The Most Successful CEOs Do These Top 4 Things
Being a successful CEO goes beyond just having strong leadership and interpersonal skills. Knowing how to execute and strategically position your company to grow in highly competitive industries is key. When business consultants and CEO peer development coaches studied the things that all successful CEOs did, an interesting trend emerged. Here are the top four behaviors the world’s most profitable CEOs do to ensure that their companies are on a trajectory for growth.
- Stay committed to making fast and accurate decisions. High-performing CEOs are known for being extremely decisive. They understand that time is a luxury not afforded to most and, therefore, they are able to process large amounts of information to determine the best course of action to take. This does not mean that they make “good” decisions all of the time, but being decisive enables them to not waste an opportunity when it presents itself. And, successful CEOs do not shy away from taking ownership of their mistakes. But instead, stay committed to seeing every decision through and learning from those that fail.
- Look to engage employees at all levels. As the leader, CEOs must be able to generate buy-in from their executive teams and from other key stakeholders. Researchers have found that CEOs that outperform the rest are those that are able to leverage the mission of their organization to get stakeholders to understand their vision and commit to seeing it through. It is by knowing how to connect with a wide variety of people that successful CEOs can stir their companies in the right direction.
- Seek out industry insights. With the unstable economic and global outlook, being able to use foresight as much as possible is important for today’s business leaders. Leading CEOs make time to research their industries and stay abreast of current events or developments that may impact their business. Being able to anticipate and proactively problem solve is an important skill that CEOs need to develop to stay ahead of their competition and poised to create competitive advantages as various opportunities arise.
- Aim for reliability all the time. In business, it is not what you know, but, instead, how you execute. As the CEO, in order to get results, you have to be able to deliver, reliably every time. Not only does this position your business for success, but it also conveys to your employees that you are serious about your work and that they can rely on you to make results happen. High-powered CEOs have found a way to balance being results-driven with inspiring their employees to want to perform at their best.
How many of these four behaviors do you embody? What others would you add to the list? Share your insights with us on Facebook or LinkedIn.
