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In today’s highly competitive business landscape, a Chief Executive Officer (or CEO) plays a primary role in shaping their company’s marketplace success. Without exception, top-tier CEOs possess a suite of essential traits that help to drive the business forward.
Private equity management consultant Kevin Modany is well acquainted with many of these attributes. In addition to executive management and strategic planning skills, he excels in risk management and financial planning. Kevin Modany details all exceptional CEOs’ ten key characteristics in their toolkits. He also offers experience-based insights on several key attributes.
A company’s Chief Executive Officer formulates the vision that will drive the business’ operations. This exercise requires big-picture thinking along with knowledge of the industry and familiarity with the company’s product or service offerings. The CEO should also be attuned to the business’ competitive landscape.
Next, the CEO and their executive team create a mission that enables the company to realize its lofty vision. Finally, they communicate the vision and mission to all relevant stakeholders. Kevin Modany emphasizes that employees, customers or clients, and external partners can all play key roles in bringing the company’s vision to fruition. The CEO should encourage all parties to align with the vision and act in ways that support it.
A successful Chief Executive Officer must be willing to do the hard work necessary to move the company forward. Whether these efforts involve hands-on management or strategic oversight, the CEO should remain dedicated to finding and implementing solutions aligned with the firm’s vision and mission.
Finally, the CEO must insist on excellence in every facet of the business’ operations. Even with budget or resource constraints, the CEO should always commit to delivering a quality product or service to the marketplace.
Kevin Modany stresses that the CEO should set a high bar for themselves and the company’s employees. With that said, however, a confident CEO hires well-qualified, hard-working team members and allows them to thrive rather than micromanaging them.
A Chief Executive Officer serves as the company’s voice. Whether speaking to employees, external partners, or investors, the CEO must have the communication skills to clearly and succinctly get the message across. At the same time, the CEO should be willing to listen to all involved parties’ concerns.
Transparency is key to all effective communication. The CEO should prioritize open, honest discourse that leads to good collaboration and enables positive outcomes. Kevin Modany brings this approach to every interaction.
“If you ask me a question, you’ve got to be careful because I will give you an answer, and I don’t believe in anything other than being honest and forthright. Sometimes, it’s painful, but you’ve got to be truthful. That’s the way I am, and that’s the way I’ve always been,” Kevin Modany emphasized.
A collaboration-minded Chief Executive Officer brings a “win-win” mindset to their interactions with executive team members and employees. The CEO also brings this collaborative approach to their engagements with external partners and investors.
Even while faced with significant challenges, the CEO sees opportunities for problem resolution and company growth. In every interaction, the CEO ensures that everyone is treated with respect. This empathetic leader also encourages and values each person’s contributions.
Taking it a step further, Kevin Modany notes that a good leader can motivate their team toward effective collaboration. When everyone comes together to find a solution, one will likely emerge. He details the dynamics of this process.
“The objective of a leader should be to get the people motivated, that they want to run through a wall for you. You get them to be motivated to want to work with you and accomplish objectives. A component of that is being honest and transparent and truthful,” Kevin Modany remarked.
When a Chief Executive Officer is faced with an operations or strategy decision, they take all relevant factors into account. Today, many CEOs also gather and analyze data in the decision process. Regional or national sales data, a marketing campaign’s quantitative results, and technology-driven production efficiency improvements are all examples of useful data.
Private equity management consultant Kevin Modany is a strong advocate for data-driven decision-making. He cites a hypothetical example in which an executive delivers an anecdotally based proposal without any supporting data. In contrast, the firm’s janitor produces a data-based business case that makes a convincing argument. Not surprisingly, Kevin Modany opts for the janitor’s proposal.
“I’m a big data-driven person. I use this analogy: Let’s say I had an executive vice president come to me with an idea or an initiative or something or investment requests, and it was anecdotally based. And they just said I feel like, I think, really I dreamt about this last night, right, we should do it.
“At the same time, the janitor walked in and had a statistically valid business case with empirical data that supported the argument. I’m going with the janitor. I’m not going with the EVP. I don’t care what your title is, I don’t care what clothes you have on, I don’t care how good you look or how good you talk. None of that means anything to me.
“I do know that as I matured as a leader, I got better at understanding how to use data and how it can be impactful. There’s still qualitative considerations, and you always have to have that as part of the equation, but it’s really good to start with the data,” Kevin Modany emphasizes.
Regardless of the industry, a company’s business landscape can substantially change with little warning. A highly adaptable Chief Executive Officer can, with input from their executive team, quickly adjust course to take full advantage of new opportunities and navigate emerging challenges.
Concurrently, the CEO should keep the company’s vision and mission at the forefront, with all strategies and activities aligning with these ideals. In the process, they will likely take calculated risks based on a deep understanding of the variables involved.
As the internal and external face of an organization, the Chief Executive Officer is accountable for the company’s ongoing performance. When the firm realizes its revenue targets, the CEO will likely receive praise for their leadership. However, when an executive makes an incorrect decision or otherwise takes the business in the wrong direction, they must be willing to admit their mistake.
The CEO should also expect the company’s employees, managers, and Board of Directors’ members to be accountable for their behavior. Kevin Modany discusses a scenario in which a portfolio company’s executives were disparaging each other in conversations with investors.
As a strong accountability proponent, Kevin Modany describes how he would approach this situation. “You just say, ’Listen, we’re open and honest here. We’re transparent. Do you want to talk about somebody? Do it in front of their face. If I have something to say to you, you’re going to be the first one to know about it, “ Kevin Modany remarked.
In today’s highly competitive business marketplace, a Chief Executive Officer must use multiple tactics to excel in their industry. They may innovate new products or modify existing ones to meet changing market demand. A service-based business might offer a new service or repackage existing services in new ways.
New technologies are often key to a company’s innovation. Working with the business’ Research and Development Team, the CEO must evaluate and potentially move forward with technologies that will help the firm to stand out in its industry. Private equity management consultant Kevin Modany endorses ongoing innovation as key to a company’s continued growth.
Providing executive-level business leadership requires a high degree of emotional intelligence. An emotionally intelligent Chief Executive Officer is able to successfully manage their emotions and take a logical approach to managing the business.
Concurrently, a CEO with high emotional intelligence empathizes with the business’ employees. As Kevin Modany notes, a forward-thinking executive values workers’ contributions and strives to maintain an uplifting work environment. When making decisions, an emotionally intelligent CEO takes actions that align with the firm’s goals while offering valued benefits to employees.
A growth-oriented Chief Executive Officer understands that prioritizing employee development is a “win-win” for both parties. Companies that invest in robust training programs, and offer good career growth opportunities at every level, are likely to attract quality job candidates. Once hired, these employees will be more likely to remain with the company.
Kevin Modany emphasizes that the firm also benefits from a versatile, well-trained workforce. Employees who learn new skills, and obtain desirable certifications, will be in a better position to drive the business’ continued success.
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