Assessing your CEO ‘infrastructure’: are you set up to perform?

Foundations matter.

Good foundations allow building and advancement. Poor foundations are shaky, movable and unstable.

This applies to how you’ve set yourself up as a CEO. Your foundation will largely determine your efficacy as a CEO and there are some clear best practices that will guide you on this particular topic.

Below are the 5 core elements that I believe make for a great CEO platform – or infrastructure.:

1. A CEO strategy

  • A personalised game plan (for you, not for the business)

2. A slick exco

  • Your smartest people who give you coverage and leverage across your business

3. An organisational game plan

  • A strategy or a vision that is well interrogated and names the forward movement of the business

4. An outlet for your personal and professional growth

  • A coach, a mentor, a board of advisors that is easily activated

5. A business performance gauge or dashboard

  • Allowing you to monitor your business’ overall performance in a snapshot kind of way

These are dense, high-impact assets as a CEO and, together, they will make a marked difference to the quality of your CEOship.

Q: What’s the quality of your infrastructure?

Q: What does your answer suggest about your approach to your CEOship?

Q: Which of the 5 elements is most negatively impairing you at the moment? (if any)

Q: What is the first move to make to activate your remedy for the above?

Long-term, the most important question is the second. If you are locked inside a concept of what being a CEO is that doesn’t work for you, you’ll likely repeat that pattern going forward. So taking a step forward in your infrastructure will likely catalyse a broader, more powerful approach to your business leadership.

 We all form theories and approaches – consciously or unconsciously – that need refining and this might be the opportunity to change a pattern or two.

The pitfall here is turning the page on this provocation and continuing forward with what I call ‘the grind’ of CEOship. It can easily be that way.

But one small move toward a new and better approach will pay big dividends – that’s the nature of being a CEO: small moves equal big results.

If your gut feel is that your infrastructure needs attention, make a move.

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My weekly missive, CEO Sundays, is published at 5pm every Sunday evening. The writings cover CEO topics exclusively: how-to’s; thought starters; leadership insights; reflection opportunities; research.

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