Traditionally, the role of the CEO has been associated with the performance of the organization. In recent years, in addition to their expected duties, CEOs must keep up with evolving technology, cybersecurity, diversity, inclusion, and much more.
Being a CEO is a tough job, even for the most highly qualified. There are no other people in equivalent positions in the company, and they also have to juggle seemingly conflicting tasks like dealing with short-term issues while adhering to long-term initiatives and results.
In their book, “CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Destinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest,” Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra highlight six key CEO responsibilities. They are setting direction, aligning the organization, mobilizing leaders, engaging the board, connecting with stakeholders, and managing personal effectiveness. They go into detail about what are the expert mindsets that CEOs need to master to fulfill these responsibilities.
Setting direction
Many CEOs approach change cautiously. They realize the seriousness of their decisions and try to avoid mistakes. However, the best CEOs recognize that meaningful growth requires taking risks and embracing potential game-changing opportunities. They create an expanded organizational vision by finding the perfect intersection between the essence of their companies and the marketplace.
Aligning the organisation
It’s a mistake to think that the job of CEOs is only to focus on the big and important projects or issues, and avoid the culture and people issues. Emotions and company culture often become the root cause of strategic mistakes. When CEOs consider both aspects, their chances of successful strategy execution jump from 30% to 79%. Furthermore, execution effectiveness is almost twice as high.
Mobilizing leaders
Companies are twice as likely to outperform the average when top executives work together toward a common goal. Building an executive team is one of a CEO’s most important tasks. Roughly half of senior executives believe their senior management team underperforms, but two-thirds of CEOs say they get it right, indicating a disconnect.
Ego, personal agendas and different perspectives, among other factors, prevent senior team members from looking in the same direction. The process of building a functional and unified senior leadership team begins with defining the roles of the leaders and identifying the capabilities, knowledge and experience they need.
Engaging the board
The biggest challenges for the CEO are related to interacting with the board of directors. CEOs are accountable to a group of people they did not hire and cannot control. CEOs must establish strong relationships with board members and help them run the organization effectively.
Connecting with stakeholders
Research shows that stakeholder engagement can impact revenue by up to 30%. In addition, the effects of a crisis can be weaker if the CEO enjoys trusted and trustworthy relationships with multiple stakeholder groups.
Profit maximization is no longer the corporation’s only goal. Nearly 90% of U.S. consumers prefer to work with companies that “support issues they care about.” And 94% of new hires want to be involved in social causes. More and more companies are actively demonstrating their commitment to social causes.
Managing personal effectiveness
Exceptional CEOs don’t let outside commitments consume them or their lives. They set their priorities, build flexibility into their schedules, and leave time for themselves, their families, and their outside interests.
