Job Description for Owner and CEO: "RUN THE COMPANY"

Drawing from my own experience, whether leading a division of or building from scratch, no one, including myself, ever asked what or how my job was actually defined. I was there to "run the company." Wasn't that obvious?

In the ten years since leaving a nearly 25-year career in sell and buy-side investment management it has occurred to me that many, too many, of us have led and defined our roles by assumption rather than by clarity. We just "ran the company."

LACK OF DEFINITION

In either case, that of a business owner/entrepreneur or executive that started out lower on the ladder and now is in the C-suite (or facsimile thereof), to my surprise, a great many have found themselves with the responsibility of either running a company or a significant division of it without a clear idea of who they are, why they are and what they are determined to do and how.

In my role as adviser  counselor or coach; common questions I ask of those depending upon me are meant to get leaders to focus on a few very important things.

·         Who are you?

·         What's your job description?

·         Who wrote or defined your role?

·         Are you functioning in that role, as described?

·         How do you see yourself?

·         Have you written your own description of that role?

·         Why not?

We could go on and on with an endless list of questions like these. It just surprise me to find that in virtually all cases, (non-scientific) leaders plow along doing what they believe is expected of them while rarely thinking about the need to clearly define themselves and the role that is not only expected of them but the role they want to play within their organizations.

Once a leader clearly defines who they are and why, they then ought to do the same for each one of their Direct Reports.

WE NEED A...

For the sake of this discussion, let's assume the owner or CEO is the one that decides a position needs to be filled. A discussion with the in-house HR professional follows. Perhaps an outside search firm is engaged. The leader has something in mind and ultimately someone is going to write a job description and initiate the search.

Would you be surprised to learn that it isn't uncommon for the professionally drafted Job Description and the reality of what the CEO wants don't match? There may be two primary reasons why that happens. One, the Owner/CEO hasn't clearly defined their own role and the second becomes as obvious; they haven't personally and clearly defined the role of the talented individual they are seeking.

               

RECRUITING  v. COACHING

Imagine a Head Coach that sends out talent scouts without clearly defining the precise athletic skills, qualities and demeanor of the talent they want. We're all too familiar with athletes that were said to be "the most sought after" but for whatever reasons don't fit or simply flop. Why does that happen?

There are numerous reasons. When and if the Head Coach leaves the search up to others while not clearly defining themselves, their objectives and exactly what they expect of the assistants, and ultimately the athletes, the results speak for themselves.

               

BEST LEADERS TAUGHT BY BEST COACHES

"The breakthrough companies we visited were filled with great coaches - people skilled at helping people do their very best."[1]  Keith McFarland includes a great discussion on the topic under the heading, "The No. 1 Job Of A Leader: Coaching" in his terrific look at high performing companies in Breakthrough Companies. McFarland there notes that, "If managers focus too much on getting the right people on the bus, and not enough on developing the people they already have on the bus, you can bet that bus is headed for some kind of fender bender or worse."

As we all pay more attention to this need and responsibility for leaders to reconsider who they are and why they do what they do, it is critically important that leaders also accept the responsibility they have to clearly define themselves, what they expect of their Direct Reports and finally, to give clear definition to what their company is and why. No one in the HR department can or should be doing this for them.           

Jim Naleid is a Life-long Entrepreneur, Change-Agent and Thought Leader, Managing Director of Naleid & Associates and Regional TEC (“The Executive Committee”) Chair leading a group of executives to become Better Leaders, Making Better Decisions with Better Results. http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimnaleid

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[1] The Breakthrough Company; Keith McFarland; Crown Publishing; p.214, 215