The Job Of The CEO Is To Plan, Train And Review
Most owners of small businesses focus on their major customers, production schedules, accounts payable and accounts receivables, and mostly, putting out the proverbial fires that occur all the time. It’s almost as if the job description of a small business owner should be “fireman”. There are other duties more appropriate for the small business owner. But there’s a problem… many small businesses are just that–small. This requires the owner to be far more involved in a hands-on way in all three major areas of finance, operations and sales and marketing.
However, even if the business is too small to have managers of the required three divisions ( operations, finance, sales and marketing), understanding the duties and knowing you must wear two or all three hats and committing to providing the necessary leadership by running your business with a commitment to the three divisions, you will do a better job and understand better what I am about to say.
In a perfect world, the CEO oversees three managers, each handling one of the three divisions cited above. In many cases, the owner manager will run at least one of the divisions and oversee the other two. In a less developed business, the owner will manage two or all three divisions. However, this rule still applies: The owner, or CEO, should be training, planning and reviewing.
Training: Yes, training. It’s probably the most overlooked and it’s certainly important. Everyone in the business needs to be trained, and this may mean providing the training opportunities or requiring education and advancement by the individual, or conducting training classes after hours, or creating a mentor program or peer-training program. No matter how it’s implemented, it is a most important objective of a CEO. Train your people to work more effectively, work as a team and to understand their job and objectives and how to achieve them effectively and productively.
This also leads into a career path, another important objective for any small business owner wanting to keep valuable help. I hear many CEO/owners complain bitterly about the quality of their workforce. I say train them to be what you want them to be.
Planning: Are you planning your future? Are you plotting your growth? Are you developing your company’s capabilities? That’s the job of a CEO. If you are focused too much on today then you are not looking at tomorrow. If you are not also looking at tomorrow and your future and designing a path to lead you further into growth and development, then you are not doing your job.
Reviewing: A CEO must check the score card, determine how well the company is doing in terms of achieving current objectives. Once reviewed the appropiate changes can be made. If you are tracking and monitoring your three functions, then the numbers will tell you in review how to control your development and what you should be doing to improve your business and reach your goals.
That’s the job of today’s owner/CEO: Train, plan, review, track, monitor and control. What are you spending most of your time doing?
