Today we’re going to carry on the series we’ve been doing about the different hats an entrepreneur wears, talking about the CEO hat again.
Previously, we focused on the Strategic Planning part of wearing the CEO hat.
Today it’s really about the “getting things done” part of wearing the CEO hat.
The chief problem is that the CEO is the engine for the entire business.
The CEO’s job is to have Vision, determine where the business is going, and plan on how to get there.
But where the rubber really meets the road is on execution.
The CEO Juggles Many Duties
The problem is that the CEO is always spread incredibly thin.
(Again, this can be a one-person organization where you have to have the CEO hat on and flip it to the CFO back and forth or an organization of multiple people. Either way, information flows up from those variety of hats to the CEO who has to make decisions and still juggle everything.)
Often there are no right answers.
The degree to which this “engine” operates efficiently is the degree to which the business can be successful.
Bringing it all under one roof, the CEO has to not only cast the vision but then execute on the vision.
Executing On The Vision Of The CEO
I talked in the strategic planning video about the importance of having a reference guide so we know what the steps are that we’re going through in general terms.
Let’s dive into the project management role the CEO has to take now.
Reactive versus Proactive Modes
They have to make sure that they’re hitting milestones towards that goal.
Otherwise it becomes Groundhog Day, and each day is basically a repeat of the day that came before.
This is the number one problem that CEOs get stuck in, especially the smaller the business, is that they are stuck in reactive mode.
Reactive mode means whatever happens, it suddenly takes priority and pulls you away from your other tasks, and you must focus on that reactive task.
The opposite would be proactive mode.
The way I like to mentally model this is to imagine that when you’re in reactive mode, you’re driving down a dark country road at night in your car with headlights off.
There are potholes in this road. You don’t know you’ve hit the pothole until the car shakes, and then you try to steady things out again.
That is reactive.
If you’re proactive, your headlights are on.
Now it doesn’t mean that you can just all of a sudden flip a switch right now in your business and go from reactive to proactive.
Maybe your headlights are on dimly and you can only see two feet in front of you.
Now you have a better chance of dodging that pothole, and the goal is to keep moving that proactive look further and further out so that you can see further ahead of you and dodge those potholes before you get to them.
How does that actually happen?
There are a few key things.
- You have to know what you’re doing. You must have a specific strategic plan that you laid out.
- On a daily basis, you have to be clear on what are the most important things you should be focusing on so that you don’t get distracted by less important things.
- You have to put on your blinders.
Blinders Keep You Focused On Executing Your Plan
Because the truth of it is that in normal life we think “Okay, I’ve got this to-do list. I will actually get all these things done and get caught up.”
As a business owner, that is impossible. The list grows faster than you can ever get to that list, so it becomes instead a game of blinders.
It becomes a game of chicken.
“How long can I let these four fires smolder over here in my business while I focus on this other really important thing on this side of my business and then jump back and put out those fires and jump back to this project?”
Without doing that, you’re just running around all day like a chicken with your head cut off, and nothing actually changes.
Nothing actually happens.
Plan Tomorrow Today
Being very clear on what your priorities are and having a clear idea before the day starts is non-negotiable.
If you just sit down on your desk and you have five free minutes in the day you think about “What else could I or should I be doing?” your brain will actively not tell you what should happen next.
It will try to say, “I don’t know there must be nothing to do.” even though you know that there are a million things to do!
It will try to dissuade you from knowing what to do next.
So being very clear on what your project is for the day is so key to success.
I think of this as CEO Lucas (Boss Lucas) giving Employee Lucas a task.
The day before I write out what does Lucas need to do today to be successful. Here are the things.
And then I get to just show up and look at that list and start focusing on execution day in and day out.
Do I get everything done? No, definitely not.
Do things pop up that become emergencies, and I have to leave it to the side? For sure.
But without that list and that focus that through line I would get so much less done I’d just be spinning my wheels day in and day out.
This is a very key idea: knowing what to do and assigning it to yourself so that you are staying on that mission, putting on the blinders, and ignoring the other things that are distractions in your business.
Personal Development To Improve Productivity
A big part of all this also comes down to self-development and emotional management.
You’re going to be limited in your business by the type of person you can become.
Whatever problems, whatever concerns you have, whatever strengths, whatever weaknesses, business is a great proving ground for those to pop up.
If you have a specific mindset concern like “I’m not good enough and I won’t achieve things”, you will run into that ceiling, and you will be unable to make it past without flopping back down again.
If you feel “I don’t have confidence about how to manage people or the numbers in my business”, you will hit that ceiling, and you will stay there.
What it takes to adjust that is a transformation in who you are—confidence in your skills and your abilities—and you do NOT build confidence by AVOIDING something.
One of the most common issues that happens is that people have an area of concern and they avoid it in their business. “Well, I know how to do the work really well. I don’t know how to sit at a desk and manage teams and do that, so I’ll just stay in the field doing the work instead.”
Even though they’re working 70-80 hours a week doing that, it’s somehow actually “lazier” than sitting in an office and air conditioning thinking about what to do and like writing with their hands as opposed to like turning tools and working physical manual labor. Because they’re choosing the easier path of doing the familiar as opposed to the harder path of pushing themselves and growing their abilities to manage things on the office side of their business.
If You Aren’t Doing It, Nobody Is
At the end of the day, the CEO tasks come down to: if you’re not doing it, nobody is.
Managing your time clearly is a non-negotiable part of being a CEO.
You don’t have to be the super organized, color-coded binder type of person to do this. There are very basic, straightforward systems. Many entrepreneurs have ADHD (diagnosed or otherwise), and there are systems that you can use that work even within those limitations.
If you’re having trouble with execution, focus on organizing your time management.
For trouble with your mindset, your limiting beliefs, or fear of growing. You can either accept where you are or start to address those head-on to move past them.
What it takes to be a CEO is being that engine of growth in your business, and it starts with you and how you behave because where YOUR limits are will be the limit of the business.
I hope this helps. Keep up the great work. Keep growing.
You’ve got this.
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