The role of a CEO is a complex and essential one; individuals with the title often come to the table with a unique blend of skills, strategy, and vision. So it becomes more critical for setting the priorities right for the CEO by focusing on the right activities to steer company toward success. CEO decision-making priorities should be immaculate in order to allocate their time most effectively and stay in their zone of genius.
As CEO, what decisions are truly yours to take, and which decisions should you be empowering other people to make? This is a key question for any CEO. Failing to get clarity on the CEOs focus areas will result in disempowerment for team and personal overload, the compound effect of which will be a significantly reduced impact.
CEOs strategic priorities
So then, what’s left as CEO decisions and responsibilities? It turns out quite a few things.
Creating executive team
As CEO, you should make the decisions regarding the composition and development of your senior leadership team. Don’t outsource this to HR; it’s your #1 lever for increased organizational impact. If you’re interested in this you might like to check out our email series on Taking Your Team from Good to Great.
Strategic planning
A CEO should regularly set aside time in their schedule to engage in strategic planning. This critical activity involves reflecting on the company’s long-term vision, mission, and goals and taking steps to more closely align with them. This also includes analyzing market trends, evaluating competition, and identifying growth opportunities. CEOs should hold regular strategy meetings with their leadership team in the pursuit of effective strategic planning.
Communication and growth
CEO is the figurehead for the organization in many ways. It is crucial for a CEO to make time to build relationships with prospects, customers, partners, investors, and industry peers. This is vital for business development, securing partnerships, and fostering trust among stakeholders. When communicating with employees, clients, and strategic partners, a CEO must be intentional, with the knowledge that they represent the company as a whole when they speak on their firm’s behalf. This requires dedicated time spent refining the company’s messaging strategy, and ensuring that there is clarity and consistency across all messaging.
Decision-making and problem solving
At the heart of a CEO’s role lies the responsibility to make swift and effective decisions. As such, it is essential for a CEO to set aside intentional time to address pressing concerns and make thoughtful, sound decisions.
Handling the number of decisions CEOs have to navigate on a daily basis can be overwhelming. Decision-making is far from simple. CEOs must be skilled at identifying issues, gathering information, and developing effective solutions. Allocating time for complex problem-solving is essential. By taking the time to ground in the company’s mission, vision, and goals, a CEO can improve the quality of their decisions, which can significantly impact the strength of the entire business.
Managing direct report
As a CEO one should manage direct reports. One overlooked area of focus is ensuring that your senior leaders are adequately managing their direct reports. If great management and teamwork is only found at the very top level, then the organization has a problem. So put real attention on this second level of the management chain.
Setting leadership tone
To set the leadership tone of the entire organization, and holding leaders accountable for their management behaviors is one of CEO’s to priorities. If the CEO does not hold leaders across the business accountable for expressing the core values and stated management behavior, then nobody will affecting the health of the organization.
Vision and mission
The CEO is the ultimate owner of the organizational vision and mission. He needs to make decisions to preserve focus and maintain momentum on this overarching agenda.
Relation with board
CEO is the primary interface between the board and the business, and one needs to make decisions regarding how to create the most effective relationship possible between these two entities.
Financial health
Understanding an organization’s financial health is a critical aspect of a CEO’s responsibilities. However, in the midst of all the essential tasks CEOs must prioritize, certain financial aspects can be efficiently managed with the help of key strategic partners. This will ultimately save the CEO time, energy, and resources.
What a CEO does today shapes the organization’s tomorrow. That’s why defining which business activities and priorities matter most is critical. While there are a lot of responsibilities that the CEO must handle, there are also many activities that the CEO can offload.
