There’s no successful organization without competent leadership. The weight on every CEO’s shoulders is considerable, and the pressure can mount high. When the future of an entire organization depends on your leadership skills, you need to be capable of answering the challenge.
However, it can be easy to forget that CEOs need proper support in doing their job. Since the CEO’s role is critical for organizational performance, providing that support is important. Since they sometimes have to make split-second decisions, it’s vital for CEOs to be confident in their leadership skills — and to hone them. Let’s have a look at four reasons why a leadership program is a must for aspiring and current CEOs:
1. You Can Improve at Any Level of Experience
Even CEOs who have been in the business for a long time can use a refreshment on the best practices of leadership that a leadership program provides. It’s possible to improve continually, no matter your level of experience. Success requires hard work, and resting on your laurels or waiting for the right time to work on your skills won’t benefit your organization in the long run. A CEO should be able to provide strong leadership, but C-level executives who are not quite there yet can find the support they need in a leadership program.
2. It Provides the Necessary Confidence
Proper leadership development makes it easier for CEOs to establish confidence in their skills — something that can be more difficult than it seems. In Egon Zehnder research, only 28% of the internally selected CEOs stated they were fully prepared to take on that role. Taking part in a leadership program could help the leaders who are struggling to start trusting themselves more. Only then will they be able to drive change within the organization and innovate.
3. It Develops Essential Skills
Let’s say that a CEO performs admirably in all aspects of leadership other than decision-making. In times of high pressure and necessity to make a split second decision, that CEO might fall short of organizational goals and plans, eventually causing losses and impacting the company’s bottom line negatively. Take any other essential leadership skill, and you’ll come to the same conclusion — if it’s underdeveloped, there will come a time when that will pose a problem for the entire organization. It is why a leadership program can be beneficial. CEOs often feel pressured not to show vulnerability or incompetence, so having a tool that helps them develop and grow ultimately benefits the organization as a whole.
4. It Helps You Become an Effective Leader
Being a leader is both a privilege and a responsibility, and no one knows this better than CEOs that deal with everyday stress. However, a CEO can’t do everything alone, which is precisely what a leadership program can help with. Every leader must learn when and how to rely on the teams they are leading. That’s what it means to become an effective leader — to focus on what you do best instead of micro-managing everyone else. It unlocks your potential of maximum performance, and in turn helps the entire organization perform better, from C-level executives down to the smallest cog in the machine.
Even though CEOs are at the top of their organizations, that doesn’t mean they come into that role knowing everything. Continuous education and development are what sets great leaders apart and helps them bring their organizations to heights that would otherwise be unattainable.
What are the elements of a CEO Leadership Program?
The skills that one typically thinks of as leadership skills are important. They are readily available, and can be a huge help top CEOs that want to round out their skill set. But the role of CEO is uniquely different from other leadership positions in an organization. The CEO is the only position with accountability for the entire organization, and thus is the only individual that can find the right balance across all departments and business units to attain and drive sustainable performance. At Effective ManagersTM we have programs designed specifically for CEOs to help them identify and achieve this balance.
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