Everyone inside the enterprise business world has thought about what it would be like to be a successful CEO, at least once or twice. CEOs are well-revered leaders across the globe and can offer valuable insight into leadership. Here’s what research and real-life CEOs have to say about leadership development.
According to research conducted by the 10-year CEO Genome Project, here are four essential behaviors successful CEOs exhibit time and time again:
Ability to Make Decisions with Speed and Conviction
Great CEOs don’t always necessarily make the “right” decisions all the time, but they are more decisive on a consistent basis. They stand out from the crowd because they tend to make decisions faster, earlier, and with more conviction. They often do this in ambiguous situations and when they’re in unfamiliar territory. Decisive CEOs know they can’t wait for “perfect” information to decide. And once they do decide on a course of action, they move forward without wavering from what they have decided.
Inclination to Engage with Others for Ultimate Impact
It’s critical for successful CEOs to know their stakeholders’ motivations and concerns. They engage with their stakeholders often, and they focus their business objectives on getting results for their stakeholders and the organization. They then engage with their employees and subordinates to get them on board. Ultimately, they have fine-tuned communication skills (even an intuitive knowledge of body language) for a variety of audiences and know how to persuade them to get on board with the organization’s strategies and missions.
Aptitude to Proactively Adapt
CEOs are constantly thrown into situations that haven’t ever occurred before. Successful CEOs are adept at adapting to hastily changing environments where there are no rules or regulations established. They often consult broad information flows from various sources and are easily able to toggle between immediate and long-term perspectives. Adaptable and more successful CEOs spend about half of their time thinking about long-term goals and perspectives as they consult diverse sources of data.
Capability to Deliver Reliable Results
Above all else, CEOs who deliver reliable and consistent results are better equipped for their leadership role because their stakeholders and employees trust them more. They set realistic expectations from the start, rapidly assess the landscape of their organizations, and then follow through with their commitments. Reliable CEOs also own great organizational and planning skills, and rely on performance metrics to guide their decision making. And they always surround themselves with strong and capable teams and upgrade the talent inside their organizations as soon as they get assigned their new leadership role.
[Part 2 of this article will be in tomorrow’s Advisor.]