CEO skills

Why do so many companies want to fire their CEO? – CBS News

Why do so many companies want to fire their CEO? – CBS News

This is a great article written by Margaret Heffernan for CBS Moneywatch. She discusses how CEOs are not prepared for the role and therefore don’t know what to do when they achieve it (my mantra for this blog). As I’ve written about before, most CEOs have gotten the job because they were superstar performers in their careers, meaning they have specialized knowledge in marketing, sales, engineering or another function. But the CEO role entails a unique set of responsibilities. As Heffernan says, “But once they assume senior executive positions, they need entirely different skills: networking, knowledge-gathering, consensus building, listening. They should be good at this – so why aren’t they?”

10 ways CEOs can get better at their jobs

“Learning is not compulsory but neither is survival.” W. Edwards Deming

Whether the result of ignorance, hubris or both, it is easy as a CEO to get trapped into thinking that you should have all the answers. But that’s a sure way to stagnation. It is critical to your long-term success to build a cycle of continuous improvement into your corporate and personal development. In my newest Forbes article today I provide a list of 10 ways CEOs can continuously improve their performance.

Some of the items may seem simple – read some books, write some content, gather feedback – but you’d be surprised how many CEOs do not make the time for these things. Special thanks to my friend Mike Hawkins at www.alpinelink.com, where I got the basis for this list.

With so many things on a CEO’s plate, how do you find the time to get better? The real question is: How can you afford not to?

Three ways to spot a bad CEO

What is The Most Dangerous Secret of Corporate America? Writing for DailyWealth.com, Paul Mampilly puts it bluntly: Many CEOs aren’t good at their…

Six hats of the CEO: Learner

The French author Francois de la Rochefoucauld observed “the only thing constant in life is change.” Great CEOs understand this…