Top Skills & Values That Set Successful CEOs Apart From the Rest
For many professionals, the ultimate goal is to become a CEO. Not only is it a major achievement to climb the la- dder to the top, but it can be incredibly rewarding to be in control of a com- pany’s success. Given this control, the success of a company is heavily influ- enced by its CEO. As you can probably guess, the role also comes with a large amount of responsibility.
So, what makes individuals in this role suitable for such a heavy hat? There are particular traits that CEOs rely on to make the tough calls, hold the burden of responsibility and balance logic and emotion to drive their company forwards.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the top skills and values that set successful CEOs apart from the rest.
Technical Skills
Regardless of the industry, every company uses technology in some shape or form. The most successful CEOs have a range of technical skills that help them understand the work their employees and teams perform to adequately understand what is happening on the ground as well as the big picture. CEOs also use technical skills in their day to day, like resizing PDF files for pitch decks, analysing high-profile spreadsheets and navigating software platforms.
Organisations in all types of industries rely on software to make their processes and operations more efficient, customer-friendly and data-informed. With a basic level of technical knowledge, CEOs can make informed decisions about strategies that positively affect the business, like which platforms to invest in or use on their website. They’ll also utilise their tech skills in their own work, communicating with team members and potential clients without needing an assistant to manage their computer tasks.
Leadership Qualities
As head of the org, CEOs need leadership qualities. However, leaders can lead in different ways. Being a leader involves understanding that you can’t do everything on your own, you need to know how to delegate tasks based on your team members’ skill sets. Part of this ‘how to’ includes trusting the managers and employers that you delegate to to complete the task effectively. For example, they need to assign a website redesign to their head of technology. They won’t run through the project deliverables with the manager, they would trust the technicalities will be managed successfully by their team.
Leadership means being able to set goals and communicate them to your team. These targets need to be realistic while being ambitious enough to push the team to greater heights. Besides this, CEOs need to be able to understand the problems of each team and empower them to overcome these difficulties.
A successful CEO is one who can motivate their team intrinsically. Many do this through empowering individual employees to achieve their full potential. This can be done by mentoring them directly, giving them work that can help them develop key skills or creating a vision and company they’re committed to working towards.
Working Under Pressure
The higher on the corporate ladder you climb, the more responsibility you’ll have, and there are few positions with as much pressure as CEO. Among the most essential soft skills that all CEOs and aspiring CEOs need to develop is the ability to thrive in high-pressure situations.
To work under pressure, it’s vital to learn how to manage your emotions. Situations like a presentation to the board of directors, negotiating a big contract with a partner or dealing with a public relations disaster can elicit strong feelings of anger, anxiety or stress. Being able to recognise and control these emotions will help you tremendously. Avoiding negative self-talk is another tip for dealing with pressure. CEOs can speak positively to themselves, with narratives that will help them get through adverse situations.
While there are strategies you can employ to learn how to work under the pressure that comes with being CEO, there’s no substitute for hard-earned experience. The more stressful situations you find yourself in, the better you’ll become at coping with them. You’ll make some mistakes along the way, but as long as you learn from them, you’ll be well on your way to becoming someone who can cope with any scenario.
Industry Knowledge and Experience
No matter what company you work at, industry knowledge is essential if you want a successful career as a CEO. While your job will involve more task delegation than hands-on work, knowing the business and the industry in and out can help you relate to other members of your team and understand the struggles they face.
The best way to build this specialised knowledge is to spend time working in a particular industry. For instance, if you have your eye on a role as the head of a pharmaceutical company, it helps to have a few years of experience in the business you want to lead or a business that operates in a similar space.
Often, CEOs are criticised for living in an ivory tower and having limited practical knowledge about the daily running of the business they’re in charge of. Some of the most successful chief executive officers have a deep knowledge of their industry and company.
Strong and diverse communication skills
The ability to communicate effectively is among the most common people skills you’ll find in a successful CEO. As a corporate leader, a CEO's success hinges on their ability to get ideas across to their team. Everyone must be pulling towards the same goals and following the same playbook to achieve them.
It’s important to remember that effective communication won’t look exactly the same for everyone. Your strategy will largely be dependent on your personality. For instance, as an introvert, you might find more success holding one-on-one conversations with individual employees and leading by example than standing up on a podium and making speeches all the time.
While successful CEOs typically have signature communication styles, it’s important to remember that you can’t speak to everyone the exact same way. Some people will respond to a more supportive environment, while some thrive on pressure being heaped on them. Spend some time getting to know each member of your team and figure out how to get the best out of them.
Start Honing these CEO Skills for Success
There is no singular playbook to follow when working as a CEO. Besides communicating with your board of directors, setting goals for your company and managing your team, you’ll also be ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the company you’re in charge of. To maximise your chances of succeeding in this high-pressure position, it’s important to develop and continuously cultivate certain competencies.
We’ve just covered some of the skills and values that most successful CEOs share. Work on developing them today to boost your chances of landing a chief executive position or to make yourself more valuable to your company if you already hold one.