All CEOs start with an equal ability to drive performance but not all maintain it.
Before a golfer begins their swing, 100% of their power available to be transferred to the golf ball.
As the swing unfolds, tiny imperfections creep in: hips that don’t turn; shoulders that don’t rotate; a grip that weakens etc), resulting in a swing that gradually starts to ‘leak’ power.
This results in a considerable loss of kinetic energy once the face of the club eventually meets the ball.
Sports analogies aren’t the best vehicles to convey a message as context is variable and can exclude certain people from the conversation. So I’ll leave the technical golf terminology there, but I hope there is enough of a visual image formed to work with the idea of ‘power leakage’.
Areas of power leakage might include:
- an un-interrogated strategy
- an inauthentic culture
- loose ethics
- a poor talent strategy
- loose systems/processes
- no internal communication
- lack of passion for the CEO role
- low purposefulness of the business
- an unformed Exco team
All CEOs have access to maximum power.
Everything is learnable or acquirable as your tool set can only be drawn from three sources: Character, Skill and Knowledge. So your leaks are pluggable should you choose to do the work to plug them.
The point here is not that you have to be perfect. Simply that you have an awareness around where your CEOship is losing impact and how much it’s costing your business.
The visceral nature of the golf analogy is useful in that it stings a bit. A 300 meter drive that becomes a 230 meter drive hurts and might be sufficient motivation to get that leak plugged.
This is all about craft: deep passion to be excellent and fully-expressive of your ‘genius’. If you see your CEOship as being craft-worthy, plugging your power leaks will be a pleasure not a burden.
On we go in this year that is teaching us all so much.
With love and support for your journey.
