5 Ways to Act Like a CEO

In my coaching sessions at one of India’s premier b-schools, students often ask me about what it means to behave like a CEO. I tell them that even though they are not CEOs of any company they can be the CEO of their lives.

And as the CEO of their lives, they need to behave like one. So how do you behave like a CEO? By doing the following five things.

1. Developyourself as a product or service that people desire

You are multiple products to multiple markets depending on the role you play. When you act as a subordinate, you need to convince your boss that you are an ideal product and he should keep you. When you act as a boss, you need to convince your subordinates that you are the best boss. Being the best means being the best product or delivering the best service.

1. Marketyourself to all customers, internal and external to the organization

You have to find the right segment of the market where there is a demand for you and for which they will pay a premium. You also need to promote yourself in that market. The currency of payment could be salary, or time or a great relationship.

1. Run your financesi.e. reduce costs and increase revenue to more than costs

It costs to build a product and advertise yourself. Some costs are investments, and some are expenses. The benefits that you get from the buyer should be more than what you have invested.

1. Create your own motivationand recruit people to help you (network)

You need people to help you in your various roles. You have to find the right persons. They need to be motivated or paid to help you. You need to motivate yourself.

1. Use technologyto make their processes more efficient

You need to improve all the above processes by using the right technology – be it blogs, a rudimentary CRM system, a list of birthdays in your calendar and your to-do list.

I typically do not differentiate between personal and professional life.

This article by Riley Gibson talks about the same thing with reference to empowering employees to act as CEOs.

To quote Gibson, “Giving everyone the responsibility to set their own agenda, prioritize resources, and pull in the right people has also made our office more efficient.”