This Halloween, let’s look at the moments that keep CEOs up at night.
1. Realizing you don’t really know what you’re doing.
Imposter syndrome hits everyone, but when you’re the CEO, there’s nowhere to hide. Research finds this is a common experience for CEOs.
2. Reopening the annual goals you haven’t looked at in a month.
Those promises you made to the board don’t age well when ignored. They fester into cobwebbed nightmares unless you realign around them at least each week.
3. Discovering a toxic manager has been driving your best people away.
By the time you notice, the damage is done. A bad employee can only do so much harm, but a bad manager can eat away at whole sectors of the team.
4. Suspecting the board has lost confidence in you.
The meetings feel different. The questions are sharper, the encouraging comments fewer. Are you being paranoid? It’s hard to say.
5. Learning about a huge overrun right before the board meeting.
This has happened to me (and it was a BIG overrun). Not fun.
6. Having to let an executive go.
Releasing an employee is never fun, but when it’s part of your core team, someone who leads a whole department, the waves are going to be big.
7. Speaking to the public after a negative event.
Every word matters and every word can be twisted. Whether it’s a press appearance or a town hall with your team, all eyes are on you.
8. Realizing you have no one to talk to.
CEO isolation isn’t a cliché. It’s a structural problem that catches everyone off guard. It’s the only job without real peers, and very few people understand the pressure.
9. Reading about your biggest customer’s bankruptcy.
The revenue model you built just collapsed. You knew diversifying was wise, but you hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
10. Finding out about your culture problem from Glassdoor, not your team.
When the outside world knows your company better than you do, you’ve already lost control.
The scariest part is that these aren’t fiction.
I teach CEOs how to ward off scares like this through a proven CEO Operating System.
Learn more here.
Happy Halloween!
Very interesting!!