Three things a CEO has to do

A good CEO only has to do three things well.  Many professionals believe a good CEO is a superman (oh, superwomen as well, sorry) that takes care of many important tasks in the company.  That might not be completely wrong, but it is a dangerous path to follow, because when a CEO spends time other than the three core CEO tasks, he will lose the focus of what can bring the firm forward most effectively.

Three Core CEO tasks:
1. Set and communicate the mission
2. Hire the best people
3. Make sure there is enough cash

That's it! No more and no less.

Well, if people really need more elaboration: (part of it excerpted from MBA Monday forum)

Mission - Commitment and Communicate

CEO has to lead. He has to be comfortable being a leader --- able make difficult and unpopoular decisions, able to deal with the attendant discomfort gracefully. He has to be responsible to the entire company --- "I am responsible for EVERYTHING that happens or fails to happen here." CEO helps the company achieve it goals.

The CEO has to set the tone of everything --- big and small by the values he projects, by the way he conducts himself and by the he deals with everyone and everything. The CEO has to go to the trouble to formulate these values in a concrete way.  Some CEOs keep a booklet which I have developed over 30 years which quantifies the values I am looking for and I personally give it to every new employee their first day of employment.

The CEO has to set a vision for the company. Commit it to writing. Argue for its attainability --- even when it is seemingly nuts. This is the FIRST sale that any company has to make. It has to sell the idea for its own existence.

The CEO has to be a good thinker, a better writer and a powerful communicator. When a CEO gets done communicating --- you have to believe you really could bite the ass off a bear. Guess what, you could!  The CEO has to tranform the idealistic vision into bite sized specific objectives which are SMART --- specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and temporal.

People - Hiring, Encouragement and Accountability

The CEO has to be a trainer able to train folks --- different than coaching which is primarily mental --- to discharge their duties. When you hire good experienced folks then all the CEO has to do is document what is going to be done rather than training them as to what to do.   Make existing staff more productive, get new talent up-to-speed faster. The CEO has to recruit, inspire and drive talent to levels of personal and team performance that exceed the expectations of the practitioners themselves. He has to remember that there are cycles of energy and that you have to find the right time to make things come together particularly when dealing with a team and team building.

The CEO has to be a disciplinarian and has to invoke accountability within the organization --- not a raised voice stinging kind of discipline but rather a "you have to eat your vegetables" kind of discipline that says not only is this a good way to do things, you have to do it this way because we are in a competition to win. Discipline means --- in it, to win it.

Most importantly --- the CEO has to face down risk with a steady gaze which inspires confidence amongst the executive team. "Well, if he isn't scared, then I guess I shouldn't be scared."

Money - Resource and Process

Be honest --- the most important characteristic of any CEO is to be a moneymaker. It is not particularly dignified to say it that bluntly but you can sugar coat whatever you want and it all comes down to "can you bring the money."

How do you eat an elephant? ONe bit at a time --- the CEO has to hack off the first bites for the rest of the executive staff.  The CEO has to organize the functions of the company to provide a logical way of accomplishing the vision both through the objectives noted above but also by talking folks through their respective duties. By coaching his subordinates to execute at a high level of competence and excellence even --- especially --- when the fledling efforts are terrible. This is particularly true in new companies.

The CEO has to be able to reduce what the company does to logical processes (SOx 404 type process thinking) that can be documented, understood, streamlined, lubricated and improved. But you have to start w/ identifying and documenting the most important processes.

The CEO has to force the company to be "customer centric" and focused completely on from whence the cash flows. You cannot tolerate a single disparaging comment about the customers.