20 Tips on becoming a better CEO

The best businesses scale faster than their people.  Learning to be a better CEO is crucial for entrepreneurs who don’t set off to me managers, they just fall into it by virtue of their creation. Below are my Top 20 learnings

1. Be fair

Fairness comes first. You can be tough and even brutal at times but be fair in your judgment, give credit when credit is due. No one wants to work for someone who is unfair. Even when you are let down, hold people accountable to it, but when push comes to shove swallow your pride. Be the bigger Man, after all you are CEO.

2. Show empathy 

Show empathy not sympathy. Sympathy is letting emotions rule you. Its feeling sorry for people. Empathy is getting under other people’s skin to understand them. As a CEO its your job to get under the skin of your customers, your staff, your stakeholders and figure out what makes them tick. Keep it human. Don’t let your success go to your head. Emotional intelligence is as important (if not more) than analytical intelligence in running a business.

3. Be the benevolent dictator 

True democracy does not work in business (if anywhere). Drop the ‘decisions by committee’, the never ending conversations. It will slow you down, create bureaucracy, indecisiveness, and will eventually kill you. Listen to everyone’s opinion, create healthy debate but then take a firm and binding decision.  Show decisiveness and conviction. Align everyone to your decision and march forward relentlessly. It matters less to be right all the time. You never will. You will be wrong some times. Its OK- learn to fail fast and realign. The benevolent dictator is the one who is decisive, takes action with best intent at heart.continue reading »