Three Things I Wish I’d Known As a New CEO

I believed I was well prepared to become a CEO when I became one. I had solid preparatory experiences, and had been fortunate enough to work with excellent bosses and mentors. And yet, I wasn’t really prepared to be that person – the one looked to for final decisions. That is a transition for which there is no transition. One day you aren’t that person; and the next day you are.

As I now advise both new and experienced CEOs, I’ve put some thought into what I wish I had known on that first day. It’s a long list! But I’ve picked three items that stand out in my memory, and that I think will be most helpful to others facing their first CEO role.


I Don’t Know Everything … And I Don’t Have To

Day 1 arrives; the announcement has been made: I am the CEO. All the group leaders are gathered in a room. Though I’ve worked with most of them before, I perceive that there is a sudden new expectation placed on me. It’s as if they believe I have been suddenly granted the mystical superpower of “CEO-ness.” They ask without asking, “What are you changing?”

In response, I feel enormous performance pressure. My mind is telling me, “I need to be prepared; be on point. I need to have all the answers.” Think: Harry Truman’s “Buck Stops Here.” All of the company’s problems are supposed to now have solutions – or at least new, improved perspectives.

As I gained experience as a CEO, I realized that this belief was not only misguided, but counterproductive. While we’ve all absorbed the myth of the visionary CEO, your job isn’t usually to have all the answers, but rather to help discover them. That is a team sport. It usually happens with your people in the room – as you work through problems together.

Being the CEO is much more about finding out what the individuals in the room know and growing that into something larger. So the group walks in not knowing; you mine for knowledge, possibility and insight together; and you leave the room knowing.

After having built this ‘mining’ skill, going into rooms not knowing brings not panic but a rush of excitement and fun; chomping to learn what the collective group will know when we’re done.

I didn’t know everything; and it was ok. I didn’t have to. The key was finding out what we all knew and making the most of it.


Fix What Matters Most

In my early days of being a CEO I was accused of being a perfectionist and impractical. Frequently, when asked to define parameters for success, I would start with the phrase “In the perfect world… (fill in the blank).”  I never thought having high standards was a problem – and I never lost the use of that phrase – but I did struggle with drawing a line between the key drivers of results and trying to fix everything that was, shall we say, sub-optimal.

I recall how formative it was to work through a planning session with our team in which the team had to sort through all the possible improvement targets. The range of responses was dizzying and demonstrated that, in a complex business, cause and effect relationships aren’t always obvious. 

We sorted through a huge number of actions, resource priorities, capital asset choices, pricing strategies, marketing & sales decisions, and how to measure the outcomes of all of the above. Amidst all of this complexity, one simple lesson rang loud and clear. We could not fix everything!

The more experience I gained as a CEO, the more willing I became to acknowledge this truth up front. This allowed me to focus the team on: (1) determining what most needed fixing and (2) getting all of the team on the same page to focus on just those things.


Overwork is a Process Failure, Not a Badge of Honor

In my younger years, I was a trained distance runner and it was a large part of my life. The process of planning, training, racing, and continuous improvement was an ideal incubator for business life. Well, ALMOST ideal! One unfortunate side-effect was that I thought I could outwork everyone. Combine that with a serious sense of responsibility and I was a burnout waiting to happen. I recall crossing into my 50’s, hitting a record low physical activity level, a record high body weight, and a record high hours worked. I looked back at the past four years of incredible work hours. And I knew something must change.

So I made a “map” of sorts. On one page, I created a graphic representing the big picture for my role; the key activities that needed my attention; the metrics I would use to determine progress; and individuals to whom I had delegated responsibilities.  And I showed it to my team.

Here’s the weird thing about doing this: none of the information was new! Either to me or to my group leaders. Yet putting this in one place, on one page, made this visible to all concerned. It visibly reminded me daily where I should (and shouldn’t) devote time. It powerfully reinforced to my group leaders that they were the primaries … not me. It became a time management tool, a delegation tool, and a metric device; all of which created renewed focus.

What happened? Over the next year I cut my work hours over 15%. In the year after, I cut them a little bit more. Proving that I could outwork others was not a necessity. My overwork was a process failure, not a necessity. I went from proving that I could outwork others to helping them own and accomplish more. 

For you CEOs out there, what do you wish you’d known on day 1? For those of you stepping into the role, what questions would you most like to ask someone who’s been there before you?

Feel free to reach out.