Billy's Fifty-First Law: Know your role as CEO

This is just a short blog entry, and it comes from a client who asked me to help him work on his 'job description' as the company CEO.  Here is what I came up with, in sufficiently generic terms that I can share it with you.  See if this works for you, and comment if you would like to add to it.

The purpose of the CEO is to

·       Set the overall direction of the enterprise.

·       Ensure the different business of the enterprise are acting in a coordinated and integrated manner.

·       Provide leadership, especially with respect to honouring the mission, vision & values of the enterprise.

·       Understand and emphasise the priority areas of the business, and lend his or her weight to that area.

·       Ensure the continuity of the enterprise from a marketing, human resources and financial perspective.

·       Provide regular operational planning, and periodic strategic planning to re-set the course of the enterprise.

·       Be fully aware of the changes in industry, economic, social and market changes that affect the enterprise and its stakeholders.

·       To build people…especially the next generation of leaders in his or her enterprise.

·       To, on leaving the organization, leave the enterprise stronger than it was before.

·       Be fully aware of the changes in industry, economic, social and market changes that affect the enterprise and its stakeholders

·       To build people…especially the next generation of leaders in his or her enterprise.

·       To, on leaving the organization, leave the enterprise stronger than it was before.

 That is what I have come up with.  I am sure that there are a myriad of other important roles, not to mention personal characteristics that drive business success. 

Billy’s Fiftyth Law: Effort is important…results are critical

Do or do not…there is no try.

Yoda to Luke Skywalker The Empire Strikes Back

A friend recently asked me, “In a start-up, how do you manage effort.”  This is an intriguing question. On the one hand, we learn the importance of trying hard…but on the other hand, effort without results is a recipe for disaster.

The question is not in managing effort, but in measuring a variety of outputs.  For example, suppose we have two companies in services.  The first company bonuses employees based on the number of billable hours they generate.  The top output, therefore, is billable hours.  The second company values marketing.  They have a formula that gives a percentage of revenue to any client an associate brings to the firm, regardless of who does the work.  The measured output here is customer acquisition and retention in addition to the work done. 

Some places measure effort in working hours.  Others on a series of objective and subjective measures.  All of this begs the question; is effort important?

Effort is measurable and valuable in one area, improvement.  Improvement is change in measurable output.  Sales went from X to Y…unit production went from X units/ hour to Y units per hour.  This helps those people with potential who get off to a slower start, but may well prove valuable to the company in the future.

Effort usually turns into results.  Coaching and management help people channel effort into the right direction and achieve the result they ultimately desire. Effort is important, but results drive your business forward. 

Sometimes effort is a measure of potential.  If that potential is not turning into results, perhaps you have the individual in question in the wrong position.  The effort is not turning into results.  This is the ‘square peg in the round hole’ syndrome. If somebody is trying hard, but not achieving the desired result, despite your best efforts in coaching and training, perhaps you need to find another place for the individual.  In today’s labour market, it is difficult to find hard working people.  Unfortunately, if you cannot find a place to take advantages of great effort in an area that will achieve results, then they should move on.