The CEO Insomnia Factor
Functional Areas Not Synchronized
There are many ways that organizations can stumble when functional areas aren’t synchronized. Here are some of the problems that may arise and five strategies for mitigation.
Debates Without Decisions
Debates are necessary tools, but ultimately decisions must be made. Debates without decisions send your team round and round in circles. Here are the three most common manifestations of this distraction and four strategies for mitigation.
Data Analysis and Obsession
Fact finding and data analysis are essential tools, but you don’t want your team to do double the research needed to “be sure”. That’s obsession. You also don’t want them to slack off in critical areas. That’s foolish. Here are some suggestions on where to draw the line.
Running Out of Money
It’s the rare business that never faces a cash crunch. For most companies, whether privately held or publicly funded, the problem will arise sooner or later. Here’s how to respond when it does.
Mergers and Acquisitions Mistakes
Partnering with other companies is often essential, when one company just can’t reach their objectives on their own. But the world is littered with companies who “got married” only to find that the marriage did not at all reflect the dating experience. Learn how your corporate strategy should drive M&A, not the other way around.
Strategy Tinkering
First in the 12-part series Defeating Corporate Distraction comes tinkering with a business strategy. This can become a huge distraction when the company and its leadership are driving hard toward a specific goal and complete focus on execution is required.
Recruiting the Right Executives
One of the CEO’s most important tasks is recruiting and maintaining an all-star top team. Here are my key strategies for finding the right executives to move your company forward.
Managing Your Maker Instinct
The big difference between animals and man is that we can shape and control our instincts. The Maker Instinct runs strong in CEOs, and just how much we make of it depends on how we allocate our 24 hours.
Eager and Able Leadership Team Essential
Do you have capable managers on your top team? That won’t be enough. Managers like/need to be told what to do. Leaders (executives) create momentum on their own, making decisions as needed to achieve an objective. Collecting and growing an excellent leadership team is one of the most critical aspects of a CEO’s job.
Heaping on the Work – But Will Your Team Keep Up?
Can your team keep up if you ask them to tackle new challenges without giving them new resources to offload other tasks? Here are the key steps to moving a team through a detailed, integrated project planning process.
Robert Sher is founding principal of CEO to CEO, a consulting firm of former chief executives that improves the leadership infrastructure of midsized companies seeking to accelerate their performance. He was chief executive of Bentley Publishing Group from 1984 to 2006 and steered the firm to become a leading player in its industry (decorative art publishing).