I’ve been reflecting on some of the common traits displayed amongst the most successful CEOs I’ve been privileged enough to work with. There is, without doubt, something all of us can take from these amazing people to better our approach to business, whatever our role. Divided not only by industries, continents, turnover (ranging from £10m–£200m), tens of years of age, personalities and education; all have been delightfully individual but have had six principles in common:
1. Sometimes sweat the small stuff
‘Don’t sweat the small stuff’ was one of the first business mantras I learned as an intern. I heard it and it stuck – focus on the bigger picture and don’t get distracted by things which make little impact. A good thought. But in practice, the best CEOs do sometimes sweat the small stuff. Of course, they have their eyes fixed firmly on the prize, but in fact, small stuff is really important to them. They’re focus fanatics who excel at precision, they are auditing the numbers before anyone else is, and they never lose touch with the parts of the business they were across on day one. They fixate on tiny details and obsess until things are just so. They’re QA, Finance, Marketing and Facilities all rolled into one.
2. They’re never too busy to listen…
No request for a listening ear or opinion offered is ever ignored, in my experience. Where middle managers may ‘not get to’ communications from people much lower down the food chain, or senior managers may use their PAs as gate-keepers, this special breed of CEO has their ear to the ground as a priority. Whether you’re the intern, an external cold emailer or the CFO, they’re ready to listen with their mind open.
3. …Or too important to do
Simple, but without exception, these CEOs are the ones who are emptying the dishwasher, making the tea or welcoming visitors to the office. They’re humble and their sleeves are always rolled up.
4. They’re constantly in customers shoes
They never ever step out of customer shoes. That’s where they started and that’s where they are every day. They’re always re-creating and testing the user experience, without creating fancy customer journey charts (I do love a customer journey chart, by the way) – they’re on the ground, talking to customers and listening to their observations. They don’t need the customer insight and social listening reports because they’ve been checking the social channels themselves, and probably personally rectified and answered complaints.
5. They’re fixated on future
Tirelessly fixated on the future, innovation, improvements, these people don’t need planning sessions to get them to think ahead, they are always thinking ahead. They’re the epitome of ‘if you can dream it, you can do it’ and can mostly be found optimistically considering an unbounded path forward. They’ve already moved into test-mode while the people on the ground may still be risk-assessing the pilot.
6. Firm opinions, loosely held
It’s generally their ideas and opinions that have driven them forward to be so successful, but without exception, these intelligent role-models display a ‘firm opinions, loosely held’ mindset. They’ll always take on board ideas of others or constraints and have no hesitation in doing a 360 degree turn if their idea is proved as flawed.
Open-minded, customer-obsessed, auditing the detail, grounded and focused; a summary of the principles I’ve described, which I believe will make a positive difference to all of us, whatever role, industry or challenge we happen to be working on.