- Seven lessons from hiring a CEO that is smarter than me.
I've been an entrepreneur for roughly 22 years now.
When I started out I wanted to be the head honcho,
you know, the CEO, the one in charge.
And ideally I wanted to be the CEO of a really big company
and maybe one day that company would be publicly traded
on the stock exchange.
(air whooshing)
Over the years, I've learned two things about myself.
First, I am a terrible manager
when it comes to managing a large amount of people
such as a hundred plus people,
10, 20 people, no problem.
I'm just not good when it comes to a large organization
with layers.
The second thing that I learned
is I don't think it's fun to be a manager or a leader.
(air whooshing)
Some people enjoy it.
I enjoy some aspects of it as well
but I don't enjoy most of it.
For example, I love helping people grow
and teaching them new things
but I don't enjoy tons of meetings or quarterly planning
or a lot of the other things that are required
from a good CEO.
So over the years, I've built a business model
in which I'm never the CEO of my own company.
Instead, I hire people who are smarter than me
and have done it multiple times before
and I make them the CEO, right?
If they were the CEO of other companies in my industry
and did really well, there's a good chance
that they'll also do it well for me too.
So here are seven lessons that I learned
from hiring other talented CEOs
and executives over the year.
Lesson one, people grow a business.
It doesn't matter if you're Elon Musk or Bill Gates,
without a team it's really hard to be successful.
But here's the thing,
good people follow good people around.
And good people don't follow bad people around.
Just because someone was the CEO
of another competing company it doesn't mean they were good.
And you want good people
or else they will bring over mediocre talent,
which means you won't grow.
So you need to do some searching for a CEO or any leader
to make sure that they have amazing industry experience.
Second, they had to be at those jobs for a while.
So if they have a good portfolio,
they need to be there for a while
and they need to have worked their way up
in those companies, because if they worked their way up
that means other people found them to be valuable
and the chances are they'll do well for you.
This reduces the chance of having bad people
within your organization as that can be toxic
and that can slow down growth.
Lesson two, as a marketer,
I always believe that the best way to grow a company
is marketing combined with a good product or service.
And keep in mind, I'm young, being that I'm in my 30s
I don't have as much experience
as some of these seasoned executives
who are in their 50s or 60s.
One thing I learned
from working with these seasoned executives
is that a business also grows with time.
In essence, if you're in business long enough,
such as 10 or 20 years,
you get growth through just word of mouth.
That's how most companies grow
and you shouldn't take it for granted.
You just have to be patient
as it's hard to manufacture that.
Lesson three, experience doesn't always equal
to being right.
By no means, do I think I know everything,
if I did, I would be the CEO of my own company
versus hiring one.
But what has allowed me to continually build companies
that are successful and grow fast
is that I think outside the box,
and I'm always willing to try new things
to achieve better growth,
especially ones that my competition think
are a waste of time and they aren't willing to try out.
A lot of times when you hire good CEOs
they are jaded by their experience.
They believe that there's a certain way to do things
and for most things they'll want to do it their way only.
But there can be more efficient ways to do things,
new ways especially because of technology such as AI
or machine learning.
Encourage people in your company to think outside the box
and challenge conventional wisdom.
If you don't do this, your growth will be mediocre
like everyone else's.
Lesson four, don't try to do everything your way.
You are hiring a CEO or executive
because they can do a job better than you.
If they can't don't hire them.
But when you hire them,
you have to let them do certain things their way.
You can't have the your way or highway mentality.
(air whooshing)
As the saying goes, there are multiple ways to skin a cat.
Your way may be correct,
but their way may also be correct too.
In other words, there's multiple ways
to achieve the same end result.
And as long as the end result is achieved
you shouldn't be too picky.
Less than five, you can't take culture for granted.
Culture helps you recruit and retain people.
Culture helps you build an amazing company
that builds a great product or service that people love.
It also helps you make an impact with your team members,
your customers, and even the world.
If you don't hire people who have similar beliefs
and values, then it's not going to work
unless you're willing to make the culture theirs.
If someone checks all the boxes, but not the culture one
you shouldn't hire them,
it usually won't work out in the long run.
Lesson six, CEOs have to set an example.
I hate hiring executives who only want to manage
and tell other people what to do.
I look for player coaches.
They of course, should be able to run a company
and manage people,
but they have to be willing to get their hands dirty
and do work themselves.
I want them to be a great individual contributor
for at least a portion of their time.
As your company scales, it'll be less and less
but it's important because it sets amazing example
for everyone else.
The last thing you want is a bloated company
with a ton of people who barely work.
When hiring managers or executives be direct with them
and let them know that you expect to be a player
and a coach.
Lesson seven, talent and brains can't replace hard work.
I used to hire really smart people
who were naturally talented
and just were great at what they did.
But many of those people were just lazy.
These days, I don't care if someone went to Harvard,
Stanford, heck I don't even care what their grades were
in college or even if they have a college degree.
If someone isn't a hard worker you are screwed
because if they aren't willing to work hard
how can you expect the rest of the company to work hard?
Again, I would make this known when you are hiring
but you need people who are smart, talented,
and really, really hard working.
If you have any questions about hiring
you can leave a comment below.
I'm here to help you out.
If you're struggling to hire marketing talent
and you just want someone to do it all for you,
check out my ad agency, NP Digital,
where we help companies grow.
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Thank you very much.