02 — The top job
You are in the top seat for the first time
Everyone is watching how you react to things, and there is no longer anybody above you whose reaction tells you whether yours was right.
What this usually looks like
- Information arrives already smoothed. You are the last person to hear the bad version
- A throwaway remark of yours became a project
- You have a board, a leadership team and no peers
- You are managing your own uncertainty in front of people who need you not to have any
- The role has begun to eat the part of you that was good at it
What we would do about it
Build one honest channel
Every effective CEO has two or three people who will tell them the unsmoothed version. Most first-time CEOs assume these appear naturally. They do not; they are constructed deliberately.
Separate the decision from the performance
A great deal of first-year CEO exhaustion comes from performing certainty while deciding under ambiguity. We work on holding both without leaking either.
Learn what your reactions cost
At this altitude a raised eyebrow is a policy. We use stakeholder input to show you precisely which of your unconscious reactions are being read as instructions.
The first six months I confused being decisive with being fast. They are not the same and the difference cost us a quarter.
Chief Executive, healthcare services
Questions this raises
Is this different from a peer group?
Yes, and they complement each other. A peer group gives you company; coaching gives you a working process on your own behaviour.
My chair suggested this. Does that make it remedial?
Almost never. Chairs commission coaching for the CEOs they intend to keep. We will tell you honestly if we read it otherwise.
Chemistry call
Start with a conversation, not a contract
Thirty minutes with up to three coaches, free, with no sponsor in the room. You choose who you work with — we never assign.