Good consultants have a go-to first step to get dramatic results. Those initial results demonstrate value and provide a foundation for further gains.
My first step to accelerating CEO performance unlocks $50,000-$100,000 or more of real-world value the first year and every year after.
The “secret” to accelerating executive performance is this: get the CEO to do higher-level work. Simple to say but challenging to accomplish. Read on to see how my most effective clients have leveled up.
CEO Activity Checklist
In my experience of coaching CEOs and their senior management teams, I’ve seen a few proven paths that generate the majority of the results. But one of them is so simple and reliable that it has become my go-to first step.
Before I share it with you, go through this checklist and mark the activities that you as a leader still find yourself doing:
- Creating PowerPoints
- Crafting emails
- Taking calls/emails to schedule appointments
- Managing your calendar
- Producing reports for a board, team, or shareholders
- Drafting memos and/or speeches
- Following up with direct reports on action items
Each of these tasks are essential to leading an organization. And each of them are lower-level activities that the CEO has no business doing (except in rare special cases).
The Value of CEO Time
The average leader of a business under 300 employees may spend 25%-50% of his or her time on these lower level tasks. Consider these finding from a Gigaom Research Survey of small company leaders:
“Only 14 percent of the respondents were happy with their time allocation. In particular, many leaders want to spend more time on growth-oriented activities because they feel they can add the most value there. However, they spend much of their time maintaining the existing business and on necessary, unavoidable tasks, such as compliance with government regulations. Because they can’t spend enough time on growth activities, value-creation opportunities may be slipping away.”
What suffers as a result? The higher-level tasks that only you can do. These high-value tasks include:
- Driving adoption of culture by promoting the mission and core values to all employees
- Casting a vision and inspiring employees to pursue it
- Being present as the face of the organization to clients, partners, and the market
- Creating clarity of focus and alignment around goals for the senior team
- Coaching and/or mentoring key employees and high potentials
- Driving the creation of valuable new business
The value of these activities far outweighs the first list of administrative tasks—yet many leaders of small companies still stare at an unfiltered email inbox and even make their own photocopies!
90-Day Turnaround
My go-to solution for immediately accelerating CEO performance is to help them hire a top-notch Executive Assistant. The salary of an experienced EA will very quickly be offset by giving priceless time back to the CEO for mission-critical work.
It is quite realistic to take 30 days for a serious search effort, 30 days of on-boarding, and 30 days of delegating to experience a dramatic turnaround in CEO performance. That performance boost often ends up dropping straight to the bottom line as the CEO is able to support creation of new business and pursue key opportunities.
In addition, I’ve seen CEO stress levels plummet to a sustainable point within 30 to 60 days after hiring an EA. Reducing executive stress pays huge dividends in personal health and family relationships. It also re-opens the door to creative thinking and allows the leader to catch a breath and be prepared before walking into critical meetings.
Practicing What I Preach
I registered and opened my leadership coaching business in 2014, but I did not work in it full time until September of 2016 (I was co-leading another consulting practice). By that point, I had seen enough to know that I needed to take the same advice I was giving my C-suite clients. I hired an Executive Assistant two months before my revenue began flowing, because I was convinced that I would be much more effective with that help than without it.
Within the first three months, my business quadrupled. That growth was only possible because I was free to invest my time in high-value activities. I have seen many other coaches and consultants struggle to get past the solo-preneur stage. They are good at what they do, but they can only spend a small percentage of their time doing that excellent work when they filter their own email and manage their own calendars.
I decided that my time was more valuable than that. And it made all the difference.
How much is your time worth?
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