CEO Diaries : Being a CEO......

Over my last few quarters as a CEO , I have learnt some of the most critical management lessons, that no book, no classroom, no university could have ever taught me ,.....One Unique  experience, that no amount of coaching could have readied me for !!!!

I embarked on this journey , with an arsenal of some cliched fundamentals.... - Impossible is Nothing , Lead from the Front, Caesar's wife should be above suspicion , and above all, there is no substitute to hard work..... and over time, came across circumstances,people  & decisions, least expected.

 Listing down my top 12  CEO COMMANDMENTS , that help me every day.....

U have to wear many hats... and U figure out when to switch...

"There are always a million things you can be doing as a CEO, and so a lot of my time has been spent .. trying to figure out what is worth spending my time on. Every month or two, I take on a new task , and then I try to figure out if that task is vital to our company, and how to structure the role, so that I can hand it off to another member of the team, and look for a new hat to try on. I would always have only 24 hours a day , 7 days a week and 52 weeks a year... and every year, i would have to find that additional 20% time to grow :):) 

There are more scars than trophies

"CEO is a thankless job, there are more scars than trophies. You must motivate yourself, your employees and partners no matter the financial obstacles and ensure the integrity of the business. Praise must always be distributed for great work and you personally accept all errors in strategy, judgment or performance...  A good years effort and numerous scars ultimately lead to a trophy for your team!!!

You have to be able to make the big decisions and take heavy risks.

I am working to build a relationship with larger partner on a key project and in order to do so there is some heavy risk involved . A CEO is always weighing risk and evaluating decisions in order to make the correct one, it can be very stressful at times. Every CEO needs to know that beyond a risk.... lies a probable victory... and behind every 3 , lies a definitive victory.... Go ahead, take a calculated risk... U are paid to take that risk...

It's unpredictable.

At any point in a company's life, being the CEO, is different from every person who did it before. Everyday is unique, and therefore unscriptable. There is no universal playbook, so for any company... So you cannot be trained to be a CEO.. There is no "dummies 101 for being a CEO".. Every day is a new day... Plan for the best... but be ready for the worst.. 

You need to learn how to make as few decisions as possible.

Effective CEOs drive  most of the company’s decisions to other people in the organization. The CEO should try to never be a bottleneck for decisions. This frees up the CEO’s time to focus on the most important decisions (and has the added benefit of growing people in the organization because of the trust that’s put on them). Teach your people how to work... don't work on their behalf.. make them competent.. let them make mistakes... Some times they might mess up.. but more often then not, they will learn and improvise...

You need to earn the respect of your employees.

"The hardest part of being a CEO is convincing everyone that you should be the CEO. I don't mean getting the job in the first place, though that is hard in itself. I mean that in a 30 person company, or a 30,000 person company, there are 30 or 30,000 people who have an opinion on what the CEO should do in any situation...You need to listen to them (that's why you hired them), but then make a decision (that's why you were hired), and convince them not only to follow it, but to convince their teams to follow it, even if they still think their idea was better than the one you chose. . Remember, people work efficiently , if they respect you, much more then when they FEAR you...

You need to keep tabs on your budget and spending.

Make sure there's money in the bank - with enough to provide a runway to execute the company vision. Not many people can do this. List down your top 20 Expense plans, and cut them to half  :) ..

You need to set the right work culture.

...the CEO should lead their executives, employees and partners toward a healthy culture. And culture is the hardest thing to manage in business. Competition, Efficiency, punctuality, integrity and team spirit... Start from u ... The key to the culture is ur own conduct .. People are watching u every second... ur conduct  will lay the foundation of ur organisation's culture!!!

You need to be a great salesperson.

"As a CEO, you have to be able to sell. Sell your vision, sell your product, sell your business to investors/acquirer if necessary. If you can't articulate what you are about as a business, person, product, you shouldn't be a CEO. Some of the best hires I got are random people I ran across and I decided to pitch them to join us without a role for them.

You need to communicate well and motivate your team.

I've successfully chaired many meetings now where I've been aware that I lack the specific knowledge of every person in the room - but my job isn't always to know; it's to bring information together to solve problems that enable the business' objectives to be met as effectively as possible, without compromising any of our core beliefs. I need to lead my team in the battle!! and at the same time... back them up rock solid... the last man standing!!

You have to be technically savvy.

A CEO has to understand technical issues while developing the product and still excel at it by providing viable solutions as per the situation allows (chances are there is no CTO or CPO or shared technical responsibilities in a startup). 

You have to be patient!!!

Rome was not built in a day.... Your people need time.. .. As a CEO, u need to be patient and at the same time drive efficiency...

Know ur numbers..

U are no good as a CEO, if u cant read ur numbers!!