Amazing insights and riffs in the blogosphere right now about being a CEO.
Fred Wilson got it started and I think from a 10,000 foot perspective he nails it:
A CEO does only three things. Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders. Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company. Makes sure there is always enough cash in the bank.
The comments are equally awesome and if you aspire to lead, you need to spend the time reading it all.
Fred follows up today with a guest post from one of his favorite leaders Matt Blumberg (again…read it all including the comments). My Favorite is ‘don’t be a bottleneck’:
You don’t have to be an Inbox-Zero nut, but you do need to make sure you don’t have people in the company chronically waiting on you before they can take their next actions on projects. Otherwise, you lose all the leverage you have in hiring a team.
Mark Suster adds to the meme with this beauty. I especially connected to this part:
Anybody who has worked with me knows that I have these “control freak” tendencies as I think many leaders do. We want quality, we trust our own instincts & judgments and we think that many people don’t live up to our standards. But we know that ultimately being effective is about finding those people that do. It often takes a while of experimentation and watching their results to start to trust them. But when they start to meet and exceed your expectations it’s magic. You’re suddenly free to focus your energies elsewhere.
Once you’ve been around for a few years, attracted some great people, landed real, paying customers and raised venture capital you’ve likely got a talented team around you. Almost definitionally very talented people will butt heads. It’s your job to give people enough space to flourish without conflict, resolve conflicts when they do occur, encourage your team members to perform at their best and set the culture by which they ultimately treat their colleagues and staff.
As a CEO of a venture backed business myself and founder of many others, I would add one thing…Thick Skin.
If you fail, you need to start all over. As you start to succeed, you will hear from people like me…’armchair quarterbacks’ . If you really succeed, everyone wants you to fail eventually so you need even thicker skin.
Feel free to add to this meme if you like.
thanks man. good to see you back in my comment and stocktwits stream.
h
good to see you back in the comments and on my stocktwits stream
+ not all advice is good advice. A Founder/CEO knows the biz the best. Advice can be like wheat.. take the full delivery, but leave the chaff.
look at you mr ceo dude….
and let me tell you something you could do with page.ly :)
+ not all advice is good advice. A Founder/CEO knows the biz the best. Advice can be like wheat.. take the full delivery, but leave the chaff.
i have never seen a leader like a guru in an ashram … it is another dimension from corporate ceo,s … as example this is a hundreds of million dollars global empire as diverse as any conglomerate and runs amazingly well .. http.www.amritapuri.org …. and there are many others
the added element that is so appealing is heart.
thanks man. good to see you back in my comment and stocktwits stream.
h
good to see you back in the comments and on my stocktwits stream
Didn’t Steve Jobs travel to India in the ’70s, looking for enlightenment? Maybe he picked up some management ideas there too.
look at you mr ceo dude….
and let me tell you something you could do with page.ly :)
i have never seen a leader like a guru in an ashram … it is another dimension from corporate ceo,s … as example this is a hundreds of million dollars global empire as diverse as any conglomerate and runs amazingly well .. http.www.amritapuri.org …. and there are many others
the added element that is so appealing is heart.
users, customers, employees, and advisors are the only thick skin you need.
as the haters grow, the count in all three categories will as well.
good employees will always have your back. no need to listen to any criticism outside of those circles.
loved mark suster’s post on techcrunch too. it’s amazing how too often b-schools seem to forget that it’s all about people at the end of the day – social skills, sales skills, and psychology are way underrated.
great pointer at the end. this is probably why betting on startups make sense independent of economic cycles. tough tunnel-visioned founders barrel through the ups and downs.
Sales is the function I mentioned on Fred’s blog, since start-up CEOs in particular usually have an important sales role to fill.
Howard…I have always said a good manager needs to do three things to be successful
1) hire good people
2) give them the tools they need to do their job well
3) stand in front of any trains
There are two things that change as the role moves up the food chain to the CEO role
1) the “other” stuff you do in a day gets replaced by more “mission, vision, values” work
2) the people, the tools and the trains get bigger
Howard…I have always said a good manager needs to do three things to be successful
1) hire good people
2) give them the tools they need to do their job well
3) stand in front of any trains
There are two things that change as the role moves up the food chain to the CEO role
1) the “other” stuff you do in a day gets replaced by more “mission, vision, values” work
2) the people, the tools and the trains get bigger
users, customers, employees, and advisors are the only thick skin you need.
as the haters grow, the count in all three categories will as well.
good employees will always have your back. no need to listen to any criticism outside of those circles.
A CEO’s job is all of the above plus “Engage, Explain, & Set and Manage Expectations”. Failure to do the last results in the need for thick skin.
A CEO's job is all of the above plus “Engage, Explain, & Set and Manage Expectations”. Failure to do the last results in the need for thick skin.
loved mark suster's post on techcrunch too. it's amazing how too often b-schools seem to forget that it's all about people at the end of the day – social skills, sales skills, and psychology are way underrated.
great pointer at the end. this is probably why betting on startups make sense independent of economic cycles. tough tunnel-visioned founders barrel through the ups and downs.
Didn't Steve Jobs travel to India in the '70s, looking for enlightenment? Maybe he picked up some management ideas there too.
Sales is the function I mentioned on Fred's blog, since start-up CEOs in particular usually have an important sales role to fill.
good one. and If i fail…the board sucked :)
A great CEO is someone who leads by example and inspires his people to go where they are afraid to go by themselves.
good one. and If i fail…the board sucked :)
A great CEO is someone who leads by example and inspires his people to go where they are afraid to go by themselves.