The Great Un-smothering.

The average CEO isn't what you think. There is a narrative that they are yacht-ownin', private jet flyin', BMW drivin' people with deep bank accounts and no real world problems. The reality is 90% of business owners and CEOs aren't in that club. (Media/social media tends to bend reality a bit on things like this)

Let me throw some charts your way.

When we think CEO we SHOULD envision a weekend-working, multi-hat wearing low wage earner who someday MIGHT get a big payout. Might. No guarantee. In fact the data on that is only 10% will live to see a great exit. It's a big gamble. Nearly all CEOs live in this world.

America's CEOs are smothered and that's a bad thing.

50% of our GDP comes from small business.

Every single company that is on the Fortune 500 now was once a small thing with an overwhelmed CEO.

The next innovations our society and economy needs in healthcare, food, transportation, technology and education are currently held in the hands of an smothered CEO.

I was recently chatting with my colleague in Fractional Rick Maher and we were observing how extra smothered CEOs and leadership are today. Call it the new normal. Call it talent shortages. Call it inflation. Call it post-pandemic stuff. Whatever it is, it's causing our CEOs to have far too much load to carry.

CEOs are a hardy bunch. But they are human.

Their love of their big idea and the opportunity it represents makes them pretty tough. But something is different these days. There is extra smothering happening. More pressure and less people to bear said pressure will do that to a person.

They are smothered by tough decisions to make.

Smothered by people issues.

Smothered by deadlines.

Smothered by money worries.

Smothered by sales.

Smothered by operations.

Smothered by things they often don't even understand. (Raise your hand IT!)

Smothered by data.

Smothered by information.

CEOs, founders and owners feel free to chime in here on the smothering smoke that is choking your progress. I feel like the list could stretch from Minneapolis to Poughkeepsie and back.

I think it's time for a Great Un-smothering.

Not only is the current smothering making our CEOs life really, really hard, it is also blocking their vision from happening. That's not just bad for the CEO. It's bad for our economy and society. Ideas and visions that become realized create GDP. They create opportunity. They create jobs. They create stronger communities. All of that cannot flourish if the CEOs day is spent trying to crawl out from underneath the heavy, wet, wool blanket of being a CEO. The firehose of decision after decision, task after task, fear after fear, all require far more attention and money than your average CEO has access to.

Which brings me to what triggered me to write this article. In conversation and after conversation I hear people say CEOs have to learn how to let go. To get out of their own way. To make decisions better and faster. It is so often said that the problem is always in the corner office. I get that. And it is absolutely 100% true. You've heard it too. But have you noticed that at that cathartic moment in business when it's up to the CEO to let go of this thing or that, and they won't, all progress stops? You can literally feel the helplessness and defeat in the air. Shoulders drop. Shrugs are made. Fates are accepted. People start to look for other jobs. What is really happening in that moment? I'll tell you what. People abandon the dream, the vision and the impact (social, cultural and economic mind you) that they have worked so hard for. All because the CEO won't let go. Can't let go. Or doesn't know how to let go. And there it is. They don't know how.

So many CEOs don't know how to let go.

Any company that is doing well, growing, and making an impact has leadership that knows how to let go. People who accept that greatness is in the agency of others, as my favorite economist Scott Galloway is fond of saying. It's such a simple thing when you break it down. Time and again in our society the idea of letting go proves itself as the path to redemption and growth. Ask anyone in sobriety about that.

Imagine how much prosperity, progress, innovation, and GDP we could unleash, to the benefit of all, if we found a way to create a "let it go" moment for any CEO that is gripping too tightly. I don't have the answer for that in my pocket. But I think I know a few ingredients of it. I've been reading a lot of Brené Brown lately and I am convinced that healthy doses of EMPATHY from those of us work with smothered CEOs, and VULNERABILITY by said CEO, are the two primary ingredients.

And now I'll bring this around to Fractional professionals, because that's my jam. It's up to us. We are the wise guide and ally for CEOs and leadership. We have the scars, perspective and experience that we can lean into resistance to letting go. As we continue to grow in ranks and impact in America, let's accept that letting go is hard, have empathy for it, but also use our voices, experience and level headedness to help the CEOs we serve let go. It's very lonely at the top. As Fractionals we are all uniquely positioned to make those decisions far easier to make, to the benefit of all.

As ever, go Fractional.

John

John Arms is a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer and head cheerleader for Fractional pros in The Voyageur University Fractional Community.