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Congrats on your promotion

Oct 24, 2019 | Anne's Blog

What promotion, you ask?

Your big, important promotion to CEO, of course!

You weren’t just promoted to CEO, you say? You’ve mistaken me for someone else, you say? You’re still just a regular, head-down, hard-working, putting-out-fires, small-biz boss, you say?

Well, let’s promote you, darn it!

If you’ve got a vision for your business, a passion for your work, and more than a passing interest in seeing your clients and your team do well… then you’re ready to be promoted to CEO. And you can accept that promotion, right now, with a few shifts in how you think about your business, and your role in it.

When I work with my clients – who typically start with me as your regular, head-down, hard-working, owners of 6 and 7 figure businesses – I put a lot of emphasis on getting them to think about themselves as the CEO of their business, not just the founder, boss and owner. This is important in helping them bust past revenue plateaus, improve profitability and keep more of what they make.

Because when you get “stuck” only in the weeds of being just the business owner, you’re more often than not deep in the trenches, trying to stay ahead of fire drills, sometimes steering the ship; once you accept the title of CEO, it suggests that you step out of the trenches, determine the vision and set the course.

Your business can run and will run with you as the boss. You can set targets, choose strategies that will meet them and delegate tasks to implement them. And you can even meet those targets.

But a CEO thinks bigger and farther. A CEO frames all the day-in-day-out work in purpose. The purpose of your company is more than to ‘hit targets’ – it’s to accomplish something greater and/or move an important conversation along. CEOs don’t just delegate, they direct people and processes like an orchestra conductor so that together, you create something meaningful and moving for your clients and customers, and sustainable, rewarding and lasting for yourself.

A by-product of this that I’ve seen – in businesses that have had owners accept the promotion to CEO – is trust. A CEO is wise about the superpowers her people have and assigns roles and tasks accordingly. She is an empower-er of employees. Bosses are conscientious do-ers; CEOs are conscious leaders.

I can feel it when a business owner hasn’t shifted from ‘me’ to ‘us’. It’s especially hard to do as you grow from one to many, from solopreneur to employer. You have to make the intentional decision to expand your vision of your business outside yourself, and embrace your employees in that vision, with a purpose and goals that are no longer ‘mine’ but are now ‘ours’.

And finally and at the same time first, a CEO is knowledgeable and interested in the numbers of their business. They do more than set targets; they watch the financials, use multiple metrics to measure success, and make informed decisions based on facts so they can pivot when necessary.

Success stops being a ‘feeling’. And even a consistent increasing-by-inches isn’t good enough anymore.

Isn’t CEO just a title? Couldn’t you accomplish all this – meaning, empowerment, trust, exponential growth — even if your business card read ‘Company Overlord and Chief Director of Good Intentions’?

Possibly and it would probably be a cool looking business card (perhaps a bit busy). But think about how it feels when you call yourself Boss, vs CEO. There’s just some subconscious, gut-level expansiveness, possibility and responsibility that comes with a different title. And I believe you’re ready for that promotion. Are you?

If you’re curious about how to shift from Boss and Business Owner to CEO (and even Chief Visionary), I’d love to help. We’ll start with the numbers – that’s my thing – and I’ll explain how the CEO shift happens along the way. Book a complimentary Keep More Money Strategy Call here.