The Mental Model Every CEO Must Understand

Here's the one I've taught CEOs for years.

A growing business is composed of many, many moving pieces. Businesses that beat the odds and become large enterprises have so many moving pieces that they become very difficult to lead. It’s why every enterprise CEO needs a strong model for leading holistically and strategically—and not getting sucked into endless operational details.

The bedrock of all the CEO training I do is such a holistic model. And I want to share it with you today.

This model may seem simple, and it is, but when you internalize it and use it as the starting point for your CEO leadership, everything changes. Making decisions doesn’t get easier per se, but you have a starting point for thinking through key tradeoffs. Goal setting for the company still requires discipline, but the model gives you a blueprint for getting started, steering you toward what’s most important. And you’ll never learn every detail of how the sausage is made inside the enterprise company you lead, but this model gives you, essentially, a c…