Who Is The CEO?
February 11, 2008
In many situations we work for a company and yes there is a CEO. Maybe not the apple of your eye but there is usually someone at the top of your organization with responsibility to make things happen with positive results. We have found great CEO’s as we have been involved with companies through our work. However we have found many of them are dead at the top of their organizations. Yeap, I mean dead and that means the CEO is asleep at the wheel or as we have mentioned dead. This could be in a large corporate or in many cases the small business owner who is truly the CEO of their operation.
Let’s suppose that the CEO we are talking about is the one and only you. Regardless of if you are with a large company or you are the head of your own home based business, you are the CEO and the buck stops with you. By the way, in case we forget the action also starts with you. Sometimes we forget that. So, as you look at your profits, your sales, quality of your service or products, the attitudes of your organization, customer service, turn over, players on your team, positive or negative attitudes of your organization, it is all your responsibility as the CEO.
Now that we have that out of the way, what are we suppose to do about it if we truly want to change. First, we must make sure not only we want to change our organization but we want to change our self first. It is much more exciting to make changes than it is to have the board of directors make changes or in a small business have our business venture go under because we didn’t change. By the way, as the CEO you are expected to see problems before they happen and adjust or change to prevent a collision that might hurt your company in any of the areas we have discussed above and more. Once we have decided to do whatever is necessary to make these changes I suggest you should get help. That right, you got here alone and look where you are. The best in the business get out side help and this gives the CEO the opportunity to have support and maybe even not let others know about it. Sure you can still look good in the eyes of those that adore you. Maybe the best investment we can make in our self and our company.
What does outside support mean? We have all heard about coaching, maybe an over used word but still it’s coaching. It comes in many forms, many names, types of people and various systems. For example in our organization we stay close to the person in discussions without a lot of bells and whistles and solve problems as fast as possible together. Many organizations have large meetings formal gathers to help you join in the groups. There are many, many ways to get help and we have found that most are usually good. And of course there are tons of books. I personally am not a big fan of solving these type problems by reading information and trying to figure out if it fits. Plus this takes time and usually it’s to late by the time we have finished the book.
We need more of a relationship and personal bond for working through these issues, Sometimes it isn’t easy and having another person in your court is helpful. I know I have been there in my corporate experience. However, the key is to find a person you are comfortable with, someone with executive experience that is able to work with you objectively and someone that has a wide range of executive experience so they might bring a wide range of problem solving ideas to the table to help you see the bigger picture. Make sure the person you speak with is a listener, if they want to do all the talking, keep looking. Just hiring a coach or someone that has been through a coaching institution is not always the answer since many have no serious business experience, just a coaching institute designation. Look for experience especially as a corporate leader and small business owner. Leaders need other leaders with experience.
You will find that it is becomes necessary to share a lot of information with this person and you will need to build a trust very quickly and then work closely to solve your issues. You can work by phone as many executives and small business owners usually prefer to do. This is less time consuming and can help you to act on matter with speed. The choice is yours once you find the person you feel best for your situation.
Plan to act faster than normal, plan to make things happen and make the necessary changes so you can start seeing results and get the problems solved at once. Delaying can be a disaster and if you need help you probably need it now.
Look in the mirror and decide am I big enough to recognize that I need help. If you say yes and you really want help, you have just solved the biggest problem; you are starting to become alive again at your position. After all this is what is expected of us as leaders, so enjoy the ride. By the way, we do have a choice. By: Cleve Tidwell
