3 Things Every CEO Must Do
I became a CEO! What do I do now?
Being a CEO is not an easy thing, especially if you are at the beginning of your path or do not have much previous experience in that kind of role. I’m talking about initiatives where a bunch of good friends gathered together in a basement or at a hackathon to create a web app that now has pretty many users and they are about to monetize it and grow.
As I'm one of those kids here is the list of 3 things each Startup CEO has to do. At some point, it is very important not to do everything but to prioritize your tasks and focus on the most important ones.
The list was created after watching the video below:
What is the role of a CEO? Let’s clear it out!
1. Define the company’s “Why?”. Create a mission and vision and communicate it across the company
Before you communicate your vision to your company it would be nice to communicate it in front of your mirror.
Believe me or not the most important thing is that you (as a current or future CEO) know why you want to do certain things, how you want to do them, and what particularly do you want to do. In that order. Stolen from Simon Sinek.
The vision conceals the competitive advantage of your business. It simply means that it will define your feature revenue and the number of clients that your company will have.
Creating it is only the first step. The second one — much more important is clearly articulating it to:
- the team, so they know why they are doing things and what we as a group of people want to accomplish,
- clients, so they know why they should choose you, not your competition and how working with you will change their business,
- future investors, so they are aware that your business is growing and will be expanding in the future.
This is the beginning of all action. Now formulating the company’s strategy will be easy! Why? Because strategy has to lead the company to fulfill its mission, so you’ll be able to think about what actions should we pick up next.
Whenever a new initiative occurs at the horizon check your mission and see if taking an active part in it will lead you closer to your goals.
Knowing where are we heading, why we are going in that direction and how we want to do this will save you countless sleepless nights and definitely increase motivation in your team.
There will be times when you’ll have to say “No” to new opportunities but believe me or not it will pay off.
2. Build a great team
Knowing that you are the first person responsible for building a really talented team is just the first step.
Having a great mission for sure will help to drag people to your company.
As a CEO you will have to do mainly 2 things when it comes to having great people around you. It is a selection of new employes and motivation of your current employees.
In the early days we start with the first 5–10–15 employees on board who are crucial in terms of how we build the company culture, processes, and company’s identity.
Those people will be the ones that help you building something great. Most probably they will become managers in the future and will have a huge impact on who is your company hiring or firing.
To solve the mystery of “How to hire appropriate people?” think about your values and the company’s values. Think about them and seek them in people you want to have on board.
The best CEOs are those who can not only make great decisions but those who can hire people that are able to make even better decisions and execute plans and strategies.
Making sure that your people are motivated in the morning and ready to give their absolute best for 8–10–12 hours is hugely important. That’s what makes your business grow.
How to handle that part? First of all, you have to set the example by yourself. You have to be the leader, you have to be the manager, you have to fulfill your duties as best as you can and work super hard. Secondly, you can set up regular meetings only with one person or with the whole team or mix it up. Try different approaches and observe how people react. Each one is different.
3. Make sure that the company executes the plan and there is cash in the bank
Execution is directly linked with the motivation of your team and the mission you have set for your business.
Having set some general strategy later divided into specific goals that people can split into daily tasks will formulate the path to realise the vision. There are quite a few people that can do that better than CEO.
You have a plan so now you are able to see if things you and your team do are bringing you closer to your goals.
That’s why it is so crucial to have people that simply push work forward so instead of seeing only perfect reports from managers you will also see more clients, more goals realized and so.
The gas and a tank for the business is to have enough money in the bank as well as possessing a healthy cashflow. Without them, a prominent mission, extraordinary vision, exceptional strategy and the substantial team will not matter.
When checking if the company’s goals are met you need to check also financial and sales reports. Pay attention to them as people for sure are not working pro bono for you.
You as a CEO will be held accountable for those mentioned things: plan’s execution and money in the bank
Conclusion
Mentioned domains for sure will help you to understand what you should focus on your daily to-do list as a CEO.
Average days as a CEO does not exist. But certainly, there are averages over time.
What you will most probably do is:
- spending time in the market to understand customers’ needs and how you are meeting them or could do that,
- doing some internal tasks like one on ones, team meetings, formulating processes, improving the product
- spending time with board and directors, thinking, planning, learning, attending industry events
Obviously, there are many more things to follow, and depending on your background you will follow those tasks and will try to delegate other ones.
Remember that the best CEOs are those who can mix these areas and have a good understanding of how the business is running so they can improve on certain things.
Any other CEOs here willing to discuss? Drop me a message on LinkedIn, Twitter, or via mail at marcin.krykowski@gmail.com. I’ll be more than happy to talk to you and share some thoughts.
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