What Do CEOs Do Anyway?

I’m a CEO.

Have been for a number of years. And so I started thinking about my “role”.

Normally the CEO is one person in your organisation who does not have a job description. That’s because it is often – certainly in the world of entrepreneurs- the CEO who has invented the company, set it up, made it all happen. But, largely on account of that, the CEO will rarely have anything resembling a job description. They may never have even thought about what it is they do, while all the time designing jobs and job descriptions for the people they are hiring.

So what exactly do CEOs do? And, perhaps more pertinently, what should they be doing?

They make all the important decisions – right?

True, but they don’t make them on their own. They entrust aspects of the business and its running to others. It can be the case that the CEO may be the least knowledgeable person in the room when a decision is made. He may have delegated the running and implementation of some role to another and is dependent on that person to report back accurately and effectively.

The CEO is not there to come up with the decisions and their implementation. Many think this is in fact what we do. Well in a busy company that would be both unrealistic but personally disastrous. The CEO who would be working 24 hours, seven days per week, 365 days per year for the rest of his life and still not get everything done – and become less effective as a CEO as each day passes. So the real challenge is the necessity to delegate, and the real value when you delegate to the right person.

This is priority number one and goes back to some of my earlier posts on recruitment and office culture. Hire the wrong people you and your business are stuffed, as well as mired in the dreaded “Human Resources” twilight zone, and, in addition, heaven forbid, the Industrial Tribunal mire for years to come.

Maintaining an office culture that is centred around the CEO brings its headaches. Like I said earlier, there are not enough hours in the days for you to run a business this way. Even if you cloned yourself ten times over, a successful business is just not possible unless you acquire the art and skills of being able to delegate and trust others. With the right people then the running of your business becomes not only easier but the desirable way of operating and, as a result, your company flourishes.

Your job description is NOT: to decide everything; to hire and fire at will; to set all the company strategy; to be the expert on every, or any, topic; to be a god-like figure whose word is Holy Writ and who must be obeyed – if not worshipped!

Okay, I exaggerate – a bit – but many of you reading this will see some reflection of yourselves in this and with good reason.  It really is a recipe for disaster – personal and professional.

You can begin to see that being CEO is not about running around “making decisions and running the company” – not in the sense that it is regularly pictured. It requires – needs – a much more subtle approach and, if anything, a light touch.

Basically the role of the CEO is to invent and then maintain the company culture. You set the tone for the whole organization. You define its values; to some extent, you embody what that company represents. But more important still, you ratify good decisions made by others trusting in their skills and knowledge.

I can’t stress enough that last bit. The good CEO knows he can’t run the operation alone. As a consequence, the good CEO should be as much a talent spotter as a spotter of business opportunity. Look at any successful company and you will rarely find a megalomaniac dictator at its head. Instead, you’ll discover someone who has built a successful team around him or her. A team that is as healthy personally as it is functioning well as a business unit.

Thinking about this it may even be easier than you thought to be a CEO. Just sit there while the right people whom you have hired make the right decisions in alignment with your and now their values. And when they do make the right decisions, then you simply endorse them. And if they don’t make decisions that align with the company or the values you have instilled, well you ask them to take another look and try again.

I’m sure there’s an algorithm for this.

Seriously, it may be a lot more straightforward than you think. But then you say to me what about the boardroom battles and the inevitable disagreements?

For any disagreement, you identify who is the lead person on each side of the argument. If they report directly to you then set up a meeting to hear both sides. Then you sit and listen. Finally, you make a decision and get all parties to agree to it.

You can see how this still fits with the real job of the CEO. Gently nudging the decision making in the right direction by ratifying and clarifying the decisions made.

If you actually think about this not only is it a good way to run a business, it makes the people you work with feel empowered and in time they start to own not just their own decision-making but also the company’s values and business plan. They become better employees. And guess what they end up making the right decisions more often, and that makes your life even easier.

You have built this machine, which is your business. You have oiled it with a good recruitment strategy. You have ensured the power is on – the finance flows into it; and similarly that the power comes out the other end – revenue stream. So now what you have to do is sit back and ensure it runs with the occasional tap with a spanner or every so often a bang with a hammer. But most of the time you just watch that machine, your machine, purr away contentedly.