The Shift from Chief Problem Solver to Strategic CEO

Lead­ing bril­liant exec­u­tives mas­ter­ful­ly is a refined skill. Some peo­ple come by it quite nat­u­ral­ly, but most need to learn how to find the right peo­ple and then how to give them the auton­o­my to make their own decisions.

Devel­op­ing that skill, says Kem Krest CEO Amish Shah – the sub­ject of one of our recent case stud­ies – not only enabled his high per­form­ers to thrive, it trans­formed every depart­ment in his com­pa­ny and freed up his time to focus on what is strate­gi­cal­ly important.

In this clip (5. From Chief Prob­lem Solver to Strate­gic CEO), Amish talks about the dif­fer­ence it made when he made the shift from Chief Prob­lem Solver to Strate­gic CEO. When he learned to be qui­et, he was amazed at what oth­ers brought to the table and the pow­er that emerged from many minds com­ing togeth­er. Today, he runs a very dif­fer­ent company.

Find­ing the Balance

CEOs gen­er­al­ly oper­ate some­where between two extremes:

• They allow high-per­form­ing exec­u­tives to run with what­ev­er they think needs to be done.

The down­side: if peo­ple are giv­en too much auton­o­my and work on things not aligned to the strat­e­gy and the greater good of the busi­ness, chaos follows.

• They micro-man­age every detail of the exec­u­tives’ work.

The down­side: A con­strained sys­tem in which there’s no oppor­tu­ni­ty for exec­u­tives to use their brains to solve their prob­lems, or to grow and learn.

If a CEO reg­u­lar­ly pro­vides all or most of the answers to the exec­u­tives, they’re not being strate­gic. They are doing oth­er people’s jobs – not their own.

A More Effec­tive Strategy

A more effec­tive approach is to get the right peo­ple in the right seats and cre­ate an envi­ron­ment which gives the CEO more free­dom, time and ener­gy to focus on strat­e­gy. To do that, you need:

• Clear growth strate­gies, bro­ken down into com­pa­ny goals and carved up into projects and account­abil­i­ties for dif­fer­ent team members.

When the CEO and exec­u­tive team are aligned and com­mit­ted around the high­est val­ue projects the busi­ness needs, for the quar­ter and the year, then each exec­u­tive is giv­en the free­dom to go and deliv­er as they see fit. Ide­al­ly, each team mem­ber devel­ops their own goals.

• Reg­u­lar updates and account­abil­i­ty at what­ev­er fre­quen­cy is appro­pri­ate for each project – dai­ly or week­ly or month­ly – so that you know they are going to deliv­er on their goals by the end of the quar­ter with no surprises.

Ide­al­ly, peo­ple come with what they see as the biggest oppor­tu­ni­ties or prob­lems to be solved and with their rec­om­mend­ed approach. In between, peo­ple can ask for help if they need it.

At the quar­ter­ly meet­ing, each exec­u­tive reports on their results, how they pro­duced those results as well as their chal­lenges and learn­ing for next time. Then they make their next set of com­mit­ments for the com­ing quarter.

• A pat­tern of com­mu­ni­ca­tion that requires peo­ple to think through their own prob­lems and present you with pos­si­ble solu­tions. Respond to their ques­tions with oth­er ques­tions to help them devel­op their own strate­gic-think­ing and deci­sion-mak­ing skills. Over time, you’ll get a clear pic­ture of everyone’s capa­bil­i­ties and if they can be trust­ed with more com­plex issues.

The Chal­lenge

• What can you do to be even more of a Strate­gic CEO?
• How can you stretch your team to be more account­able and solve their own problems?

Oth­er Blogs

• How to Teach Peo­ple to Think for Themselves
• Are you a Boss or a Parent?
• How to Hire & Keep the Best Talent

Old­er Podcasts

• I’m Wor­ried I’m Micro-Man­ag­ing My Team
• Sev­en Valu­able Ways to Devel­op Mid­dle Managers