."

The CEO spoke to 180 investors in her first six months on the job, she noted. "We're in front of investors on a regular basis, so you know, I'd put an activist no different."

Lila MacLellan Editor, CEO Brief

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