Most of my clients are CEOs of growing companies, and a common theme in our work together is the likelihood that their job description will change materially every six to 18 months. They'll continue to be CEO, but the nature of the role itself--and more specifically, the ways in which they add the greatest value--will evolve. Further, these shifts typically occur at punctuated intervals--there may be relatively little change for an extended period of time, and then many things will change in rapid succession.
Different factors cause these shifts at different stages of the company's evolution. Early steps that impact the CEO include the clarification of functional responsibilities among the founding team, hiring the first formal employees, and hiring or promoting the first managers. Subsequent steps will likely include hiring experienced leaders who want greater latitude in decision-making [1] as well as the establishment of a designated senior leadership team reporting to the CEO. Still further steps may include the creation of staff roles to support the CEO [2], hiring C-level executives with deeper expertise in their domain than the CEO, or the elevation of "human resources" from a compliance function under an operating leader to a strategic function under the CEO.
Other ongoing processes that can affect the CEO's job description include the need to raise capital, growth in the number of employees, and a rise in the company's public prominence. Fundraising requires a CEO to spend less time on internal management and provide direct reports with less oversight, and while this ends at the close of a round of financing, it will re-occur with regularity. Increased numbers of employees and heightened visibility for the company not only compel a CEO to devote more attention to public affairs and large-scale events, but they also expand the symbolic dimension of the role itself. [3]
And yet despite the fact that such a wide range of factors can impact the CEO's priorities, in my work with clients I find that three basic questions can help them navigate these transitional periods and reallocate their time and attention effectively:
1. What are you uniquely qualified to do?
In some cases this is a function of a relative lack of expertise among the employees that the company can attract and retain at a given stage of its evolution. Many early stage CEOs own responsibilities because no one better qualified is available, and efforts to delegate will have to wait until existing employees have demonstrated their potential to step up or until more experienced people have been recruited.
In other situations the CEO's areas of expertise enable them to maintain certain responsibilities even after the company has become sufficiently successful to recruit senior leaders in those functions. In my practice I see this most often in sales, finance, and product development. A challenge here is ensuring that the CEO doesn't hold on to these responsibilities too long, which usually results from a belief that certain tasks are too important to delegate, a desire to maintain personal oversight, or difficulties in building scalable systems. [4]
The key is that the CEO must recognize that their most precious resource is their attention, which I distinguish from time. We can spend a great deal of time on something to minimal effect when our attention is broadly dispersed, but when our attention is tightly focused it can take very little time to have a major impact. [5] Once a CEO grasps the importance of their attention, they recognize the tremendous cost of being distracted by tasks that should be delegated, even--and especially--when they would prefer to hold on to them.
This may compel the CEO to focus on hiring and attracting outside talent, or it may spur them to entrust their existing leaders with greater responsibilities and to establish systems that are less dependent on their personal efforts. But the number of tasks a CEO is uniquely qualified to do should get smaller as the organization grows more complex, because the stakes get higher.
2. What are you obligated to do?
Some tasks will always be part of the CEO's job description, no matter how talented their leaders are or how successful the company becomes. Some aspects of this dynamic are a function of the CEO's role among the small group of individuals who comprise the leadership team. As companies grow, the process of hiring leaders becomes more complex, involving searches taking a year or longer and vast sums spent on recruiters--but ultimately the CEO remains responsible for making the final call in selecting the executives who will report to them. CEOs may have support from a wide range of people in the process of managing their leadership teams--a Chief of Staff, a Chief People Officer, outside consultants and facilitators--but the CEO always plays a special role as the convener of this body and the most senior figure when it assembles.
Other aspects are a function of the symbolic dimensions of the CEO role, which grow more significant as the organization grows larger and more prominent. In this capacity the CEO not only delivers essential messages to employees and external stakeholders, but also serves as an embodiment of the organization. A common theme in my practice over the past few months has been the need for CEOs to speak to their employees and represent their companies in public forums on a host of profoundly daunting topics: the global pandemic, political polarization, racism and bias.
My clients aren't necessarily expected to have solutions to these problems, but as CEOs they are expected to address them. And as I've written before, "leaders are believed to speak for the organization, and their comments are dissected for hidden meanings," and as a result, "leaders can find the heightened scrutiny wearying, and self-consciousness can render their behavior stilted and inauthentic [or,] conversely, leaders can fail to be sufficiently aware of the heightened scrutiny, and missteps can be judged harshly." [6]
While the tasks a CEO is uniquely qualified to do may change dramatically, most of the tasks a CEO is obligated to do will persist over time--but the increasing degree of difficulty will alter the level of preparation required and the cost of mistakes. Once again, the CEO benefits by narrowing the focus of their job description [7], in part to allow them to learn as efficiently as possible. [8]
3. What are you free to do?
While the CEO role obviously offers many advantages, the challenge of "empathizing up" means that we often fail to appreciate how difficult, stressful and lonely it can be. [9] While my clients are wholeheartedly committed to the success of their companies and aware of the privileges they enjoy, it's not uncommon for them to dream about the next chapter of their lives and careers. And while few of my clients are actively seeking to leave the role, many find themselves struggling in one way or another as they navigate the transitions described above.
They've successfully hired a senior team but are unsure how to add value among such experienced leaders. Or they're comfortable delegating responsibilities in order to sharpen their focus, but they miss the work that allowed them to experience a sense of mastery and craft. Or they've honed their skills as a public figure and as the face of the company, but they find it depleting and alienating to be "on" all the time. [10]
In these circumstances it's important to prioritize a degree of personal fulfillment. I once had a client who headed a multi-billion dollar organization, an enterprise that we often discussed in agricultural terms. The bulk of her work was like running a massive ranch, requiring her to think in terms of acres of land and expensive equipment and multi-year cycles. But she also "kept a garden"--a series of small projects that allowed her to get her hands dirty and feel the satisfaction of watching things grow.
I'm not suggesting that CEOs should put their personal needs over organizational imperatives--this is not an excuse to hold on to responsibilities that should be delegated. But in addition to the work that they're uniquely qualified to do, and the work that they're obligated to do, a CEO should consider what work they are free to do, what tasks might lift their spirits and make the job more intrinsically rewarding. This not only makes the CEO role more sustainable, but it also prevents the all-too-common problem of a disenchanted leader who subconsciously starts breaking things in order to fix them.
Footnotes
[1] Leadership, Decision-Making and Emotion Management
[2] Three Stages of Executive Assistance
[3] Leadership and Transference
[4] The Work You Must Stop Doing
[5] The Art of Self-Coaching: Attention
[6] Leader As Avatar
[7] Early-Stage Survival and Later-Stage Success
[9] The Difficulty of Empathizing Up
[10] Leadership as a Performing Art
Photo by Martin F.
