How to Become a Great CEO

Becoming a CEO doesn’t mean your learning stops. The key to becoming a great CEO is understanding that there is always something to learn whether it is how to effectively manage your team or improve business processes for better productivity. You need to constantly adapt to the challenges that come your way. We have some tips that can help you do that and be great.

Know what to ask

A common challenge that organizations face is not getting to the root of their problem. They will continue to work around it until they can no longer do so. A great CEO knows to ask their team questions that will help get to the bottom of their problem. They want to seek the problem and rectify it rather than work around it. This not only helps with productivity but ensures that the business continues to function smoothly without any downtime.

Value the stakeholders

Customers will always be the major driving force behind businesses. Which is why all businesses should consider their customers as kings and queens. A great CEO never truly loses sight of valuing the company's stakeholders. They are constantly working with their team for innovative ways to do this with promotions or providing exceptional services. 

At the same time, it doesn’t just stop at customers, your team is also a stakeholder so you need to constantly value them. There are numerous ways you can do this be it through awards and incentives or just appreciating them in meetings. Valuing all your stakeholder is key to great leadership especially during the Corona crisis.

You focus on the major rather than the minor

As the CEO you need to know what aspects of the business you need to invest your time in. After all, time is limited and you don’t want to end up micro-managing your team or getting into the nitty-gritty of processes, you have other people that can do that. You need to learn to focus on major aspects that improve the way your organization works. Work with the team to diagnose processes and figure out how to be more productive, for example. 

Know your team well enough to put the right people in the right place

 

Managing your team will take up a lot of your time as a CEO. You will need to create a balance between being compassionate and knowing what is best for the business. By being compassionate, we mean catering to your employees but at the same time, you make sure that the right individuals are slotted in positions that they are best suited for. This starts with the managers you have in place. It is likely that you will not always be able to directly deal with lower-level employees. This is why it is important you have effective managers in place to ensure their well-being and productivity at all times. 

Becoming a great CEO is a process. The wonderful thing about it is, you can groom yourself into one even if you feel you aren’t cut out for it. Our tips should serve as a starting point for anyone that is interested in becoming a great CEO.

4 Myths about Success

There are a number of good advice and principles that can lead you towards success. The most important is setting goals, working hard, and have a great vision. But there are certain success myths and beliefs set by our society which not only misguides you but also leads to different pitfalls on your way to success.

Here, we will talk about four success myths about achieving success and accomplishments.

Myth 1: Successful People Read Six Books in a Month

There are some reasonable standards of the human mind to absorb learning. Such headlines usually get crossed our eyes that successful people read X number of books in a month. Tell me a thing that is realistic? If a struggling entrepreneur gets so much time that he can read two books per week or five books in a month. How could he be able to spare his efforts, energy and time to his goals?

The other thing is that it is not mentioned anywhere that reading six books per week, surely, makes you a successful entrepreneur. It means it is not only a reason for a successful person. It can help and motivate but not a complete solution to become successful.

Myth 2: Need to Sacrifice Sleep for Success

It’s a great myth that for success, you need to work day and night even if you are compromising on sleep. Researchers have proved that good sleep is responsible for leading brain functions like concentration, productivity as well as cognition. Adequate sleep is 7-9 hours, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Lack of sound sleep leads to mental difficulties in which foremost is depression. Now, here is a question, how one can perform creative and innovative while having sleep deprivation?

Myth 3: No Success After the 20

It is a big misconception that if you don’t get successful in the ’20s, maybe you can't be victorious ever. Before believing on this myth read following:

Grandma Moses is a successful example of one who begins her painting career at the age of 76. Stephen King, an American author whose more than 350 million copies have sold, was working as a janitor at the age of 24. Louise Bourgeois became a famous artist, not before 78.

In our 20's, many times, we are not even clear about our goals, and just experiment on multiple ideas. Our failures make us mature enough that we find the right track to follow success. Never make yourself guilty or regretful that you got old enough to make your dream and passion possible. The only thing is; be persistent.

Myth 4: Work Smart not Hard

A great debate - to achieve success, work smartly. Do you really think so? Working hard is not the right way? We often listen around that, work smart so you could be able to do things faster and accurately also. How do people work speedily and correctly? Can we ignore all the hard work of successful people? A player does hard work before a match and practice for long hours. An artist rehearses many times before the final shot. Then why do people say that work smart, not hard? Actually, the people who work smart have a proven record of working hard. No one can get expertise overnight. They have burnt the midnight oil to get able now for quick work.

So before you choose smart working, work hard to learn all the tricks and techniques of it.