My CEO Life

Now this is a tricky question as it depends on the business the CEO is running. The CEO of a not for profit will have some different skills versus a CEO of a large corporate versus a CEO of a government body verus the CEO of a small business. So instead of being specific, i will talk about the general skills that i believe make a good CEO.

Here are my initial thoughts

• Clarity of vision (and its communication) is critical. Without this, who cares. The ability to set a clear future for the business and to articulate this in such a way that all employees get it and are passionate about it is make or break.
• Passion – ok this is not a common one but i believe that if the CEO does not truly and passionately believe what is happening then no one will. Passions sometimes make the plausible possible.
• Curious mind – you have got to be extremely curious about everything. You need to ask questions – not matter how silly – to question. Trust your intuition.
• A great bullshit meter – you have got to have great intuition as to what is happening and when people of pulling the wool over your eyes. If you dont have this, people will be forever managing upwards. I hate that.
• A feel for numbers – you have to have a natural feel for numbers. No matter what we want to think, numbers make a business work. You need to know what the numbers are and where they are going. It allows you to have cadid conversations with the management team.
• Candor – this is critical. Dont beat around the bush – say it as it is. It something is great, tell the team or the person involved. If something sucks, do the same. Being politically correct just sends the wrong message to the business.
• Strategic mind – this is a little harder. You need to be able to think strategically about the business so that you can help put in place the right initiatives to drive towards the vision.
• Being prepared to change – three year plans are rubbish in fast moving businesses. At best we can plan one year with a fair degree of certainty. However we often get that wrong. Be prepared to change. Go with your instincts and modify (not 100% change) your direction when needed.
• Communication – the CEO has to be able to clearly communicate to all people. Whether it is to a group of 300 people or one on one. Get out there, press the flesh with employees, make them feel wanted (and mean it) and make sure your message is clear and strong and CONSISTENT!!
• Bias to action and decisive – i think that these two skills are the most critical. Make a decision AND GET ON WITH IT

And what doesnt make a good CEO?

• Connections - connections doesnt make you good, just connected. Having friends in high places doesnt make a good CEO.
• Political awareness – who cares if you can play politics. It doesnt mean squat to customers or the market.
• Money – in some markets having money helps you become a CEO, but it doesnt make you a good CEO. How many second and third generations have got it very wrong.
• Ego - lose it or lose the business. Employees are not fools and they wont want to work for an egomaniac.
• A degree – just being educated does not make you a good CEO. I have done an MBA, it was interesting and i learned to tell the lecturers what they wanted to hear!

So … there are my thoughts. I would love to hear other.

I received a great email today with some more tips for the tech charged Chief Executive Officer. Here are the reader’s suggestions … A good pair of headphones for flying. It’ll reduce fatigue as you can turn off the music and it’ll still attenuate the noise. With the music on, since the engine noise is softer you’ll turn the volume up less and protect your hearing. I like the Shure E2C’s but there’s a bunch of them out there.

A travel router so when you work you don’t have to sit at the desk but can work from anywhere in your hotel room. I like the Linksys WTR54GS.

A pair of powered speakers so that when you do conference call in your hotel room you can use it like a speakerphone and still use a pair of headphones plugged into the mike port of your PC (for Skype) as the mike (don’t forget to talk into the LEFT headset). I carry the Think Outside Boomtube but that may be heavy for you.

If you’re into international business like I am, I’d like to suggest a new magazine: www.worldbusinesslive.com which is an HBR for the international set (published by INSEAD).

A friend of mine sent the following link to me from the Educators Corner of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. (http://edcorner.stanford.edu/podcasting.shtml)

These are a series of very interesting podcasts from innovative Chief Executive Officers from across the technology industry. These podcasts cover leadership, entrepreneurship and how these speakers have become leaders in their industries.

The one i have just listened to is by Marissa Mayer (VP Search Products and User Experience @ Google). She shared these insights that are critical to product development at Google.

1. Ideas from everywhere. Encourage and enable idea flow and incubation. Don’t assume it will happen naturally.
2. Share all info. Provide tools/forums that make it easy to share info freely and widely internally.
3. If you’re great, we’ll hire you.
4. Provide a license to pursue dreams. 50% of new products comes from the 20% free time discipline (i.e. 4x more productive than regular time!)
5. Don’t perfect on the drawing board. Innovate and iterate (quickly).
6. Ask users thru playing with real product.
7. Data is apolitical. Data creates clarity. Use split tests all the time if you’re not sure.
8. Creativity loves constraint. Don’t start with a white sheet of paper. Set clear goals and objectives from Day 1.
9. Users not money. Money follows the users. Always.
10. Don’t kill products. Morph them into something different and better.