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As your business evolves from startup to growth stage, so must your role. You may decide to stay small, especially if you like to do everything yourself, and that’s okay. But if you dream of scaling up, you will need an effective CEO. Until you have enough money to bring in someone who can step into that role, that someone needs to be you.
I learned this the hard way. I once recruited a buttoned-up senior executive from an advisory services firm to help us scale. In the first month, this soon-to-be former employee repeatedly told my team that “everyone knows founders are terrible CEOs” — especially when a decision was made they didn’t agree with. They cited research that said mid-to-large-sized companies led by the people who founded them were less productive.
Even if that may be true for some corporations, founders CAN evolve into outstanding CEOs — rather than being replaced by them. It’s not easy, but it’s achievable.
What I’ve learned through my pursuit to become a better CEO is that personal change does not happen overnight. It’s not linear. And it usually does not happen alone. Don’t expect perfection at first; treat it as a growth process. Just be better today than you were yesterday.
If you want (or need) to make the transition from acting like a founder to being seen as a CEO, here are just a few of the things you need to do.
Keep being visionary
For most entrepreneurs, your business starts with a strong sense of purpose. Maybe you left the corporate world to be your own boss, or maybe you’re a creative thinker who never fit the traditional mold.
Regardless of your personal reasons, start thinking about your company in terms of what you want it to accomplish and why. Define how you plan to improve people’s lives or make a difference without sacrificing your values. Whether you’re the founder, the CEO or both, being able to articulate your vision again and again is critical and something you’re probably already good at.
Keep being the best salesperson in the company
As the founder, no one can sell your passion, purpose or product like you.
Interacting with customers will teach you what the buyers in the market need, and more importantly, what they want to buy. Making those first few sales will help you crystallize your vision and give you confidence that you’re on the right track.
The more your company grows, however, the more you’ll need to sell your vision to inspire your team and attract new investors. You’ll have to tell your story to recruit key employees and generate favorable coverage in the media. Leave much of the customer-facing work to qualified salespeople.
Focus on process
Business works best when the focus is on people > product > process. As a founder, you focus more on the product and the people you need to get your startup off the ground. As a CEO, you must pay even more attention to the people part.
But you also have to become more serious about process — formal, documented and repeatable processes. The documentation part of this is very important. Should something happen to you and all the knowledge to run the company is in your head — inaccessible to the people who need to take over your work — you’ll have a big problem.
Related: What Does It Mean to Be a Successful CEO Today? Here’s 5 Traits To Look Out For
Be more strategic
Founders create solutions to today’s problems. CEOs anticipate tomorrow’s obstacles. My friend, Jeffrey Hayzlett, likes to say CEOs “don’t need to be the smartest person in the room, they need to be the most strategic.”
You can’t focus enough on strategy if you’re spending all your time putting out the fires that erupt in day-to-day operations. You must allow yourself time to think about where your company needs to go, how it will get there and how you’ll thwart the people trying to stop you.
Start by asking the right questions instead of worrying about having the right answers.
Be more willing to delegate
Often, visionaries don’t want to compromise, and they won’t delegate. The temperamental Steve Jobs served as evidence of this type of visionary.
When I was in Dallas recently for the launch of a book I co-authored, “The Leader’s Playbook: CEOs Transforming Vision into Action,” I met the founder of a successful startup. He was frustrated that his company had “plateaued.” After a few questions, I learned his problem was attributable to one of the biggest factors that stunts the growth of small businesses. It’s the founder’s inability (or unwillingness) to delegate everyday tasks so they can focus on more important things.
This requires having a high level of trust in his employees and contractors, which he didn’t have.
Hire people better than you
Early in my career, I was inspired by advertising agency icon David Ogilvy, who believed, “Always hire someone who is better than you” at something you’ve always done yourself. This principle not only makes your company stronger; it makes delegation much easier.
Your first few hires need to be good ones, so your recruiting process (there’s that word again) needs to be rigorous. If you hire friends and family members, cutting your losses from a bad hire becomes substantially trickier to navigate.
Mind the metrics
If you’re like most founders, you’re a visionary — acting more like a building developer than a building manager. Accounting is not nearly as much fun. But a CEO also needs to focus on numerical details, demanding accountability at scale, growing efficiencies and using reliable business metrics as the scorecard for generating profit.
Be more introspective
Being a CEO not only requires a different skill set than a founder; it also demands a different mindset. Start with an honest look in the mirror.
The difference between being a catalyst for positive change and being the choke point starts with how you think about things. What are the thoughts keeping you from being the CEO that “your baby” needs to leave the nest and grow its own wings?
Taking the first step
As an entrepreneur, deciding how to balance the roles of visionary and CEO can be overwhelming. I was fortunate to find an executive coach who helped me become the CEO my company needed.
Whether you tap into coaches, mentors or peer advisory groups, build a circle of trusted and successful people to advise you. My personal journey resonated so strongly with me that I now offer leadership coaching to turn founders into high-impact CEOs.
Related: 5 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Became a CEO
Trust your instincts
Any professional growth path will have its share of setbacks. Not every plan will be perfectly executed. You won’t always do or say the right thing “in the moment.” And you may slip back into your old thinking from time to time.
But with enough commitment and discipline, you CAN grow into a CEO who will transform your company into what you’ve always dreamed it could be.
As your business evolves from startup to growth stage, so must your role. You may decide to stay small, especially if you like to do everything yourself, and that’s okay. But if you dream of scaling up, you will need an effective CEO. Until you have enough money to bring in someone who can step into that role, that someone needs to be you.
I learned this the hard way. I once recruited a buttoned-up senior executive from an advisory services firm to help us scale. In the first month, this soon-to-be former employee repeatedly told my team that “everyone knows founders are terrible CEOs” — especially when a decision was made they didn’t agree with. They cited research that said mid-to-large-sized companies led by the people who founded them were less productive.
Even if that may be true for some corporations, founders CAN evolve into outstanding CEOs — rather than being replaced by them. It’s not easy, but it’s achievable.
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C. Lee Smith
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