“CEO” is one of the most—if not the most—impressive titles you can have in the professional world. LinkedIn taglines seem to only look better with those three letters and the typical picture of a big boss comes to mind when anyone thinks of CEOs—but aside from business leaders, board members and other business bigshots, does anyone actually know what you do as a CEO?

A lot of people have misconceptions about you and your role. Usually, what comes to mind, is some suit at the head of a meeting room or an angry boss that patrols the office, coffee in hand. No one really knows what your roles are and everyone is just afraid of messing up in front of you during reports. 

While some leaders may come off this way, you have much more to do than skulk around the office, dissatisfied or talking about your latest round of golf. Your role goes much deeper than just the occasional chortle of laughter at the water cooler, trying to relate to your younger staff. 

There’s much more to do in terms of direction-setting, determining goals and establishing culture. And you need to figure out how to best do that. 

What’s a CEO, anyway?

Contrary to popular belief (and what’s normally depicted in popular media), CEOs do much more than just bark orders. Being a CEO means a lot of big decisions are on your shoulders, making you responsible for the direction of your practice 

As the CEO, you are the figurehead of your practice and the person everyone turns to for the final say on major decisions. It’s a lot of pressure to have the final verdict, and it definitely doesn’t come without any forethought. You have a lot to handle in terms of steering the ship and the success or failure of your course rests mostly on your shoulders. 

Some daily duties include:

• Representation
• Strategy
• Evaluation
• Communicating with the board of directors 

As a CEO, you are first and foremost a leader. You stand at the helm of your firm and are the ultimate decision-maker. Even if you have to make hard choices and it sometimes feels like it’s out of your control, you have to take responsibility for and be accountable for them. 

When someone in the organisation makes any kind of mistake, it still reflects on you as the person on top because you’re at the highest seat, so it makes a mark on your reputation. There’s a ton of pressure associated with being a CEO where even the smallest of mistakes will make you look bad—even if you weren’t the one who committed it.

As a business leader, you can be either transactional or transformational, depending on what kind of style your firm needs. As long as you’re paying attention to your staff and trying your best to be a good CEO internally within your firm and externally with the public and how you represent your company, you’ll be able to nail all these roles and be an effective figurehead. 

Why is the CEO so important?

A CEO makes all the difference in a company. Though you may not always be on the front lines fielding calls or talking to clients directly, being at the top of the firm requires a lot of work.

Some things that only a CEO can do are:

• Deciding where your business is, what it should be and where it’s going
• Ensuring that your firm is covered in the present and future-proofed as well
• Determining company values, purpose, standards and vision statements

A lot of these tasks seem to be very theoretical in nature, but they’re crucial in order to cement the actual, concrete actions your firm needs to take. Without standards or values, for example, your staff will not know what qualifies as stellar work versus something sub-par. If you don’t have a clear vision statement in place, no one knows what direction you want to take the business and won’t feel as enthusiastic about it. 

CEOs set the tone of a business and, after all the theory is in place, they start to set actionable strategies and goals. They sign off on every decision the firm has to make in order to start moving towards what they want to achieve.

There are several CEOs who have proved that they can do this successfully. Steve Jobs with Apple, for example, was crystal clear with his vision and he knew what he wanted to accomplish, communicated it effectively and now Apple is one of the most successful companies in the world

CEOs are incredibly important because their vision and the way they pass it down to everyone in their firm make or break a business. 

The 3 roles you need to fulfill as a CEO

You have plenty of tasks as a CEO—from the small stuff like heading meetings and listening to reports to making big decisions. However, there are three overarching roles you need to really master before becoming an efficient leader. 

1. Establishing company culture and communication

Establishing company culture and effective communication is crucial to any practice. Without them, you lost out on the opportunity for good company identity.

When your company has a strong identity, it helps employees understand which direction you want to go and establishes a sense of belongingness that will help retain good employees and a positive image in the face of the public, making you more trustworthy.

As a CEO, it’s your duty to make sure these are solidly laid out and established. You need to sell the vision and show people what you value as a CEO and as a company. 

2. Identifying key personnel

CEOs need to make sure they install the right people in the right roles. 

Without key players excelling in their roles, you will have to constantly put out fires because people may not be competent or confident in their decisions. Talented people will help you execute your strategy and optimise it. 

Making sure you have the right people and line up their skills with tasks that they’re strong at will only bring about better results. You can’t be taking every sales call or dealing with every client, you need to make sure your practice is being supported by people who want the best for it and for you. 

3. Developing a growth strategy

A growth strategy is crucial to succeeding. 

Without a good strategy—or at least a plan that pans out for a few years into the future—you run the risk of not meeting goals that you’re not sure of (precisely because you never laid them out). You don’t know if you’re in front, behind or even in the red. A growth strategy measures KPIs and helps you allocate capital and resources where it needs to be.

Being a CEO is no easy feat. It comes with a ton of responsibilities and big decisions that can spell the difference between failure and success. However, if you know your key roles and what you need to be precise with, you’ll be able to carry the role and grow as a business leader, safeguarding your business success.

If you want to further your skills as a CEO then you need someone who’s walked the walk: Like a business coach. 

To find out more about how we can help you become a better CEO give us a call.