What should a new CEO work on first when joining a company? | WINGMIND (2024)

FAQs

What should a new CEO work on first when joining a company? | WINGMIND? ›

The first 100 days in your role as a new CEO are critical to your long-term success in the position. Spend this time preparing, researching and listening to differing perspectives on the business you lead to develop trust with key stakeholders and maximize the impact of your role.

The first 100 days in your role as a new CEO are critical to your long-term success in the position. Spend this time preparing, researching and listening to differing perspectives on the business you lead to develop trust with key stakeholders and maximize the impact of your role.

In your first 100 days as CEO , it's important to make a strong impression with your employees, vendors and customers. No matter what changes you want to implement, you can consider making plans early on to focus your attention on goals that can contribute to the company's success.

However, regardless of where the new CEO comes from, the most important focal points are well defined: addressing strategy, talent, and operations so that the company and its people can thrive.

Being a CEO is a team sport, and you need to quickly establish a leadership team that is rowing in the same direction and can execute at a high level. By the six-month mark, you should have your team in place. By 12 months, you want that team operating in a rhythm and able to lead the organization day to day.

Your First 100 Days plan should focus on initiating one-on-one meetings, building rapport, and gaining critical insights. Apply the Situational Leadership Theory to adapt your leadership style based on individual team members' readiness and competence.

First month, 1 – 30 days

This means learning the job and materials related to it and setting goals for the future. It also means building relationships with other employees you'll be working with. You can do this with weekly meetings or one-on-one meetings with your team members to get a feel for who they are.

Implementing a clear strategy, strengthening the management team, optimizing organization and operations, and promoting a positive corporate culture and employee commitment are key priorities. By working on these aspects from the outset, the new CEO can lay a solid foundation for the company's future success.

New CEOs who deliver positive outcomes for their organizations in the first year tend to keep their jobs; CEOs who don't tend to get fired. So it's essential that the new CEO delivers on their first-year agenda. They say executives should actively confirm that they understand and support the plans of the new boss.

The most successful CEOs are often considered the face of the company and the company's strategy. As such, this means that they may need to speak with members of the media, participate in interviews, address the public, speak at conferences, and attend other public relations events.

What should a CEO do every day? ›

The Work Day

CEOs usually do important meetings in the first half of the day. They do video conferences and important calls in the morning. They meet with their executive assistants to go over their agenda for the day, followed by encouraging and involving in a team huddle with the leadership team.

Business development is far and away the most common first job function. It's about twice as common as sales, the second-most common function, which is followed quickly by engineering. Business development jobs require a strong mix of sales, strategy, and communication skills—all crucial to the role of CEO.

The Findings

Findings from a database of 17,000 C-suite assessments reveal that successful CEOs demonstrate four specific behaviors that prove critical to their performance: They're decisive, they engage for impact, they adapt proactively, and they deliver reliably. The chief executive role is a tough one to fill.

Focus your attention first on items that are critical both in terms of timing and impact. Once you complete these tasks, move on to tasks that are important but not urgent. If a task is not important, ask yourself if it needs to be done at all, or if the item can be delegated to someone else.

Putting the focus on six critical areas—growth, risk, regulatory management, technology, innovation, and people and culture—impacts a broad range of teams throughout an organization.

If you have ideas for improving or creating systems or processes, this would be the time to present them. Holtze suggests preparing a summary of your accomplishments during your first 100 days. Then align with your boss on goals for the rest of the year, as well as how your success will be measured.

Define a Clear Vision: Developing a clear vision for your first 100 days is crucial. Outline your objectives, strategies, and tactics that will drive success. Your vision should focus on the organization's goals while considering your role and responsibilities.

A CEO's first job is to build a product users love; the second job is to build a company to maximize the opportunity that the product has surfaced; and the third is to harvest the profits of the core business to invest in transformative new product ideas.