“The only way to become good at something is to practice the ordinary basics for an uncommon length of time. Most people get bored. They want excitement. They want something to talk about, and no- one talks about the boring basics. Boredom encourages you to stop doing what you know works and do something that might work.” – Farnam Street

I’ve had my struggles with ambition. 

For those familiar with the Enneagram tool for developing leaders, one of the nine Enneagram types is the Competitive Achiever, which describes individuals whose core motivation is to win or impress. 

It has its upsides in that these sorts of individuals get a lot done and create much energy that sweeps others up in their endeavors.

But there is a downside. Impatience.

Over time, I have learned to wait. To not act. To observe and consider my plans more carefully before I pull the trigger. To not put the rush of achievement aside and find a wiser part of me, has a better perspective, and makes better-informed choices.

When it comes to building your CEO skill set, the truth is that it is a long journey. Not a taxing journey – quite the opposite. But becoming a stand-out CEO is not an overnight thing and requires inch-gains over a long period to build a set of competencies that are sufficiently advanced to meet the requirements of the CEO role. 

My observation is that impatience can wreck the process of becoming a higher-order CEO. 

The desire to move the needle quickly by demanding instant results gets in the way of building this nuanced skill set. Impatience is an energy rush that eviscerates the care, dedication, and fine attention to detail that separates exceptional CEOs from average CEOs.

Take internal communication as an example. You can bang out an email that lays out your requirements. Or you can craft a communique that has a story to it, references anecdotal evidence, uses descriptive metaphors, and generously shares your insight and struggles. 

A quick email will do the job, but a communique will move people permanently by being compelling, persuasive, and enticing. The benefits will continue to pay dividends down the line and likely avoid the need for more directive and instructional communication.

You might question the ROT (Return on Time) of such efforts if you are impatient about your craft. 

But take the long view and recognize the wisdom in the above quote. You’ll warm to the task, do it excellently, and take one more step toward becoming a higher-order CEO, aggregating the myriad benefits along the way.

‘Leadership is a contact sport’.

To lead means to engage, to talk, the debate, to steer, to manage, to placate. All of that happens in conversations, and so it stands to reason that knowing how to architect a leadership conversation really matters. It’s an easily-dismissed point, however. After all, talking is natural and many leaders don’t feel that it requires a particular skill or more than a cursory focus.

But not if you believe in the craft of leadership; where every word uttered, every email sent, and every offsite held is an opportunity to shape people and their behaviors.

Here’s my take on what a great leadership conversation looks like:

• Settle people in so that their thinking is grounded, their nervous systems are placated and their thoughts are deliberate.
• Provide careful framing as to what is being discussed or decided. Be clear about what’s not on the table.
• Position the issue carefully, so that all important aspects of the conversation are understood (note: give yourself permission to be prescriptive here – you, as the CEO, have a far broader perspective than they do).
• Open it up for various points of view to surface. Listen for long periods of time so that the conversation evolves and you become more clear on the full range of perspectives.
• Share your summary observations about what is being said, what isn’t being said, and the choices that are available to make.
• Make a choice and communicate it fully, being clear about why you’ve chosen this direction and what the full implications are.
• Check for alignment, and name where you feel alignment isn’t there.
• Be clear about the next steps, who is responsible for which actions, and by when.
• Close the conversation so that everyone feels ‘complete and ready’ to move on to other things.

Once you appreciate how important and nuanced conversations are, it will open up a whole world of opportunities for you to express your leadership craft. The thoughts a CEO shares carry heavy, heavyweight and you want to be ultra-careful about giving conversations the attention they deserve.
Consider conversation to be a performance. That elevates them to the place they deserve to be.

The answer to this question is key to those of us who spend time thinking about organizational development.

A business is a ‘thing’, a linear entity that takes money in – pits it against the costs of creating this money – and kicks out a profit. It is monitored by the sole metric of ‘money created’.

An organization is an exact opposite.

An organization is considered to be a living, breathing, layered organism that at any given time is thriving, or struggling, or changing, or resting, or ramping up. It’s alive and is responding to stimuli all the time: from leaders, customers, markets, and employees. It responds to things done well. And it responds to things done badly.

From a leadership perspective, it is important to be clear about how you view the entity you’re leading.

If you are seeing it as a business, your task is to manage the business within this narrow field. This has upsides and downsides: on the upside, it is a simpler existence – you will inquire less, manage fewer metrics, and simply watch the P&L. The downside is that you have fewer options available to you in trying to leverage performance, and especially so when times are bad. For some leaders, it may be reasonable to take this simpler view of a business. If an individual is not drawn toward complexity, then a simpler worldview is easier to manage. I do have reservations about this approach. The business world of today brings many complexities into play:

• Rapid technology advances;
• The evolving nature of the employee;
• The more nuanced understanding of leadership;
• Disintermediation; and
• The power of the consumer.

Leaders need to embrace complexity and push themselves to think about topics that aren’t naturally considered to be relevant.

Questions to think about:

1. What is your view of the current ‘health’ of your organization, and how do you know this?
2. How is your organization currently changing, and what is it evolving from/evolving to?
3. How do other people experience you as a leader, and what are the implications for the greater organization you’re leading?
4. What is the primary shaper of your organization’s behaviors?
5. How well is your organization performing relative to its full potential? (Look at metrics beyond just revenue and profitability.)
6. What is your talent most motivated by?

Your reaction to these questions might be: “Who cares?” And to a business builder interested solely in kicking out a profit, that may be a fair enough answer.

However, if you are interested in building an organization that is sustainable, nimble, responsive, and that can improve continually, these are the questions that will ensure that you are overseeing this sort of entity.