Everything A Great CEO Must Do Themselves

When founders transition to CEOs of growing companies, they often encounter conflicting advice about how to scale effectively.

The conventional wisdom, “hire good people and let them do their jobs”, sounds logical, but for many founders, it’s proven disastrous in practice, not least because of how it reduces the act of stewarding an organization into something that can be described in bullet points on Linkedin.

Instead, a more hands-on, founder-driven approach often emerges as the ideal way to keep the company true to its vision; a fact which many entrepreneurs find instinctively correct.

This tension between “founder mode” and “manager mode” isn’t just a Silicon Valley paradox; it’s a lesson for any leader grappling with where to engage and when to step back.

As Paul Graham recently observed, founders who stay in “founder mode” keep a level of control that enables them to directly influence every facet of their company’s culture, product, and growth, sometimes bypassing the traditional chain of command altogether.

While there’s no universal answer, successful leaders understand that certain tasks, such as setting the strategy and vision, maintaining accountability, and owning the company’s key messaging, require their direct involvement.

Other tasks, however, are best delegated.

The CEO’s Tasklist: Setting Strategy and Vision

By far the CEO’s most important task is to set the overarching strategy and vision of the company.

For Neha Sampat, CEO of Contentstack, this commitment to setting a clear vision is evident in her own journey from consulting to entrepreneurship as well as the company she heads today.

As a non-technical leader in a very technical industry, Neha’s ability to build a vision of a future their clients want to take part in has shaped Contentstack’s path to nearly a billion-dollar valuation.

“You can’t delegate vision,” she emphasizes, “particularly when you’re spearheading a new category where everything is in flux.”Neha continues reflecting on the critical role leaders play in deciding where and how to play, by stating that “knowing where to go isn’t a technical question, although the building blocks are all engineered products, and the CEO needs to own the map, compass and finish line in their entirety.”

Keeping a tight leash on Contentstack’s purpose, strategy and vision has paid off, with the company scaling through a number of milestones since its inception in 2018 to half a thousand of staff across more than a dozen countries today.

Meg Gluth, CEO of Catalynt, resonates with the concept that CEOs simply cannot delegate strategy and vision.

“A CEO doesn’t just happen and neither does the company,” Meg notes. “There has to be a level of intentionality to where the company and it’s leadership is going, and making a vision into reality requires owning every aspect of this like a founder, not just a salaried manager.”

Meg’s thinking suggests that CEOs are at their best when they embody the company’s vision instead of just setting it, steering from a place of authenticity.

Herein lies the central lesson about ownership and being in a founder-mode: there is no room for inauthenticity or being hands-off on part of the CEO when it comes to deciding what the company stands for, and where it is going to.

The CEO’s Tasklist: Creating a Sense of Accountability and Ownership

Establishing an accountability framework is another task CEOs simply can’t shy away from.

Effective leaders need to create organizational structures that drive performance without anyone having to stoop to micromanaging or taking over processes others should be empowered with; a task where founder-mode might over index on the doing instead of empowering if leaders aren’t careful.

According to Sundhar Annamalai, President of LevelBlue, formerly AT&T Cybersecurity, accountability is best achieved by ensuring clarity and focus on long-term goals rather than fixating on managing outcomes for short-term metrics.

“In large public companies, you’re often only fighting for the next quarter,” he explains, contrasting this with the luxury of a more long-term vision that some other companies can afford.

Sundhar continues by noting that accountability has to go much deeper than just reported results. In fact, CEOs that run their companies like founders can model a personal sense of accountability for performance at all levels.

“A CEO doesn’t solve every problem, but they can convene the problem solvers and give them the right incentive and accountability frameworks to get the blockers out of the way,” he notes.

Cultivating a culture where innovation and accountability thrive independently is key to success. Likewise, by focusing on multi-year milestones rather than short-term targets, CEOs can foster a culture where employees are accountable to results instead of just metrics, just like they were founders themselves.

The CEO’s Tasklist: Messaging Is Strategy

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, CEO of Xero, believes that central to the CEO’s tasklist is owning the message, particularly when it comes to communicating what the company stands for.

Sukhinder notes that CEOs must articulate their vision clearly both externally as well as internally, ensuring that messaging permeates every layer of the organization as intended. Moreover, she emphasizes that CEOs should always be the face of the message.

“CEOs need to define the message, if you hand it over to others, it becomes their version of it, leading to dilution and confusion,” she notes.

To be clear, messaging is not just about words but about the intent, timing, and resonance.

“CEOs who don’t run their companies like they own them often fail to realize that comms is strategy; if you think they’re different things, your messaging simply can’t work,” Sukhinder adds.

Su Bridgman, CEO of SpeakFluence Global and the author of CQ Edge agrees, noting that a commitment to excellence in communication is what sets successful leaders apart from the rest.

“A vast number of leaders have technical prowess and skills that verge on the level of genius,” Su explains, before adding that “none of that matters if they can’t communicate the value they, and their company bring, to their constituents. CEOs are the ultimate owners of company’s message and ethos, and this is a task they can’t delegate to anyone else”

Hands Off: The Art of Delegation

While CEOs are integral to setting strategy, establishing accountability, and owning the company’s narrative, there are areas where delegation isn’t just helpful but outright essential.

Delegating the right tasks allows CEOs to focus on high-level responsibilities, trusting skilled leaders to manage specific functions and initiatives.

Tasks such as operational execution, administrative oversight are often best left to other experts within the company. In fact, this is why the rest of the C-suite exists.

Pamela Joseph, CEO of Xplor Technologies, is a strong proponent of delegating with care and intent.

She stresses that a CEO should be selective about where they invest their time, delegating tactical tasks to their executive team to maintain a strategic focus. “The CEO’s job is to stay above the fray and think ahead,” Pamela explains.

Effective CEOs recognize when they are over-involved in areas that may be better served by a specialist, allowing them to devote energy to tasks that genuinely require their insight and guidance.

“For me the discussion over founder mode or manager mode is less relevant than the discussion about empowering the rest of the organization,” Pamela continues, explaining how the CEO is only a part of the puzzle and that the task of running a company is not something any one person carries on their own. Sukhinder Singh Cassidy from Xero shares similar sentiments, knowing that “much of my work is about empowering the top 5% of my organization. If I’m doing the work for them, I’m not leading; I’m micromanaging,” she cautions.

While the conversation about founder mode and manager mode doesn’t have a clear answer, one thing is crystal clear: the most impactful leaders are those who strike a balance between owning their vision and building frameworks that allow others to execute that vision independently.

Knowing what a CEO needs to keep close, and when to step away, is essential to effective leadership whichever way we package the deal.