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Maybe they never had a real plan to begin with and this all happened because of some exec’s casual whim. You’d be surprised how often that’s the reason behind major changes.
People have this vision of what it’s like to be an executive or CEO or leader of a huge business unit. They assume everyone at that level has enough experience and savvy to at least appear to know what they’re doing. They assume there’s thoughtfulness and strategy and long-term thinking and reasonable deals sealed with firm handshakes. But some days, it’s high school. Some days, it’s kindergarten.
As CEO, you spend almost all your time on people problems and communication. You’re trying to navigate a tangled web of professional relationships and intrigues, listen to but also ignore your board, maintain your company culture, buy companies or sell your own, keep people’s respect while continually pushing yourself and the team to build something great even though you barely have time to think about what you’re building anymore.
When you truly give a shit, you care, you don’t let up until you’re satisfied, you pick things apart until they’re great.
So you push. Yourself. The team. You push people to discover how great they can be. You push until they start pushing back. In these moments, always err on the side of almost-too-much. Keep pushing until you find out if what you’re asking for is actually impossible or just a whole lot of work.
Great leaders can recognize good ideas even if those ideas didn’t come out of their own mouths. They know that good ideas are everywhere. They’re in everyone.
In this job, respect is always more important than being liked. You can’t please everyone. Trying can be ruinous. CEOs have to make incredibly unpopular decisions—lay
When you’re a manager, you can look at the collective achievement of your team and feel a sense of accomplishment and pride. When you’re a CEO, you dream that maybe, ten years down the road, some people will think you did a good job. But you can never tell how you’re doing in the moment. You can never sit back and look at a job well done. This job can suck you dry if you let it.
That freedom is thrilling and empowering and utterly terrifying. There is nothing scarier than finally getting what you want and having to take responsibility for it, good or bad. And the tables begin to turn—as CEO you can’t say “yes” to everything. You have to become the one who says “no.” Freedom is a double-edged sword.
Being able to help the board grasp exactly what’s going on is good for the CEO, too. The better you can explain something, the more you understand it. Teaching is the best test of your own knowledge.
When you have a great board that you respect, meetings are a great, almost external heartbeat that focuses the entire company and forces you to organize your thoughts and timelines and story.
This is a necessary step. You absolutely need to get bored before you can find new things to be inspired by.
In the end, there are two things that matter: products and people. What you build and who you build it with. The things you make—the ideas you chase and the ideas that chase you—will ultimately define your career. And the people you chase them with may define your life.
