What is the Perfect Skill Mix of a RealTime CEO?

Date: 18 April 2013
Category: RealTime CEO
Tags: RealTime CEOs

Previously we have discussed J Curve Management and 24 Month Rolling but what makes a great RealTime CEO?

We encounter lots of exciting opportunities in our executive journey, which we can harness to great value in our business. But for all the opportunities we seize, we also face hurdles, challenges and frustrations, things that could hold us up – if we let them hold us up. How you choose to deal with those frustrations will define how successful you are as a CEO. Frustrations cause many people to lose sight of their goals, become negative and complain that it’s not fair. But if you’re one of those rare people who can look at almost any storm cloud and turn it into a positive, then you’re going to win in any scenario.

Being a successful CEO requires the ability to lift your eyes and look out over the horizon, as frequently as possible. This will enable you to define the journey and then plan the strategy and vision for your business. There will be a hundred good reasons why you can’t do this, the eighty things you have to do today and the twenty things you still haven’t done from yesterday. But if you don’t do this, you won’t succeed. Once you have your vision (and it will change every day because your landscape changes every day), you need to be able to share that vision with your people. You need to be good at what you do and you need to have a strong understanding of numbers and finance.  The following graphic depicts the perfect skill mix of a RealTime CEO.

In most mid market companies, the CEO’s skills are not quite so balanced.

CEOs of midmarket companies are usually leaders because they’re good at what they do e.g. good architects, good builders, good technicians or sales people. The business builds up around them and one day, the founder becomes the CEO. So while the CEO is operationally very skilled, he or she is unlikely to have had any formal training in running a business. Businesses don’t usually fail because the CEO is not skilled at the original job, more often because there is a lack of understanding of the other key components: Strategy and Vision, Leadership and Motivation and Understanding of Finance.

Come back and visit RealTimeCEO again to see how you can learn from the past to influence the future.

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