In order to become a great CEO, you must learn to make other people successful. That is the key to leadership. You make people successful by listening to and supporting them, providing autonomy, challenging them, giving them guidance and direction and occasionally by issuing direct orders. A good leader has a wide toolkit. They treat all employees the same, yet lead each one in a unique and individualized way.
The CEO drives strategy but this does not change the fact that the CEO is there mainly to deliver results.
I was stubborn. Now I am persistent. I was self-centric and self-serving. Now I value equality and mutual respect. I was a day dreamer. Now I can envision things and think creatively about strategy. CEOs are not born; they are made – by themselves and by people around them.
How does a professional CEO work with a strong founder? Tom Erickson of of the wildly successful open source company Acquia, commercializing the wildly popular Drupal open source platform shares his advice.
If you are a first-time CEO, you have many strengths! You do the impossible, learn faster, get challenged and work hard. Go out and build a fantastic, scalable, sustainable business!
Your hands are on the steering wheel. You own your timetable and priorities, have control over interactions, learn about yourself and exert a positive influence.
The board of directors of a company has three main responsibilities. 1) The board appoints the CEO. 2) They continually assess the CEO. 3) The board ensures proper governance. How do these reflect on the CEO?
Being a CEO is a lonely hard job. You are a Single Point of Failure. If you fail, the company suffers. Great CEOs help make the world a better place. But the upsides come with downsides. There is a price you have to pay for being a CEO.
A CEO must have the courage face the brutal reality of the company, so that problems and difficulties can be overcome. Great CEOs seek honest feedback from both employees and customers. Here is why.
As CEO only you report to the board of directors but involving your management team in the board meetings has several benefits.
The purpose of management is to make individual weaknesses irrelevant. This is the power of an excellent management team.
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