TOP 3 PRIORITIES OF EFFECTIVE CEOS

Time is the CEO’s most valuable resource...?

According to McKinsey, only 3 out of 5 newly appointed CEOs meet performance expectations within their first 18 months on the job. Undoubtedly, the role of a CEO is stressful and immensely complex. Simply contemplating all the responsibilities under time pressure can trigger spontaneous exhaustion. Therefore, it is crucial for CEOs to focus solely on the right activities and avoid wasting time on others.

With that in mind, what are the key activities newly appointed CEOs should prioritize, and how much time should they allocate to each?

Before we dive into the details, it is worth mentioning that the responsibilities of CEOs can vary significantly from one company to another, influenced by factors such as company size, culture, and organizational design. Generally speaking, smaller companies require more hands-on CEOs who manage numerous day-to-day tasks. In this article, however, we will focus on CEOs working in larger organizations, where their role is often supported by a fully-fledged CXO team.?

After conducting extensive interviews with a number of CEOs who joined new companies and subsequently excelled in their roles over an extended period, typically after three years of tenure, we discovered some intriguing insights. While the outcomes of our research were interesting, they were not entirely surprising. The most successful CEOs tend to only concentrate on three key areas:

-??????? Setting and Driving Company Vision and Strategy.

-??????? Acting as the Company’s Face.

-??????? Assembling and Orchestrating the Best Team.?

(1) Setting and Driving Company Vision and Strategy?

"Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion." ?Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric.

The successful leaders prioritize defining the long-term vision and ensuring that the company’s direction aligns with this vision. According to our findings, effective CEOs dedicate around 30-40% of their working hours to this crucial activity. Despite the temptation to dive directly into operations and secure quick wins, such as landing new clients or optimizing cost structures, effective CEOs display remarkable restraint. They quickly realized that these operational tasks are better suited for their direct reports. Instead, they focus on the bigger picture, materializing the company vision and strategy, and then driving it through their teams.?

(2) Acting as the Company’s Face?

"Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room." Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon.?

A CEO must act as the face of the company, both inside and outside its walls. This role involves interacting with a broad spectrum of audiences, including customers, employees, investors, potential hires, policymakers, communities, media, and other stakeholders.

Many CEOs recognize that external communication, which aims to shape a positive brand image, is one of the most demanding and time-consuming aspects of their role. Because effective communication can significantly boost the company's reputation and credibility—while any mistakes can cause immediate harm—the stakes are exceptionally high. Consequently, CEOs prioritize this responsibility, typically dedicating 10-20% of their time mainly to careful preparation and rehearsal before public appearances.

As one CEO of a leading European bank succinctly put it, "Effective communication builds trust, and trust is the foundation of our success. That's why it's always at the top of my priorities."

(3) Assembling and Orchestrating the Best Team

"When you're surrounded by people who share a passionate commitment around a common purpose, anything is possible." Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks.

Achieving success is impossible without a great team, and it is the ultimate responsibility of the CEO to assemble and consistently motivate the leadership team. No one else can fulfil this crucial role.?

According to most CEOs, while hiring top leadership talent is rather one-time effort, maintaining the motivation of the core team is a continuous and intense activity. This involves, among other things, transparent and effective communication, providing feedback, recognizing contributions, being flexible, empowering team members, encouraging collaboration, offering career growth opportunities, and maintaining a healthy work environment. Hence, it's no surprise that the CEOs interviewed devote approximately 40-60% of their time to people management.

A CEO of a major life-sciences company mentioned that early in his career, he saw these activities as mere chit-chat with no immediate impact on the business. It was only later that he came to understand that true leadership involves being permanently connected with his team. Another CEO from a rapidly expanding internet company took it a step further, stating, "My ultimate goal is to become the most dispensable person in the organization. If I were to pass away tomorrow, the company shouldn't even notice. Everyone should fully understand their roles and responsibilities and be driven by their own initiative. Achieving this, though, demands substantial time and effort from a CEO."

Conclusion

There are no universal rules for a CEO's effectiveness or priorities, as their role depends on the unique needs of their organization and specific circumstances.

However, based on our findings, we strongly believe that when a company operates under normal conditions, the most effective and successful CEOs exhibit specific patterns in their priorities and time management. These CEOs focus primarily on driving vision and strategy, representing the company, and managing the leadership team. If a CEO finds themselves engaged in tasks outside these core areas, they should consider whether they are wasting time on tasks that could be delegated, and if delegation is not possible, whether there was a failure in hiring the right executives. By adhering to these simple rules, we believe CEOs can become more effective in their roles.

Lumir Meloun is a partner at the premium executive search firm Neumann Executive. With over three decades of hands-on experience in executive search and top management roles spanning various industries, he brings to the table solutions that go beyond conventional offerings in executive search services. His expertise is centered on CEO and CXO roles with a geographical focus on the European continent