How to be a CEO Rockstar

The top four ranked CEO's of 2002 are:

Rank Chief Executive Officer Company

1 Tim Cook Apple

2 Satya Nadella Microsoft

3 Sundar Pichai Alphabet (Google)

4 Andy Jassy Amazon

Now the question is, is it because they are CEO's of some of the world's largest companies or, is there something more? Is it about company performance? is it about how they handle their people? is it about the publicity they get? what are the key factors that determine a rock star CEO? And why are the top 13, all men, aren't women star CEO's?

The truth is that CEO’s make it on these lists primarily due to company performance. And even then, not too many people know who they are. People recognize founders like Steve Job, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Larry Page… primarily because of the companies they have built. But how many of you have heard of Safra A. Catz, the CEO of Oracle Corp. there are hundreds of thousands of CEO’s who are doing great things, but even though these people may be brilliant strategists and billionaires, few have really heard of them, and even fewer make a noticeable impact they are remembered for after they are gone.

And worse… if you are a second-generation CEO taking over from the founder who built the organization, saved an entire community while feeding children in India, and secretly working with alien technology to advance the human race… and you may find it a little difficult to step into their shoes.

If you are not a founder, or CEO of one of the world’s top companies… but you want to make an impact, a BIG Impact, what can you do?

The key is in the visible difference between where you start and where you end. Maintaining the status quo of a great company is never going to get you noticed as a great CEO or even a great leader, you will simply be a reflection of your predecessors. But those who take over an organization especially an organization in trouble, and can harness the power of the people within that organization to make that company great… have a much greater potential to be true rockstars.

This goes back to the essence of leaders who came into organization and literally transformed it. Like Lee Iacocca or Jack Welsh. In both cases, strategy was not handed down by the CEO, each of these leaders created organizational cultures that supported the people, the team to identify and implement their ideas and strategies. The CEO’s were facilitators of the collective experience, skill and knowledge of the “Right” people who worked there… and the wrong people, those who did not fit into the utopian culture of value and innovation… well, they were allowed to explore other employment opportunities that best suited them.

The biggest mistake that many CEO's make is to believe that they're the smartest people in the room, or that they're entitled to be the ones that make all the big decisions simply because of their position. But the real rock stars are those who build up their people and harness their people's potential, creativity, ability, skills and maximize the personal sense of value each team member is getting. So not only do they get do they achieve better, faster, more visible results but… the people themselves have far more respect and admiration for CEO's who make them look like rock stars… and when you build a company of rockstars well who shine brightest?

So, to become a CEO Rockstar

• Identify the areas that are going to show the most visible difference from where you are to where you can be
• Focus on creating an organizational culture that supports your people to be rock stars in each of their areas and even help them expand to areas that they want to be in
• Make sure you connect you people to results and ideas they have achieved to what the organization is achieving and publicize them internally and publicly.
• Ensure that all publicity shows the progress that has been made and reference the starting point from when you took over. This is includes employ engagement, innovations, team commitment and personal satisfaction

Many leaders focus on the financial results only and forget to include the results of how people are interacting and enjoying and contributing to those results.

When I do one-on-one partnerships with CEO's to turn them into rock stars, the key factor is the desire to achieve the result and put ego the side. And yet by putting their people in the spotlight, they shine the brightest.?