People have often wondered what exactly is it that CEOs do that has brought them to this level. While several studies have been performed in the past, none were as wide-ranging as a latest that has tracked more than a thousand CEOs from six different countries. Even an algorithm has been devised to break down CEOs’ activities into planned and sudden. Different kinds of CEOs were experienced in this study. They were broadly observed to be from two categories- “managers” and “leaders”. The former were more hands-on and spent time on plant visits addressing people, while the latter would have more personal chats, interact more with the C-Suite members and be more distant from the actual factory floor. The study revealed the latter to be more successful. About 25% of CEOs’ time was spent by themselves including browsing through mails, another tenth on personal matter and 8% of time on travel. Two-thirds of the rest of the time is spent in groups, while the remaining on one-one-one meetups. The most common departments they spend time in that order are production, marketing and finance. The appointment of the “Leader” type CEO invariably led to improved productivity. While some companies require hands-on experience managers, others require the visionaries, who are great at executing the corporate strategy and communicate the same effectively to team members.

Source:https://hbr.org/2017/10/a-survey-of-how-1000-ceos-spend-their-day-reveals-what-makes-leaders-successful

Uploaded Date:21 October 2017