Here are some ways your CEO could be even more helpful to your company than they already are.
I have known and worked with hundreds and maybe thousands of CEOs, managing partners, and presidents of AEC firms over my 44-year career in this business. And the conclusion I have come to is that many of them are underutilized. And I’m not talking about underutilized in terms of how much of their time is charged to billable projects. I’m talking about using their position and talents surgically to help make their businesses be more successful.
Obviously some CEOs of firms in our business are crazy busy and do a good job on many of these things. But maybe they could be used even more effectively.
Here are some ways your CEO could potentially be even more helpful to your company than they already are:
- Selling a project. It’s surprising to me how often I hear about large project opportunities for a firm where the CEO has not been at all engaged to help sell the job. Whether it’s calls to people inside the client organization to show interest, or visiting the client and going to any presentations to assure full commitment of the firm to the project, having your top person involved can increase the chances of selling the job. And by the way – the larger your firm is, the more valuable having your CEO show interest is going to be. It impresses the client.
- Solving problems on a project. Your top person in the firm is likely one of the most experienced people at doing what your firm does. That could be solving design problems but could also be solving problems with regulatory agencies or relationships between people inside and outside of the organization. Don’t be afraid to employ them when needed. I think sometimes the next level down is afraid to do so. They feel it is their job to deal with these things and think they have failed when they drag in the top person in the firm to help out on a project. But maybe it’s just the smart thing to do. Egos can be harmful to your success. People need to know that the top person is there to help versus judge them.
- Solving problems with a client. The client may be slow to pay. The client may be changing roles of people inside their organization and it’s causing problems. Sometimes the CEO has relationships with the higher-ups inside client organizations that can be used to make the client aware of issues inside their own organizations that are affecting their success and the CEO can tactfully bring attention to these problems when necessary. Use them.
- Bringing a past client back to the firm. A past client may be the easiest path to new work. And sometimes these old relationships suffered when the firm had problems on a project or changed people who were dealing with that client that hurt the relationship. The CEO may be best able to confront these issues and bring that old client back into the fold. Employ them here!
- Recruiting new employees. A quick visit or even call from the CEO to a job candidate the firm is highly interested in could be all it takes to get that person to accept a job offer that is already made or is coming. That level of interest is rare and may make the job candidate feel more comfortable accepting an offer if they know they are known to the top person in the company.
- Turning around a key employee who is quitting. I’m not big on making counteroffers to those who turn their notice in but there are times it makes sense. Especially when someone has had their ego bruised or doesn’t know the company’s long-term plans for them. The CEO is probably the best person in the company to involve in these situations. He or she will be best equipped to sell the opportunity and give assurances to solve whatever problems or roadblocks the employee thinks are insurmountable and are making them want to leave.
- Getting other firms to want to sell or merge with the firm. The CEO is always going to be the best person to involve when trying to interest another company in selling to or merging with your firm. Don’t wait too long to involve them and you may find your efforts to get other firms to join you are more successful.
- Educating people in the business aspects of the business. The CEO is likely to be the person who best understands the full financial situation of the firm and can probably explain that effectively to the other people in the company who don’t have the same business experience they have. So use them! Involving them in training the other people to better understand critical financial metrics and how to impact them could be pivotal to the firm’s success. And selling everyone in the company on the business plan and how the firm’s success could impact their individual success is a really important job and something worth the CEO’s time and attention.
So maybe I have nothing profound to offer here for some of our readers whose CEOs or managing partners are doing all of these things. But my guess is most of your top people are not doing all of them. Fully employ your top people in each of these roles described above and my guess is you will see positive results from it!
Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.
