How to Manage Your CEO

CEOs are not like other people. They are badass disruptors and builders in a way the rest of us aren't. As much as each one is unique, they all have traits in common that once understood can make you more effective and valuable to them and the company. Here are seven insights and seven tips I have found useful.

1) Work is play for them, and they love to figure things out and mentor and grow talent around them.

Below are some pics and learnings of the tech CEOs I have had the good fortune to work for.

2) CEOs do have bosses--a bunch of them in fact on the board. The board serves a few primary purposes: strategic advisory, financial oversight, executive compensation, and whether to replace the CEO. Private-company CEOs answer to customers and employees and are on the hook personally for losses.

3) The CEO, especially a founder CEO, cannot quit and has to make the company work and thrive. So, failure is not an option for them, and you may get what looks like obstinance, obsessiveness, and intransigence. It's actually vision and drive. Andy Grove, founder and CEO of Intel, titled his book Only the Paranoid Survive.

4) The CEO feels the responsibility of providing for every employee and their family and making payroll. Survival and growth are paramount, and CEOs spend a significant portion of every waking hour thinking about it. Scaling is usually the how to the why and the what, meaning scaling for growth should be the ending part of most discussions. You can't over-index on these topics in your work and interaction with them.

5) The biggest expense of most companies is payroll, that's one reason CEOs focus so much on speed and output. They demand speed and push the exec team hard because the pressure and urgency often attenuates each level down from them.

6) CEOs do not care much about divisions and functions. All groups and employees are potential resources for any project. CEOs won't mind having two or more people do the same project if it is their priority. The employee that does it best will be rewarded.

7) CEOs read a lot more than other people and love new ideas, and they are looking for trusted reports to test them. They are curious, voracious learners. Most successful CEOs put their company first--even before themselves and their families. They leave it all on the field.

So, how do you keep up with these relentless commercial creatures?

1) Think like a CEO and zoom out to find what the company needs most. Focus on speed, productivity, growth, profit, and promising updates they can share with the board.

2) Scan, find, and fix. Never let your CEO find your operational problems first, like in your product or the website. Scan, find, and fix problems with urgency as if they had already asked you for it. Teach your downline how to pace ahead of the expected inbounds.

3) Be proactively transparent. Feed the CEO a steady stream of data in digestible bites. Provide them frequent updates on the programs you manage. It's better to take the news to them than wait for them to bring it to you. They love work and hate being made to wait for long reports and presentations because it weighs on their mind until it is complete.

4) Don't try to give the CEO homework. Do your job. Be a leader and get your colleagues to do their jobs. Yes, it's easier to get the CEO to push and pull, but it's lazy. Despite what you think, the CEO does not want to do your job; you are making them think you need them to. CEOs want to do their job, and that job is growth, and get frustrated and restless when they have to do your job.

5) When CEOs come back from vacation or a business trip, clear some time to address the ideas they have had time to ruminate on. And, reply to every email from them promptly. You'd be surprised that not everyone does. The goal is to keep the ball in their court with email or messages.

6) Close hard. Don't let any deadline go by without delivering or agreeing on a new date. Don't let up on the projects until you hit the milestones and deliver the goods or at least some killer insights to use to make adjustments.

7) Don't play defense and push back on their ideas and requests. CEOs hate the words can’t and no; it’s like nails on a chalkboard. Remember, you can't help if you are not around. Play offense and provide solutions and optimistic, constructive counsel. Show you are willing to try–volley options over instead of telling CEOs you think it's impossible.

Remember, failure is not an option for them, and if they have confidence in you, they don’t believe it is for you either.

What are your CEO insights and tips and CEO stories? Add them in the comments.