15 Essential Skills Every CEO Has Mastered

Everyone wants the corner office with a great view but not everyone has the same skills to get there. Becoming CEO is more than just what you know and who you know. The qualities that make a great CEO are actually a compilation of a lot of things, top Executives Master on their own. All right future Executives here are 15 skills you should Master to be a successful and respected CEO.

1. Diplomacy

They Don’t Really teach you this stuff in college. So, what exactly is diplomacy. Diplomacy is the art of dealing with people in a sensitive and tactful way as CEO this is a skill that will serve you well for your entire career. By being diplomatic your staff is assured of your ability to diffuse situations with the utmost tact and fairness and they won’t feel like you’re playing favorites or have a particular loyalty to a certain staff member.

As former US ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrook, said diplomacy is like jazz endless variations on a theme. As CEO your approach to diplomacy will be also constantly changing so it’s a skill you’ll have to keep on top of.

2. Vision And Follow Through

How many incredible ideas have you had but just not been able to follow through with them. Probably quite a few that’s the difference between CEO material and well non-CEO material.

It’s the vision coupled with follow through and let’s not forget to add a dash of risk too because following through on a vision always comes with a side of riskiness.

3. Passion For Their Job and Its People

It’s no secret, CEOs make a lot of money. Working for a CEO, who is passionate about their work, their company and its people is an incredible experience and that’s a skill all successful CEOs should have.

4. Brevity

It’s a word that just flows off the tongue and it means writing or speaking in a short concise clear Manner. Have you ever sat in a boardroom meeting where a CEO literally just serves up some word salad. Almost as if they just like to hear themselves talk but don’t actually say anything.

Forbes published an article titled half of all meetings are a waste of time. A skilled CEO would not call meetings that would waste their employees time and leverage their brevity when communicating with staff.

5. Decisiveness

Canadian motivational speaker Brian Tracy said, decisiveness is a characteristic of high- Performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all. Nobody can become CEO if they can’t make decisions.

So, if you’re someone who when asked can’t decide where they’d like to go for dinner, what to watch on Netflix or can’t make a decisive plan with friends. Well, it’s something you should work on.

 6. Accountability

When Dave Calhoun became CEO of Boeing in January, 2020. He was pretty quick to blame all the company problems on the former CEO Dennis Mullenberg, who was fired by the board. As suggested by rightattitudes.com, a true leader doesn’t pass the blame for failure but graciously accepts responsibility for the problems they inherited.

According to CEO World a CEO not being accountable doesn’t just look bad it leads to further breakdown like giving away your power, creating a toxic environment, employee disengagement, reduced productivity and last but certainly not least you’re perceived as being an incapable leader.

7. Controlled emotion

When the paw paw hits the fan or times are stressful you can’t have a CEO dramatically shoving laptops and paperwork all over the place declaring this is s*t o’clock, nope. You need a levelheaded calm individual, who isn’t going to explode or lose their cool. Healthline.com has some solid achievable advice for this. They say when it comes to emotions it’s best to aim for regulation not repression.

8. Transparency

Enhel Gria former OECD Secretary General said, Integrity, transparency and the fight against corruption have to be part of the culture. They have to be taught as fundamental values. It’s a skill that every successful CEO must Master, because transparency is what will earn you trust respect and loyalty.

9. Optimism

We are not born a pessimist or an optimist; our friends and family actually play a pretty significant role in our perceptions over the years. If you’re looking to lead a company, well here’s some good news optimism is a skill that can be learned.

10. Be The Calm in The Storm

Being CEO means, you’re responsible for everything that happens within the company, which is hella stressful. As I said, previous how CEOs are paid 351 times more than workers. The CEO is the most important person driving a company’s success.

While a CEO keeps everything together including themselves. Their staff will be pushed to hit Milestones, make deadlines or Clos3 sales and it’s up to the CEO to be reassuring motivational and calm in the storm.

11. Be A Role Model

You’ve probably had that CEO, who shows up late, leaves early, has boozy lunches and takes advantage of their position of power, that’s just not CEO material. Be a role model to your employees. We’re not saying you have to start work at 4:00 a.m. Like Apple’s Tim Cook or be sending work emails at 11: p.m. Like GM CEO Mary Bara, but you do need to be dedicated and work hard to inspire and lead by example.

12. The Willingness to Transform Themselves and The Company

Richard Branson said, every success story is a tale of constant adaptation, revision and change. This not only applies to the growth of a company but to the CEO as well and while it’s impressive to get a business off the ground, keeping it competitive and profitable is no easy feat.

According to CEO today magazine, the importance of growing a business is that your company is constantly facing the threat of competition and by staying small you’re essentially offering opportunities for others to take the Lion’s Share of your markets.

13. Approachability

Some might call it an open-door policy but that’s not quite, what we’re talking about out. Actually, as admirable as it may sound Forbes believes the open-door policy doesn’t actually work. It cites a few reasons but the main concern was that staff didn’t share their thoughts because they’re worried their ideas won’t be well received.

Being approachable means you’re not ego-driven, looking down on your staff instead you’re there in the thick of things being an active not aloof member of the team.

14. Inclusion

Regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, age or political affiliation inclusion in the workplace means that everyone is included. Every person matters; every person can come to work without the fear of being excluded, bullied or ostracized.

Every person has a value and it’s up to the CEO to make sure that inclusion is a priority. Like Chief Talent officer at service now Pat waiters quoted, when we listen and celebrate what is both common and different, we become wiser more inclusive and better as an organization.

15. The Ability to Take Calculated Risks

Ask any successful CEO, if they got there by following all the rules and the general consensus is a big fat no. Let’s look at Tim Cook again; he did a Q&A at Duke University. Where he was asked by a student when should we listen to our professors and when is it okay not to and Cooks response, I think you should rarely follow the rules. I think you should write the rules. I think if you do follow the rules, in a formulaic manner, you’ll end up at best being the same as everybody else.

Conclusion

We hope you found some solid grounding to start acquiring the skills to make an excellent CEO out of yourself. What skill do you think a CEO needs to be successful and respected in their position. Share with us in the comments.