Growing as a Leader and Operating with Excellence

So you’ve finally done it. After years of hard work and dedication, you’ve climbed the ladder all the way to the top and you’ve now been named CEO. Or maybe you’re the founder of your company and you’re just naturally installed as the head of the table. Now that you’re beholden not just to the shareholders, but to the company’s overall health and success moving forward, it’s important that you serve to the best of your abilities in such an important role.

As an individual whose decisions can impact an entire company’s trajectory, it’s important that you have the right skills and traits in place to ensure you’re the best CEO you can be. By keeping the following in mind on a day-to-day basis, you can at least ensure you have the right foundations in place to ensure your time as CEO will be a productive and fruitful one.

What Makes a Good CEO?

When it comes to understanding what a good modern CEO looks like, it’s hard to pin down just one or two things that stand out. That’s mostly because the business landscape has become too varied in our highly connected society that what may work for one sector may not really gel with another. That being said, there have been numerous attempts to nail at least some attributes down.

Aside from individual skills that we’ll highlight below, researchers at Harvard Business Review outlined four general behaviors that top performing CEOs exhibit. According to their findings, those behaviors are: able to quickly and convincingly make decisions, are constantly “engaging for impact,” can proactively adapt to a situation, and is able to consistently deliver reliable results.

Those behaviors, along with being able to meet various KPIs and metrics to ensure the company’s growth and success, should make for a CEO that’s a positive force for the company.

Skills and Attributes a Good CEO Should Have

• Strong leadership. Think of your company as a big cruise ship. Your customers are the guests, everyone else on the ship that makes things run is your company, and standing on the bridge at the helm of it all is you, the captain. As the CEO, you’re responsible for leading the entire operation forward. That requires team management skills and the ability to motivate those around you toward a common cause. This means not only making choices, but also delegating certain tasks and decisions to other individuals who may be more capable of handling something when necessary.
• Effective communicator. There’s only so much a leader can do if they can’t properly convey the plans they want to implement. Proper communication skills will help ensure that your goals and expectations for the company are clear, making the company more in line with those plans and boosting productivity. Not only that, but as CEO you’ll have to make presentations to investors. Without the ability to share your aspirations for where the company will be headed, you’ll have a hard time getting anyone on board.
• Confident decision-making. A good CEO knows they were put in that position because of their ability to assess risks and weigh them against the potential benefits before moving forward. Once a decision is made, it’s important to remain steadfast to that choice, and re-evaluate with data if and as needed.
• Keen on the growth mindset. Just because you’ve made it to the top, it doesn’t mean you can’t continue to grow and evolve. By keeping a growth mindset, you can create an air of adaptability and learning within the company. Not only does that help you learn from mistakes, as well as triumphs, but it encourages risk taking within reason. It’s important as CEO that you’re able to take setbacks and use them as learning moments that help yourself and the rest of the company grow.
• Empathetic to others. Also known as emotional intelligence, being empathetic means knowing and understanding your emotions and those of everyone around you. As such, it’s important that you create connections with your employees, customers, investors, and anyone else involved with the company. Those connections will help create a positive environment and lasting relationships.
• Financial intelligence. Of the responsibilities you have as a CEO, few are more important than knowing how the whole company operates. By understanding how cash flows into and out of the business, you can have a better idea of how a potential decision will impact the company as a whole.
• Strong sense of ethics. Your company’s reputation is an incredibly powerful resource. As the face of the company, your actions carry a lot of weight. A CEO who upholds strong ethical principles plays a key role in guiding a company through challenges. By setting expectations for ethical conduct among employees, the CEO can cultivate a culture of purpose and integrity. This fosters an environment that attracts potential employees and earns the trust of the public.
• Embrace creativity. Think back to some of the most effective and memorable CEOs: Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Reed Hastings. They all have something in common — they all saw a need and took the time to think outside the box for a solution. If you’re not trying to push the envelope or willing to take any risks, then you’re letting your company become complacent in the marketplace. Could your creativity lead to a bump in the road? Sure. But it’s like Wayne Gretzky said, “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” So be willing to buck the trend and do something original.
• Be purposeful. Openness and honesty are important as a CEO, as those skills can help engender a sense of trust with your employees, customers, investors and the general public. As the leader of the company, your purposeful nature can trickle down to the rest of the company, creating a culture that values open communication and honesty.
• Open to unorthodox ideas. What separates the good CEOs from the mediocre or even bad ones is the ability to learn, adapt, and overcome situations. Sometimes, that calls for listening to those around you and being open to solutions that may not be the norm. By pushing for a company culture where novel ideas are welcome, your openness as CEO can give employees a sense of ownership in the things they do.

Bottom Line

There’s no such thing as the “perfect” CEO. Yet by being people-oriented, data-driven and fiscally responsible, you can make better decisions. By communicating effectively and being open to ideas, you can gain the respect of those around you. An acute ability to solve problems will come in clutch when things go a little sideways. The buck has to stop with you as CEO, so equipping yourself with the right skills and mindset will go a long way toward your growing as a leader and operating with excellence.