Credit: Andy Dean / Onepixel

Some Obvious Things Our Best CEOs Do

Sometimes it’s so obvious that we forget to share them… Here are some obvious explicit things that our best CEOs always do.

1. They pass, by themselves, several hours per week digging into their data set, analysing and understanding them better than anyone else. They don’t hide behind the good looking metrics. It’s always a search for truth and meaning.
2. They make sure to track, through qualitative and quantitative data points, often through OKRs, the behaviours and actions of their employees to detect weak signals and growing issues, but also improvements and achievements. They leave no liabilities unsolved and act quickly.
3. They have very thorough, almost uncompromising hiring processes and on-boarding rules for new employees and they never go halfway in regards with those matters.
4. They have a clear compensation plan for new hires. They don’t leave room for too much interpretation and value the growth mindset and actions of their employees within the company.
5. They set a clear vision for their employees to understand the long term goal of the company, a clear focus for them to reach the next important milestones of the company and clear values for people to know what we expect from them in any situation. They repeat them, all the time. It’s when people say they’re tired to hear it that they actually understand it.
6. They stay highly focus and productive on their mission. They don’t go to startup events much or without a very clear agenda. They don’t take long lunch breaks, they choose very quickly and carefully which opportunities to accept.
7. They read and learn a lot, from others, all the time, quickly and thoroughly. They don’t do it to look smarter or reassure themselves.
8. They fully listen to critics, remarks and suggestions, they always dig into the “why” until they understand the full extent of those observations.
9. They always surround themselves with smarter people inside and outside their organisation to drive their knowledge and execution forward. They are obsessed by behaving up to the expectations of those people.
10. They act as thoughtful leaders with explicit, transparent, truthful communication, as much as possible in writing.

Those obvious learnings can’t be applied all at once, it’s necessary to move forward step by step and to never settle into reaching the next best version of ourselves :)