Anton Guinea
Entrepreneur, Speaker, bestselling author, and founder of The Guinea Group of Companies. For over 15 years, Anton has helped leaders move their teams to become psychologically safe, physically safe and overall better versions of themselves.
So, you have been in the business for afew years, now, you have managed several of the departments or functions, you have achieved great results at Senior Manager level, you are the next logical choice for the CEO role, and you get appointed. Congratulations!
Then, the fun starts!
Because, as much as you think you know what the role will entail, until it is yours, and you are in it, with the responsibilities and the challenges, it is hard to really know what to expect.
And, as more navigate through the first few weeks and months in the role, you find that it was not even as you expected, anyway.
Chatting with new CEOs, and C-Suite Execs about their experiences, here is what they say.
Managing Energy and Expectations
Managing their own energy is one thing, as is their own expectations, but the one thing that new CEOs notice is the energy and the expectations of those around them (both positive, and not much so, of course)
Managing energy and expectation is critical, because it is about the dichotomy between growing the business, and maintaining the business, and the thinking and activity around growing versus sustaining, and how much time and energy should go where.
A pro-active leadership team will be high energy and high expectations, though this needs to be corralled to ensure that day to day, their teams can maintain business function during busy, and especially growth, periods.
Managing change
With change being a normal part of life, the rate of change, especially personally, and interpersonally, with a promotion to a new role or the growth of the business, change management can make or break a new CEO.
Change for change’s sake is not idea.
Change for technology’s sake is a requirement.
Balancing the two, and working out what will help the business, versus what will hinder it, in the short and long term, are crucial decisions, especially in the early days.
Managing processes
This is the important stuff.
Systems drive behaviour, and systems drive accountability and profitability. The more systematised the business, the more successful it will be.
But, when you get the top job, you can start to think about all of the system improvements you can make (and, yes, this fits in with the change process above), although commitment (leading it) and compliance (managing it) to systems thinking and systems leadership is critical to your success.
And please click the image below if you’d like to chat about what leadership means to you.
If you would like to learn more about Anton or The Guinea Group, please click here to book into Anton’s calendar, to:
UPGRADE your Mindset
UPSKILL your Leadership
UPLIFT your Teams