1st-time CEO traps - sleeves rolled too high or too busy to think

Being a first time CEO is hard and the transition into your first CEO role is probably the hardest role transition you can experience. When you are new to role, it is common for you to be involved in more than you should be in a desire to be effective - you are learning things, questioning things and fixing things. You are busy and your calendar is more than full. You are trying to make an impact, trying to help, trying to demonstrate you are the right choice - that you are ready.

All of this is good, positive and expected based on being new to the CEO role. The challenge is that you can get stuck in the doing, in the execution, being too 'operational'. It is normal to feel the?frustration that there are some many things that need fixing and that if you can just fix this next thing then you will be able to step back and start to do the CEO role.

A common concern Boards can have early is that their new CEO is acting like a COO - and enjoying it. Another early concern is when they can see how busy the CEO is, it makes them question when they have time to think about the business.

The first concern, being just a great COO, is a real concern early especially when it is a first time CEO. The question the Board and sometimes the SLT ask is, “will this person ever be able to distance themselves from the doing enough to truly lead the organization, or have we made the mistake of hiring a operation specialist into the CEO role?” It is normal to roll up your sleeves early and get things done. Make sure you are clear in your communication to the board and the business that this is short term - and be disciplined about that. It is very hard to be able to see the longer term opportunities and challenges if you are knee deep in execution, operations, meetings and projects.

The Board will wait and be patient with you but don’t miss the point that they will be having concerns that this is your modus operandi longer term. Make sure that you make it clear that you understand the role. Tell them how long you expect to be operational and keep them updated. Watch that you don’t get used to it or enjoy the rewards (dopamine hits) by the immediate results?of getting things done fast .

The second concern, your calendar and how you spend your time, is one that takes some commitment and often a reframing of your view on the CEO role. Yes you should be busy, yes there are lots of things that you need to be involved in, and yes there are many people internally and externally who want / need your time. However a crucial part of your role is thinking about the organization 5-10 years from now. You are the only one in the organization who truly has this responsibility and the only one who has the perspective to be able to do it effectively. You are the organization's steward. You need to make time to this and it needs to be clearly allocated. It is not good enough to say to the Board that you do it on weekends and around your other appointments. If your diary is back to back every day what you are saying to the board is that there is not time you are spending ‘thinking about the business’.

Explain to them your scheduling. Tell them when you have your thinking time. Leave some gaps in your calendar. Think about working towards 10-20% of your diary being unallocated. Seeing this for a Board often indicates that the CEO is moving out of the ‘doing / operational’ stage of transition and into the real aspects of being an effective CEO.