One of the most fascinating topics is the area of small business. Our country has a rich history of many entrepreneurs over the 200+ years who have worked hard, failed, learned, succeeded and flourished. There are many obstacles and challenges for the successful small business but one especially hard task is when an owner wants to move beyond being an indentured servant to the business for other interests, retirement, growth, diversification, quality of life, etc.
Granted, many business owners are happy to stay fully engaged in the business operations and do not want to change or grow. This is a perfectly acceptable option. However, this article is aimed at those who want to move into a big picture oversight rather than keep the organization fully dependent on the owner for daily operations.
Before we go farther, let’s define a few terms for the sake of this article.
- Strategy – Big picture and long-term. Which hill should we take?
- Tactics – Small picture and short-term. How should we take the assigned hill?
- Business Owner – A person who successfully starts and grows a business and is at its core. The business owner is mainly concerned with tactics with some attention to strategy as necessary. Take the business owner out of the picture and the business will die (slowly or quickly).
- CEO – A person who runs an enterprise with the big picture and who delegates appropriately for the organization size. The CEO is mostly focused on strategy with attending only to the most important tactics. Change CEOs and the enterprise will continue operating (assuming the new CEO is qualified.)
Anyone who has started a business comes to see that organization as his or her baby. The entity is like raising a child and is very dear to the creator. With this in mind, it is then often very difficult to mostly disengage while keeping the business viable and successful. The loss of nuts-and-bolts control is scary for most entrepreneurs to say nothing of how and who to hire to make it happen. Not only that, what can an owner do to make sure customers continue to receive the quality and personality of service and product they expect?
So how does someone move from being a business owner to CEO? While each transition is unique, here are some basic parts that remain constant.
1. Make a decision – This is usually a hard call for the successful business owner as changing to CEO is not for everybody. I have worked with business owners who expressed an intention to disengage from the daily operations but when it came down to letting go, they just couldn’t take the plunge. Again, either way is OK … just be intentional. Talk to close friends, family and business associates. Seek perspective from anywhere you respect the advice.
2. Develop a charter – First, think big picture, big picture, big picture. Did I mention you need to look at the big picture? What do you want the enterprise to look like once the transition is complete? What are the core values that have made the business thrive and must continue? Boiled down to the essence, what do the customers expect? What do employees expect in terms of corporate culture?
3. Make a plan – What are the key, daily competencies the independent organization must master in order for you to pull back? What are the crawl-walk-run processes? What are the profiles of the needed key people? Perhaps most importantly, how will YOU develop to stay ahead of the transition? Define a rough time-frame for the entire transition as well as milestones to measure progress.
4. Select a transition person – This may be someone already on staff or you may look externally. Decide if you want this person to be a bridge or eventually assume greater responsibility long-term. If you intend for the individual to stay in charge, plan on spending a lot of time mentoring and coaching. If you see this person as a bridge, collaborate intensively to ensure the project moves forward.
5. Most of all … communicate – Transitions are rarely smooth. There are unexpected setbacks and problems as well as timing speed bumps. Over-communicate (if that’s possible) with employees, business partners, customers and other key people about what’s happening, the next couple steps and, most importantly, the big picture.
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If you would like help moving from business owner to CEO, contact Leading Strategies for a complimentary, initial consultation. We offer a wide variety of scalable solutions for the successful entrepreneur.
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Related Articles
- America’s Healthy Infatuation With Entrepreneurs | Stanford … – Compare the Fortune 500 CEOs interviewed on the HBR IdeaCast talking about Campbell’s Soup or Coca-Cola (podcast here) with the entrepreneurs at the Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Seminar Series discussing Pandora and Instagram (podcast here). The big company CEOs sound just like you’d expect. But while most of them presumably have strong interpersonal skills and a high EQ, they come across as dry, unemotional and focused on the core business.
Suggested Reading
- Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich and Why Most Do Not by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki
