Three basic characteristics distinguish leaders at the very top of their organisations. These traits surmise how CEOs think and act.
They are:
1. INITIATIVE – Taking the first move to action.
2. INFERENCE – Coming to understand what’s next from scarce information.
3. INFLUENCE – Moving others to action persuasively.
As you read further, you might “get knocked off” with what goes on INSIDE THE MIND OF CEOs.
To think of CEOs only in terms of privileges, fame, success, wealth, stars, crowns, etc. will be an unbalanced thought pattern.
However, this has been the feedback from executives and the general populace over 70% per time.
This leaves no place to ponder on the scars of entrepreneurship and leadership, the extra-long cold and lonely nights of strategic planning to keep business afloat, the audit of a growing staff and demanding market.
Yea, not forgetting the long queue of paycheck that must be effected monthly whether the organisation breaks even or not.
Truly, the mind of CEOs are cumbered with pressures ranging from personal to family commitments, business obligations as a legal entity, playing within government and tax regulations, and, the ever-increasing corporate social responsibility expected of them.
The Russell Reynolds Research and psychometric study of more than 900 CEOs reveals that CEOs manifest a “markedly different psychological profile from the average executive characterized by a courageous, fast-paced nature as well as original thinking and active engagement of others.”
Some common CEO stereotypes such as (persuasiveness, aggressiveness etc.) are borne out by this psychometric data, while others like (lack of warmth, self-promotion etc.) are not.
High performance CEOs show greater humility, sense of purpose, and focus on substance than their executive peers.
As young professionals strive in their entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial capacity to becoming the best in their career, it is pertinent to learn the ways of the CEO, and know what qualifies one to be termed such.
CEOs are a breed apart, differing meaningfully— across many personality attributes— from the overall executive population.
However, they are not born so. Rather, have become so by embracing the right risks
and capitalizing on opportunities.
These traits, which make CEOs courageous and fast-paced, can be considered the essence of the
CEO personality. The ability to mindfully take action without hesitation truly separates them from others.
These seven points highlighted below will help interpret the concept of INITIATIVE, INFERENCE and INFLUENCE as introduced earlier in the text:
1. Courageous and Fast-paced – As the years wear on, with disruption picking up pace as the new order of the day, organizations will
seek out CEOs whose fast pace IQ and deep confidence allow them to take advantage of
the gains that often accrue to first movers.
2. Driven and Resilient – The ability for professionals to stay mindfully competitive, self assured, goal-oriented stable and strong in their conviction make for excellent CEOs, across varying sectors of the prouductive economy.
3. Imaginative Thinkers – Who is a CEO without the capacity for conceptualizing and curating ideas with a unique view to increasing the value of their organisation forward and upward? Imaginative capacity is an essential tool for the CEO.
4. Future Visualization – CEOs, especially of private companies, unlike other executives envisage years ahead the potential opportunities or threats their organisation will likely encounter, and prepare, acting with a sense of urgency to promote or mitigate them.
5. Maintain Open Communication – Perhaps, no one best sells the benefits of her organizations products (services) like the CEO. Their forthright assertiveness at every given opportunity helps steer and turn prospects into clients, while maintaining clarity in communication between her staff and the public.
6. High Emotional Quotient – A recent study by The Centre for Leadership affirmed that CEOs are more socially relatable, modest and warm than their executives. As thought leaders, they readily engage and organise others, while consciously building their team.
Who would have thought?
7. Inspire Others – If you would learn, learn from the best. CEOs set the agenda, and take the lead in executing them, with an assertiveness that mostly influence and inspire their team, than would scare them.
As a wrap-up, the realization that they are on a mission with constraints of time, resources and an ever dynamic competition, the CEO engages and leverages on empathy to motivate others effectively in staying locally or globally relevant.
How would you love to be a CEO?
