Book Summary Preview :
10 Things that Keep CEOs Awake

Liz Coffey and her colleagues coach top CEOs, addressing the 10 primary concerns that keep them sleepless in their executive suites:

• Developing bifocal vision
• Getting the organizational structure right
• Creating time to maximize impact
• Energizing the organization through leadership
• Delivering strategy through the top team
• Managing the board
• Communicating with stakeholders all of the time
• Meeting the diversity challenge
• Surviving the global jungle
• Balancing work/life demands

Each chapter is set within a specific context, sets a challenge, and defines the results — showing how each client was guided towards these desired results.

There are multiple pressures facing any CEO today. With rapid technological advances, a greater risk when going into any international enterprise, and changing regulations, the organizations of global proportions require a CEO who can communicate, motivate, develop talent, push for growth and profits, run a multi-lingual, multi-cultural corporation…all the while maintaining that delicate work/life balance.

Developing bifocal vision

Bifocal vision means balancing your long-term vision for the company with your short-term vision. Your main responsibility as chief executive officer is to develop a clear vision of where your company is going. So you need three things:

• Time to think about your vision (translation: desired concrete results)
• Get clear on long-term and short-term goals
• Acknowledge that you don't have all the answers!

Also know when to be "hands-on" and "hands-off". Some CEOs are such control freaks, and are extremely anal about everything. Some are so engulfed by the big picture that they fail to fix the small leaks.

Make sure you have a strong senior executive group. Because nobody can do it all by herself/himself, you need to surround yourself with a strong alliance.

The Client Profile in this chapter features a CEO by the name of Matthew, whose challenge is to balance priorities between meeting short-term profit commitments and positioning the company for long-term growth. . . . . . . .