As I prepared to step into the role of CEO at a transitioning company that was on the cusp of massive growth and facing economic turbulence, I reflected on conversations I’ve had with other CEOs. I have learned that there are a number of qualities a leader needs—not only inherent abilities but also skills that must be developed—in order to successfully lead their company. Here are some of the takeaways that have served me well.
Self-awareness is essential
The unfiltered truth will set you on the path to success. It is better to know your limitations and proactively address them than to wait for your board to tell you what they are and how they want you to fix them. If self-assessment and introspection are not your strong suits, then explore some alternatives. Run a 360-degree assessment with your team, or hire a firm like GH Smart to identify your blind spots. Go through Gallup Strengths Finder, do a DiSC assessment for yourself and your team, and/or complete an EQ assessment.
Build your team
Once you have a baseline assessment, you need to surround yourself with a highly effective leadership team that can help compensate for your strength gaps. When you slide into the CEO seat, you will inherit a team, and you will need to make them your team. Because every CEO has a different set of strengths, they need a complementary set of capabilities from their executive team. You will likely need to make some people decisions, and it’s better to make them earlier in your tenure.
Find a way to empower decisions deep and wide in the organization
In any new executive role, you need to learn as much as you can with as much immersion as possible. Many CEOs and executives want to make an immediate impact, but it’s very difficult to make good decisions if you do not know the full picture and haven’t heard from all the team members.
Be ready to do two things:
- Start forming your POV on strategy and key initiatives.
- Figure out how you will enable and empower decision-making deep and wide in the company.
Clearly communicate your strategy. Don’t put yourself in the critical path of every decision. Save your energy for important decisions, and delegate the rest.
Keep your ego in check
If you want to be a CEO because you have a need to tell people what to do, I have some bad news for you: This is a selfless job. If you are thinking, “I have thousands of people who work for me,” you are looking at it the wrong way. The reality is that you now work for them. You are responsible for making sure everyone in your organization has the tools and resources they need to be successful and to reach their full potential.
It is also important to understand that, as CEO, you are just another member of the executive leadership team with a different set of responsibilities. Great CEOs rely more on their power of persuasion and ability to bring everybody to a collective agreement. You need to save your power as CEO for mission-critical situations when you need to effect immediate change.
Make the most of your board
Now that I have made this job seem a lot harder and less glamorous, I will share a less well-known CEO superpower: You don’t work for the board. Many CEOs are afraid of their board members and dread the mandatory meetings. But you need to come into the role with the view that your board works for you and that their job is to help carry out your strategy.
In SBI's recent growth planning survey, only 38% of CEOs answered that they see the overall organizational value of their respective boards. Before you have your first meeting, figure out what role you want the board to play, and take control of the agenda and the expectations. Understand the experience of every member, determine how to leverage their expertise to optimize strategy, and make sure to share the job of keeping the board on task by assigning every member of your executive leadership team a corresponding board member to manage.
Move fast
In the same CEO growth planning survey from SBI, the key theme is that CEOs need to get off their back foot. CEOs I regularly speak with about what they have learned in their roles all agree they would have gone faster and doubled down on the actions they took. I’m beginning to understand that part of the reason for this is that as CEO, you have a narrow window of opportunity for getting the company on a path to success and growth.
So buckle up, go fast, and take all the advice you can get—because until you sit in this seat, you don’t know what you don’t know.
Author Mike Hoffman's deeper dive into this topic was recently featured in Forbes here.
