Great CEO will not go to work every day
There are only 4 CEO responsibilities, and not showing up for work every day is a key aspect of building a strong company.
I think about that stuff a lot lately. We grew PressPad from three to 11 people in recent months, and I have found myself in a new role all of the sudden. At the very early stage, “CEO” is, in fact, a nickname for project manager/coder/designer or, actually, whatever type of job he or she can do.
When more than 2-3 people show up to the office each morning, suddenly, the CEO’s role shifts to something entirely new. I am a huge fan of conscious thinking. So, I took time to think about it, and I determined that there are four things I should focus on as the CEO of a growing company:
- Take care of strategy.
- Make sure money is in place to put that strategy in action.
- Recruit the best possible people for the team.
- Remove obstacles facing the team.
Strategy is what differentiates the CEO from other team members the most. All employees should know where the company is heading, but the CEO’s role is to draw this big picture and keep a keen eye on the market shifts, customers, competitors, and dozens of other factors that may influence the company’s future.
Raising money is a topic on its own, and people much more experienced and way smarter than I have covered this topic already. If I were to pick one tip for a first-time CEO, it would be to raise money when you don’t need it (that much). Don’t wait until the last possible moment because: a) fundraising takes an awful lot of time, and b) when your back is against the wall, there is no way you can negotiate a good deal.
When strategy and money are in place, it is the CEO’s role to recruit core team members. It is his role to make sure that people will fit the company culture and make their job way better than the CEO can ever do himself. If you are afraid of hiring top-of-the-line, A people, don’t bother with this business at all.
You should build a company you can leave for a week and return to it being in a better condition than before you left.
CEOs should be replaceable in that sense. They are not project managers, nor are they designers or salespeople. If a company is built around one person, there is no way it can be ever sold; in fact, selling the company is one of the reason why people get into this business of startups in the first place.
I draw this notion from my personal experience of when I ran appleblog.pl for 6 years. Sure, I wrote a book, sold ads on my website, did public speaking, trained people, and so on. But I couldn’t escape the simple fact that if I went for a vacations for 2 weeks and didn’t blog, my business suddenly stopped working.
Removing obstacles is what I do most of my working days. I understand that my job is to make sure people can make the most of their talent and time. It starts with simple things, like arranging office space, and it goes all the way up to hiring new people, if necessary.
Don’t get me wrong—it was not obvious at first glance. When new people took over tasks I used to do, I felt unnecessary and a little lost. But then I realized something important: the CEO is the glue that holds all of those pieces together.
PressPad is still at a very early stage, so don’t be surprised if in 6 months, I completely negate all of the above! Everything is a matter of learning by doing—it’s a process, entirely.
