The CEO trap: Operating below your level

By Sandra Oliver, Impact Founder

We’re talking to a lot of CEOs right now who’re stuck at the wrong level. They’re doing too much operational work, mediating issues, and focusing on problems that should belong somewhere else – and their teams are stuck there, too.

Most CEOs know they should be spending more of their time on bigger questions, like where the business is going, what capabilities the organization needs next, how AI and other market shifts will affect the company, where innovation needs to happen, which leaders are ready to carry more, and which ones probably aren’t.

But knowing this and doing it are two very different things, and I say this with empathy because I’ve gone through this too. It’s really, really hard to let go.

What got CEOs here can keep them stuck

Most CEOs got to the role because they have a huge work ethic, strong sense of responsibility, and willingness to take on big, complicated things, all of which are strengths. They’re also the exact things that can trap CEOs. When two executives aren’t getting along, the board needs a report, results are off, or someone misses something, the responsibility lies squarely on the CEO’s shoulders.

When too much of the CEO’s energy goes into operational rescue mode, they have less energy for strategy, innovation, external context, talent, succession, enterprise risk, culture, and the future of the business. And the team has less reason to level up, too.

Embody empowering leadership

It’s not that CEOs should never manage or get involved. CEOs still need to set direction, ask hard questions, coach, challenge, and make the ultimate calls that only the CEO can make. They just need to stop doing the team’s work for them, and instead, start asking different questions of their executives, like:

• What are you going to do about it?
• What have you already tried?
• Who else needs to be involved?
• What decision are you making?
• What are you committing to, and by when?
• What are you no longer going to bring to me?
• What consequence are you prepared to own if this slips?

It’s a shift that will require a new contract with the leadership team and board to ensure both groups understand and are aligned with the new strategy. It will require more communication, patience, and perseverance from the CEO – and an acknowledgement that the shift will inevitably cause some issues. As the members of the leadership team grapple with their new responsibilities, they’ll likely make mistakes, but everyone needs to understand that that’s ok and simply part of their development.

The mistakes are all part of the shift that leadership teams need to make to be fully empowered in their roles. The same shift that CEOs need to move from fixer to coach, rescuer to builder, operational backstop to enterprise leader.

Embodying empowering leadership like this has positive effects on performance, organizational citizenship behaviour, and creativity – for everyone. When CEOs delegate authority, promote autonomous decision-making, coach, share information, and ask for input, their people and teams tend to perform better and create more.

And more ownership is exactly what CEOs need from their leadership teams right now.

Next time, we’ll delve into more detail about how CEOs can make new contracts with their leadership teams and boards, create safe spaces for teams to grow and evolve, and ensure everyone gets back to the right level.