The Chief Executive, the Leader

In the latter half of the 1990s an issue that would often enter conversation in larger circles was the compensation gap between members of the military and their civilian counterparts. At this time, for instance, anyone that worked with information technology was making next to nothing in the military compared to their counterparts in the civilian world. Those in career fields such as infantry, however, it was rumored, often had problems finding jobs in the private sector outside of police or security: Not a lot of demand for advancing on an enemy and holding ground in the free market. Something that arose from this discussion was the compensation of the Army’s top general: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff earned somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000 to $150,000 after benefits as opposed to a chief executive officer of a private corporation of equivalent size for, conservatively, $1.5 million.

This was during the same time when my military career was progressing from its earliest phases of learning the ropes of a private to determining that I did, in fact, wish to train to become the general on the cover of the Army magazine that had General Dennis Reimer’s picture on it. I began to develop a mental list of skill sets of leaders of organizations—mostly larger ones, like the Army and major commands that I belonged to—and work on finding application of them in daily life.

· Selecting a team: It is about the people. People are the key in any organization; no matter how much the leader is a superman or superwoman, you need to have people to “do the stuff” of the organization. Things like character and ethics is nearly impossible to teach; when bringing people onto your team ensure that their ideals fall in line with your expectations and the culture of the organization. Skills can be learned, character cannot.

It has been shown, from the smallest start-ups to the largest multi-national corporations, that no product or service is of more value than the people that produce it or the people that receive the service or purchase the good. Employees are everywhere, but good employees are worth their weight in gold. On the same token, while customers are important…any decent demographic analysis ensures sustainability in said demographic: Good and/or loyal customers are worth their weight in platinum.

· The ability to make immediate decisions, often without “perfect” information or not enough of it. Leaders are constantly being called upon to make decisions about the direction of their organization. Sometimes you will be right and others you will be wrong: An imperfect decision (or plan, for that matter) today is better than a perfect one tomorrow: People can always adapt and conquer tasks along the way in regards to the goals of the mission, especially for those mindful of the first tip.

· Develop a skilled team. As leaders rise on the organizational chart they’ll find their role shifting from technical or artisan to mentor and administrator. As a leader of an organizational unit, you understand the requirements for your team, what it must do, what the end result must be. Understanding where you are right now, the dynamics of your team, and the goal where you and your team must reach allows you to develop the skills and talents of those on your team and enhance their dynamics. If you’ve chosen your people well enough this will be much easier and much more fruitful. This can often be the most dynamic, most important, and most rewarding role that a leader undertakes.

· Awareness. Aside from the general awareness of your organization, the people in your charge, and the markets and industry in which you operate, being able to shift your focus between critical matters, strategic opportunities for success, or some other action step is essential in the skill set of the chief executive officer or other organizational leader. This awareness extends, also, to the financial situations such as cash flows and financial reports. Awareness makes a leader and a lack of it is the quickest way to becoming a loser.

· Communication. Each of the stakeholders in your organization—employees, stockholders, creditors, suppliers, and customers—rely on proper communication to ensure peak efficiency of operations. Regular, accurate, and effective communication strategies need to be established by leaders of any organization of any size.

· Handling success, handling failure. If something fails to succeed along the path to your organization’s goals you need to be able to adequately deal with that failure: If that means something as simple as getting back up, dusting yourself off, and continue running or acquiring proper bankruptcy counsel handling this failure is critical. Handling success, though, is also critical. Success changes the entire paradigm of your team: It can cause “growing pains” or change individual perspectives of your team members to change. You must be there to set the culture and the direction for the good times and the bad.

· Back up opinions with facts. Everyone has an opinion about something, but many people are apt to simply regurgitate information without giving it much thoughtful consideration; like the gray matter between their ears is simply a sieve whereas information, whichever quality it is, leaves the same way it arrives. When you hear something, do not believe it unless it either is congruent with your thoughts, beliefs, and ideologies as they stand or you have done adequate research and believe what is said to be true. Most people, see, are content issuing opinions without the requisite facts with which to corroborate or substantiate them: It takes a higher class of intellect to back up that which you say with facts.

· Handling change. Everything changes; if it hasn’t, it will. Change can be a destructive thing in which there are losers, winners, enablers, and detractors. As a leader you will be expected to see the change through to its inevitable conclusion with your head held high. Things might be good, things might not be as good as you had planned—but people will look to you either way.

· Walk the talk. For one reason or another you are a leader and you have either gained that station because of traits that you have or in spite of them. When you are charged with the professional well-being of employees or adding value to the organization you will constantly be looked at by subordinates, peers, superiors, and anyone looking in from the outside to show integrity, honesty, and other values that you should reflect belonging to your organization’s core belief structure. People will expect you to walk the talk and live true to those things which you say. If you say, for instance, that you have an open door policy and you do not live up to it, people will see that. A story is told of Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott tells of a Wal-Mart employee that needed to speak with Mr. Scott. Calling his residence, though, Mrs. Scott informed the individual that Mr. Scott was out of town on business, and gave the person the information with which to contact the CEO. Although Mr. Scott had been traveling all day he made time to talk on the phone with the gentleman having issues. The quickest way to gain respect is to make promises and keep them; the quickest way to lose it is to not stay true to your word.

· Will the real leader please stand up? The persona of many leaders is one who joins all the right clubs, knows the right people, and attends highly visible community functions. However, this veneer is something that can be peeled off, the real person beneath the persona can be any sort of person; sometimes those highly successful individuals are completely different people: Their persona is someone that you like to know, someone that you like to be around. Their person, on the other hand, is someone that you would normally shy away from in your group of friends.

These are just a slice of the “soft” leadership skills necessary for any successful chief executive officer. By far, the larger base of skills necessary for the role of chief of an organization is something that many people strive for and only a few people achieve.