The role of a CEO in any company is crucial, but the impact you can have is regularly overlooked and is often greater than people realise.
The more you can accept this and adapt your approach, the more effective your impact will be and the less you'll trip yourself up or get in your own way.
So, what is the CEO impact? It is the weight that your words and actions carry and the effect they can have on the whole organisation that often amplifies them over other leaders or team members in the business.
As the CEO, everyone in the business is looking to you for direction and to get a sense of what's going on in the business. Your tone, words, and demeanour tell a story that, if you don't articulate effectively, will have any gaps filled by the team, and not always in a constructive or helpful way.
Communicating as a CEO
I remember a CEO telling me he was going to a customer meeting and had dropped in to ask his engineering team a question about an area of the product ahead of the meeting.
He felt he was very clear and that he was just looking for some additional information. However, his engineering team took that to mean that this should be a focus for them going forward – for context, the CTO was on holiday.
Redirecting the engineering team's efforts was, of course, not the CEO's intention. However, the ambiguity led to the engineering team taking their focus away from their most important work, getting lost in something unhelpful and wasting time and money in the process.
When the CTO returned from holiday, they were understandably frustrated with the CEO and felt they'd interfered in the team's work.
How could this have been different?
- The CEO could have provided more clarity and context explaining why they were asking the question.
- Reinforcement from the CEO on the critical area of focus for the team and how this contributes to the company goals.
- The CEO could have provided more insight into the customer's interest in this area and where this might fit into the future picture.
This situation might sound simple, and it will never happen to you.
However, if you're not cognisant of the impact the title of CEO can have on your team, which is amplified as the team grows, as less people know you well, you could be causing similar distractions in your business.
The role of the CEO
Understanding the impact of the CEO is essential; however, having a proper grasp on what your job should involve is vital.
The role of the CEO should involve:
- Sharing the vision, telling the story (internally and externally)
- Setting the direction and tone.
- Providing clarity and focus.
- Removing obstacles.
- Simplifying
- Living the values and not tolerating bad behaviour.
- Getting out of the way.
If you're doing something other than this, you're not focused on your core role, and it is time to reassess your priorities.
CEO Jumping In
There may be a situation where you need to fill in for a short-term gap in your leadership team. However, again, you need to ask yourself a few questions before you start:
- Are you really the best person to do this?
- Are you aware of the weight your words and actions carry?
- Are you aware of the impact your short-term leadership in this area has on other teams within the business? (There will be an impact).
- What are you dropping in your role to deal with this?
If you think your team need your help – they don't – they really don't, and they might not know how to tell you.
Every time a CEO has told me a team needs their help, the team will say to me -
"I wish they wouldn't do part of my role; it's confusing for me and others."
"They hired me for my expertise but won't let me get on with delivering for them."
"I don't bother making decisions any more as they jump in and change them, and it makes me look stupid."
"I like challenging work and working through problems with peers – when the CEO jumps in, everyone stops questioning and challenging and goes with their view- it's really demotivating".
Sharing the vision and telling the story
You need to do this constantly and repeatedly and link how all of the teams and people contribute; you won't over-communicate this.
As you deliver this, you need to consider how people are hearing this in relation to their role. They need context, and you must join the dots for them.
If everyone has their head down and is focused on a key goal, they don't always remember how this contributes to the big picture.
This was brought home to me again recently when working with a life sciences business focused on saving lives. You'd think that one would be hard to forget, but while concentrating on repetitive technical and lab work critical to gaining key approvals, they'd forgotten their purpose.
If they're saving lives and forget, how likely is it that in periods of repetitive work, your team will forget too?
Setting the direction and tone
Setting the direction and tone is one of your most important roles as a CEO, and there are several factors you need to consider.
- How are you going to reach that big vision?
- What is stage one for now, and why is it important?
- How are you showing up when focussing on the next raise, closing a big customer win, or getting rid of a potential future issue?
I remember a CEO speaking about shutting herself away to focus on a key customer negotiation. She was aware that she might not seem like her usual self as she was laser-focused and thought shutting herself away would stop the team from being concerned by a change of demeanour.
It didn't; in fact, it raised alarm bells, and the team had decided that the business was in trouble when it really wasn't.
Giving context and sharing what you're working on helps the team and makes you more authentic. You can test out when it's okay to be vulnerable with your team and when you need to show up as your best self no matter what's happening in the background.
How you manage your team and resources will also impact the tone and set the direction of the business. Ask yourself:
- What behaviour have you accepted from someone as a "star performer" that you wouldn't accept from others?
- What have you praised and recognised recently?
The answer to both set the tone and sends a key message to the team.
- Where do you focus resources and,
- How do you resource the business to meet your plans
Again, both send important messages around the business, and you must be mindful of their effect. People can go the extra mile for a limited amount of time without a personal impact, but retaining and attracting key talent will be challenging if you're constantly under-resourced.
Providing clarity and focus
As a CEO, your role is to keep things simple when there is chaos and to set out a clear road map to success for your team to focus on. So consider the following when you are planning:
- If there are many priorities, nothing is a priority – how true
- What is the most important thing your company needs to achieve this quarter?
- Who knows this, and how do they know it?
- How has this been distilled into the action and priority of all teams?
- How quickly does this allow teams to make decisions – will this take us toward the critical goal or distract us?
Removing obstacles
As with any planning process, obstacles will get in the way. Whether unforeseen or not, it is your job to clear the way and ensure your team can achieve the goals you have set out. Again, here are areas to consider when you are supporting the team:
- What is distracting your team from doing their best work?
- Where has unnecessary bureaucracy crept in?
- Where is there duplication of effort or conflicting effort happening in the business?
- When can your teams do their best work and feel they are powering forward?
- What do you see coming that you can head off at the pass?
Simplify
It's very easy for things to quickly become more complex than they need to, and it's often hard for people to see this.
As mentioned, as a CEO, your role is not to deliver on the technical side but to work out how to ensure the team remains focused. So, assess the work of your team and ask yourself:
- How important are those features an engineering team are working on, and how do they relate to your key focus?
- Are you creating one team focused on a key priority, or are you sharing half-baked ideas or early thoughts that are sending people in many different directions?
- How do you break down something complex into its core parts to share the key essence of what needs to be delivered for your team?
Living your values and shaping the culture
Your company values are crucial to the successful operation of your business. They are the blueprint by which decisions are made, but they only work if you and the rest of the team live those values. So the question is?
- Do they shape the behaviours within your organisation
- Do you consciously hire and fire based on these?
- Do they allow the team to make decisions on the right course of action driven by these values?
Getting out of the way
It can be difficult to stand back and trust your team, particularly when you don't have agreed check-ins or checkpoints.
To make these effective, you need to know your numbers and have the proper reporting in place. While your financial numbers are critical to know they are a rear-view measure of previous performance, your team needs to focus on the lead measures and key levers that drive the financial performance.
The role of a CEO
I hope you found this helpful and that you're able to pick one or two areas of focus that will help you in your role as CEO.
Please reach out if you want to chat about specific areas that might help you in your role.
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