Can I speak honestly? You’re probably not functioning as a full-time CEO right now. I know that you are a CEO full time, but that’s not everything you do. John Chester of Wild Apple Graphics in Vermont, had a business card that listed his title as President/Janitor. Pretty accurate, I’d say.
If you run a company of under 100 employees, and especially if you’re the founder, you’re really good at some of the key skills. Maybe you’re the best sales person. Maybe you have a long term relationship with a certain vendor. Perhaps you’re the guy who can fix that machine when it goes wonky. All of these are useful and need to be done. But they aren’t CEO functions. That’s one reason you’re not functioning as a CEO full time.
Another reason is that CEO work is important, but rarely urgent. But our days are filled with urgent tasks (which may also be important). So we never get to the point of being able to spend time on the important things that aren’t urgent.
The final reason is there’s no training (besides OJT) for being a CEO of a small to medium sized company. It’s not like running a Fortune 500 company – there’s MBA school for that. That’s why I’ve put my Virtual CEO Boot Camp online. But I digress.
Here’s the Good News
Your company doesn’t need you to function full time as CEO. All those other things you’re good at need to be done. But your company does need you to function as CEO more than zero. That’s why I recommend you start with two hours a week. Here’s how.
- Block off a chunk of time. Same time every week is best.
- Be in a place where you won’t be disturbed.
- Use that time for working on your business.
Simple? Yes but not easy. I had a client tell me what kept her from doing this was her need to please. She felt like if she took time for this she’d be ignoring the folks who are constantly reaching out to her for advice or opportunities. Of course, once she realized that this was what was standing in her way, it was easy to see how unproductive that need to please could be. That gave her the power to ignore those folks for just a couple hours a week. And it made a difference.
Other clients have felt like they don’t know what to do in that time CEO time. This is pretty common. We’ve all heard we should be working on our business – not in it. But we often don’t know how to turn that adage into action. That’s actually the reason I put my Virtual CEO Boot Camp online. It’s full of action items you can do in your CEO time.
What most people find is that even two hours a week of CEO time is incredibly powerful. And by paying attention to the important-but-not-urgent stuff, we can actually decrease the number of urgent fire drills that demand our time. Try it for a month and see what happens.
Thank you for this reminder. I've been starting to feel somewhat guilty for having other people do all the "work" while I ideate and architect. This is a sobering reminder that, while people and their efforts are the lifeblood, all of that subtlety of vision and its execution strategy is driving the soul of the company. How it grows will ultimately be a reflection of this core momentum.