I’ve been revealing my top 15 “CEO Best Practices” on the Khorus blog. These are the critical skills and knowledge that I believe, based on my experience as a CEO for the past 25+ years, that CEOs need to effectively lead organizations. Chief executives need to be generalists, not specialists, with a working knowledge of every issue and function. This is especially true for those areas where they need to take the lead, such as recruiting (note my first three are about people). Here are the 10 I’ve discussed so far:

1. Attract People

2. Retain People

3. Grow People

4. Communication Skills

5. Leadership Skills

6. Sales Skills

7. Financial Knowledge

8. Operational Knowledge

9. Regulation/Governance

10. Market and Customer Knowledge

I’ll disclose the last five CEO best practices over the next few weeks (any guesses?). In the meantime, here is the video of me discussing #10: Market and Customer Knowledge. It is crucial for CEOs – and really everyone in the organization – to take the time to understand the company’s products, customers, and competition (CEOs who don’t quickly lose credibility with their employees and the market). This requires getting out of the office and meeting with customers and others who can add to your knowledge of the market. Learning about and even engaging with competitors is important for every CEO, not necessarily for taking business away from other companies but for making the pie bigger for all and representing your industry’s interests.