Faux CEOs and neck strain

According to basic business principles, there is no more than one CEO per company. That makes sense. Then how come there are so many more than that in companies everywhere?

A common view of a CEO is a person hovering above the fray of a company, sitting in a huge office with minions doing all of his/her work. But, the best CEOs I've met are deeply committed to their company and pay attention to their people, results and of course, their customers.

Many, many others who do not have that title seem to feel they are too busy or important to commit, to get their hands dirty or roll up their sleeves. They don't know the status of their responsibilities, departments, customers or their people. They are faux CEOs. They may or may not have impressive titles, but that doesn't matter, they are too busy or whatever to contribute meaningfully.

So that means many times there are real, engaged CEOs who have teams of faux CEOs reporting to them. You can tell by their necks. When the real CEO asks a question, the faux CEO constantly needs to turn to his/her subordinates to find the answer.

The fewer the CEOs the better. What is more important than being hands-on and engaged with your people, product and customers? And think of the neck strain we'd be eliminating.

Barry LaBov
LaBov & Beyond
www.labov.com

Time to Stop Thinking Like a CEO

I see it. I think anyone reading this blog sees it every day. Many of us don't want to get our hands dirty and "be in the trenches." We want to talk and act and give our views from 40,000 feet. We openly say that we "don't do the work" others do.

Supposedly the above description is that of a CEO, President or some kind of mogul. Truth is, I think few of us, even if we have the title of CEO or whatever, should have that mindset. Sure a little visionary thinking here or there is great. But it almost always comes down to the little things, the day-to-day things that make a good or bad difference.

It's intoxicating to think we're big thinkers, but our clients, our employees, our suppliers and our partners want personal attention, they want us to be "real" and connected to, not detached from, them.

If any of us are too important to think on behalf of a client or employee or too big to stoop down and pick up trash, then shame on us.

You've heard the saying, "the devil is in the details." The original saying was, "God is in the details."

The real meaning of what we do is indeed, in the details.

Barry LaBov
LaBov & Beyond
www.labov.com
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