From Founder to CEO: How to Make the Shift
Your company is growing! It’s everything you’d hoped for!
It’s time for the big move…
From player to coach.
(Or maybe even from coach to general manager!)
When the company starts to grow, you go from founder to CEO.
You, of course, still are the founder too (lest we trigger another “Founder Mode” debate).
But when long term planning goes from “tomorrow” to “next month” (#startupjoke) or the team grows from 1 to 10 to 100, your leadership role evolves.
This change requires:
Emotional work
Tactical strategies
Let’s walk through it so you’re ready to embrace your CEO era with grace and world domination.
From Founder to CEO: Inner Work
Start here. The emotional work can be harder than any product challenge or sales deal.
1. Trust your team.
This means:
Handing off projects
Being okay with mistakes and a learning curve
Knowing they won’t do it as well as you can…in the short term. But long term it will be better!
Hiring great people
2. Get your head right.
Feeling insecure because you’ve never done it before?
Join the club.
Every successful person feels Imposter Syndrome.
Acknowledge the feelings.
Notice how they manifest (tackling easy tasks instead of important work???).
Then get yourself fired up for the next level.
You figured it out before. You’ll figure it out again.
(P.S. Here’s 4 strategies that top CEOs use.)
Remember — when you started out, you were dying to have this “problem” of how to scale! 😉
3. Understand the new job.
You got promoted.
You went from individual contributor to coach. Maybe even general manager.
Coaches can’t throw the winning pitch. General managers don’t even step onto the field.
They win by:
setting the vision
building a system
motivating people
getting the right players
refining their skills
putting those players in the right spot at the right time
The first step in doing a new job is to understand it!
(Not sure what the job is? Use Tactical Items to clarify.👇)
From Founder to CEO: Tactical Items
As James Clear says:
Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
Become the CEO by doing things that CEOs do. Here are specific strategies to uplevel.
1. Make time for personal development.
Every founder who is serious about getting their company to the next level spends time learning.
You can do it many ways:
CEOs are busy but they find the time to get better and ways to create accountability for themselves.
2. Learn from people smarter than you.
How do you figure out what the CEO job is?
Work with an executive coach or peer group
Talk to your advisors, mentors, or investors
Ask founders who are a stage or two ahead of you
Successful founders are always getting insight from others with different perspectives or more experience.
3. Vision, strategy, goals.
The team is looking to you for guidance.
It needs to be consistent and well-communicated.
(Start with a Weekly Update if you’re not doing it already!)
Time to get clear and (over) communicate about:
Goals (← new fave post about goals)
Strategy - via One Page Strategic Plan
4. Do a productivity audit.
Feeling too busy to learn? Don’t have time to work on strategic items?
A simple starting place: conduct a productivity audit!
See what you are doing every week that could be delegated, eliminated, combined, moved to email, adjusted to monthly, or otherwise streamlined.
You get:
More time
Insight about what you (and others) are working on
I have never done this without finding several “ah-ha” moments of things I can cancel, quit, or deprioritize.
5. Delegate!
Hand off specific tasks.
Clarify when someone can make a decision on their own.
Offer others opportunities to grow.
These are all mission critical to a healthy company and effective CEO leadership.
Here’s my favorite framework and a gentle reminder: don’t be a bottleneck!!
6. Go on vacation.
This is not a joke. I mean it.
The best way to get out of the weeds is to be gone for a while and watch how awesome your team does without you!
If you’re not ready for this step, start by not replying.
Seriously.
Let your team know that you’ll be slower replying to emails and chats.
Now, watch with amazement how much people can figure out when you’re not available!
It’s like my kids who can magically tie their own shoes and get their own snacks when I’m not around. CEO MODE!!!!!
How did you develop your leadership skills as your company grew? What was the hardest part for you? Any other tips??
Founder is basically: stop being the best doer, start being the best constraint remover 😅
Without a doubt, delegation is the hardest. And delegating by articulating the goal and outcome vs micromanaging the steps is even harder.
Your comment about peers groups (Vistage, EO, YPO) or Coaches/Mentors can’t be emphasized enough.