I’ve been telling a client CEO he really doesn’t need a specific system.
Other people have told him he doesn’t need this specific system.
And, yet, for months he has insisted that he definitely needs this specific system.
We run the numbers, and I explain why it doesn’t add up.
Over and over again.
The CEO’s response?
We need that system.
🤦♂️
It later turned out that what my client really wanted was an alert system around a few company KPIs — something that could have been specced and built in a few days.
Instead, months were wasted because he fixated on a solution before he could even frame the problem to himself.
As a CEO, it’s up to you to communicate what’s important to the company — this is the north star that frames the strategic and tactical choices your team makes daily.
It’s up to you to define what success looks like — this further constrains the available solution set for a strategic problem.
If you do your job well, and your employees don’t deliver, that’s on them. Feed ‘em to the sharks for all I care.
But if you don’t take the time to define success and then you don’t get an effective solution, that’s on you, buster.
Bad CEO, no cookie.
A CEO should rarely focus on how something is accomplished. It’s a waste of focus. And once the team can show how their idea will be successful, the CEO needs to back them.
It’s bullshit to say you don’t like a solution if it accomplishes all your goals.
It’s absolutely cool to remind them of the conditions of satisfaction (aka what success looks like) and ask how their plan will achieve them, pointing out possible pressure points and failures.
That’s working together and encouraging your team to work at their highest level.
But if you’re a CEO and you’re pushing back against your team’s plan for how to accomplish a goal you’ve set for them, take that as a sign that you haven’t fully defined success.
Take a step back, drill down on what’s been left unsaid, and trust your team.
You hired them for a reason.