Developing The CEO Within You.

You’re moving on up.

Making your way up the ladder, dodging bullets, using every last bit of your intellect and motivation to deftly ingratiate yourself with key decision-makers.

It’s a high-wire balancing act many executives go through to grab the golden ring. What are some of the techniques used? Based upon many hours of advisory with C-Level clients, here are the two major tenets that bubble to the top:

IQ – Intelligence Quotient (or Tactical Intelligence)

You have to have the chops, the intellect, the experience, and knowledge to make it through the first hurdle. It’s that simple. Many executives whine and complain when they hit a very real glass ceiling, but in the end, it’s their fault. They haven’t done the requisite homework and they’re trying to bribe the teacher with an apple. Bottom line, you have to put in the hours, the sweat and tears to adequately build a firm foundation of tools to leverage in the myriad of situations that arise. Some are:

• Financial – This is all-important – I can’t tell you how many executives I would watch sit in meeting and clearly see they had no idea what was in front of them on our financial projections. Know this area cold.
• Operational – Know how the organization works inside and out. Sit at home and map out your operational chain from start to finish. Where are the dependencies? What past decisions are holding the company behind? What areas might take the company to the next level? If you are unsure or unclear about one or more of these connections, talk to your people and LEARN.
• Marketplace – What’s happening in the outside world? Who are the key players? What are the market forces at work – are they playing fair or are they slowly (and possibly illegally) undermining your position. Think holistically. Get out there and mix with your peers, understand the levers that make the world go round. What is the competition doing and how do you master the game of chess with them every day?

EQ – Emotional Quotient (or Emotional Intelligence)

This is where most C-Level executives fail. What got them to this position (IQ) is now failing them. For some positions (CFO, CIO), all their hard work to make it to the table is now useless when they need to use skills other than IQ:

• Communication – Communicate clearly and concisely. But communication is a two-way street, you need to listen too.  Listening is an art – shutting your mouth (and mind) to focus your full attention to those who are giving you critical information.
• Motivation – Every word, every order, every instruction must be nicely wrapped to motivate your people. Of course, sometimes you have to bark, but if you find yourself barking most of the time, step back and see how to manipulate your direct report’s levers so they want to make things happen and not undermine you. How do you grow your direct reports, your staff, and your organization through motivation?
• Empathy – The hardest one of all – in addition to communication (which is overt), understand those signals to allow you to ‘listen in’ and help your people with their problems and obstacles. Ferret out those signals and dive into what is holding them back and help them. You also have to be patient to allow the natural flow of the company to run it’s course. Too many executives forget there are forces you cannot control.
• Sales – You have to have the ability to mix all three of these areas together and move people into action inside your organization and outside too (prospects into clients, retention and extension of current clients).

Here’s a great book to read on this topic.

What other elements do you feel play a key role in defining you as CEO material?

Why Your Meetings Suck.

We all have meetings.

• Client meetings.
• Status meetings.
• Project meetings.
• Brainstorming meetings.
• Get-to-know-you meetings.

Let's face it — many of the meetings we attend — well — suck. Why does this happen?

We have an agenda. Everyone is present. No one is distracted. Why is it when we're surveyed, meetings rank at the bottom of any business experience?

Because most people don't know how to run them. So here are 5 simple tips to make your meetings run efficiently:

1. Most meetings have this structure: Empathy & Action.

Empathy - It's the first section of the meeting where one develops an understanding of the topic at hand or one gets to know the person they're speaking with. Building trust or a bond with two or more people to help one another get the job done.

How: Make sure you allot time to clearly present why you're meeting, what's going to happen and what you expect the next steps will be. With one-on-one meetings, you don't need to be so formal, but empathy and trust are paramount — make sure they happen during the first part of the meeting.

Action - Most meetings forget this one. They tend to blather on and never come to what the meeting is really about — taking action in one form or another. Many meetings are sometimes 99% talk and then at the last minute when everyone is getting up, an action step is mentioned — and it turns into a successive meeting to be scheduled in a few days. Oh joy.

How: Ensure you schedule enough time at the end to focus on who is doing what and delivering when. I know it's hard to do it (asking people to do things) — but it's really the hidden reason why you're having the meeting in the first place — to explain what you are doing and getting their mental (and physical) buy-in.

2. Show up early. Stay late. Be early and welcome all the attendees, get them excited about the topic and ally all their fears about another boring meeting. Stay late to answer any follow-up questions and deepen your relationships with any new attendees. Thank everyone profusely for their attendance.

3. Keep it SHORT. Move it along. I've held five minute status meetings with my team where we all stand around a whiteboard. Get them in, says what needs to be said, and get them out. Your meeting does not need to conform to Outlook — it doesn't need to be a full hour — end early.

4. Stick to an AGENDA. Don't let the meeting get off course. It's okay if you meander a little bit to take care of a simple issue, but get back on course and keep the group focused. If you're meeting one-on-one, have a simple mental agenda and let the person you're meeting with know what you'd like to get out of the meeting: "Before we start, I'd like us to leave here with a clear understanding of how we can help one another build our respective businesses."

5. Sometimes you don't need to meet. Don't meet because you 'have' to or 'that's the way it's always been done'. A simple conversation, phone call or email might suffice. The fewer meetings you host or attend not only open up your schedule, but also when you do host one, it's an event. Don't over-use meetings — they're not that great to begin with.

What else do you do to make your meetings bearable?