So I work for a large bank in the United States. Me and my coworkers always joke that whenever something bad or inconvenient happens it’s the CEOs fault. Though it’s just a running joke it got me thinking, on a day to day basis what does a CEO actually do? I get the “Chief Executive Officer” nomenclature means they more than likely make executive decisions but what does that look like? Are they at their desk signing papers all day? Death by meeting?
Edit: Holy crap thanks for all the answers I feel like this sub always pulls through when I have a weird question. Thanks guys!
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I am a CEO.
My day to day consists of executing the plan that I put in front of our board and that we agreed on; and then triaging the following in order to hit that plan:
1. Ensuring we have the resources to hit plan. If we need cash, I am in fundraising mode. This includes selling the company’s stock or taking on debt. If the company runs out of money, nothing else matters.
2. Hiring. Ensuring we have the team members in place that are more skilled than me in their respective roles to execute the plan with the resources we have; and ensuring those team members have everything they need to hit their goals that roll up to the main plan.
3. Driving partnerships. This creates leverage for the entire company to execute the plan our board and I agreed on. I am only one person, closing deals one at a time doesn’t cut it for my role. CEOs need to drive partnerships that give more opportunities to sales and marketing people.
4. Fire fighting. There are always issues and those issues need to be resolved in a way that team leaders’ pride isn’t hurt and they don’t pass that hurt down to their teams. Once toxic work culture takes hold, it’s a cancer that takes a lot of time and energy to remove. And zero people want to work in a toxic environment.
5. Sales. If everything else is running smoothly my job is to be a sales person. Selling customers, selling the internal product team to ship faster, selling my board to increase budget, selling investors that we may need in the future. If you want to get the CEO’s attention, talk to them about how you can help them drive sales.
Ultimately, if something goes wrong it is 100% my fault. If a company has a bad culture, poorly compensates people, or has high turnover, it is absolutely the fault of a bad CEO.
The CEO keeps bad executives in place that hire toxic managers that create awful departments. I have never seen a bad CEO run a good company. This is why CEOs turn over so often. It’s a hard job where a lot can go wrong and the bad ones, fortunately, burn out.
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