Are You A Good CEO?

You probably know that it’s far easier to give a good, decent advice than to actually execute on the advice. Or it’s far easier to evaluate someone else’s situation and come up with a decent solution vs finding a solution in your own struggles?

We’ve experienced this several times in our business.

We advise entrepreneurs quite often on how to do stuff to make more money. And they usually make more money, so it’s not that the advice we give is bad.

It’s not. So we must be running our own company like German engineers and know answers to every situation, right?

No, not really.

We get stuck in our own stuff without knowing what to do. I don’t know if there’s a psychological term for that, but I personally think it’s fear.

Fear of understanding what needs to be done and actually doing it — getting out of the comfort zone and so forth. Fear of seeing the right answers because of not being ready to carry out the actions needed.

In these situations, it’s crucial to take a step back. look at your business from a distance and see the whole picture. Most of us are not capable of doing that or just don’t understand when the need arises.

Because of that, there seems to be a great value in outside advisers. They don’t have that fear. They look from the distance. They can help you to see what’s wrong and what needs to be done.

Besides, entrepreneur’s journey is lonely, especially if you’re at the top, if you’re the Number One in your organization. Number Two can ask you and Number Three can ask Number Two, but you, the leader, you need to have the answers.

This is why the CEOs of the biggest companies in the world often have an army of advisors and rely on the best advice they can get. They make the decisions, sure, but they use consultants as a source of information and different perspectives.

However, there’s also this other scenario, which is also possible. If you seem to have answers for everybody else, but can’t find solutions for your own struggles and problems, or can’t seem to execute the ideas well.

It’s that you’re just not a good CEO. You’re a good advisor, maybe even an excellent one. You know what to do, but you’re not the type who executes well. You can still be a good entrepreneur, but you need a good COO to execute on your plans and ideas.

The success in this scenario starts with acknowledging the reality:

Maybe you’re just not a good CEO.