086: How Should CEOs Spend Their Time?

As a leader, are you spending enough time with your front-line teams and trying to understand what is and isn’t working in your business? In this episode, Andrea talks about how most CEOs spend their time and more importantly asks, how should they be spending it? Andrea also talks about research into the topic as well as real-life examples of what working with your front-line staff can do for your business, exhibited by companies such as Starbucks, Uber and Airbnb.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• 70% of CEO’s time is spent in meetings, 6% with front-line teams and just 3% with customers.
• Leadership teams won’t see much of customers but they need to make time to spend time with those who do so they have context and understand the customer.
• A CEO that spends more of their time on the front line will become in very high demand in the upcoming years.
• Both the CEO of Starbucks and the Airbnb CEO have proved that getting ‘their hands dirty’ so to speak and spending time on the front line allowed them to make impactful changes in their businesses for the better.
• Spending time on the front line isn’t just good for morale and the company culture but also about motivating teams, retaining good employees as well as being able to achieve incredible increases in company performance.
• As CEO you are the role model, if you spend time on the front line then so will your leadership team and beyond.

BEST BITS

“It’s more important to spend time with people at the front, people talking with the customers every single day, people who see what works and what doesn’t work every single day”

“The future CEO is going in the front and really understands what is going on with the business and stops assuming”

“It’s a unique opportunity to see the business with a different lens, so you can make it better”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

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ABOUT THE HOST

My name is Andrea Petrone. I'm a Human Performance and Leadership Advisor, Executive Coach and International Speaker. I help leaders and their teams to change their mindsets and master their leadership capabilities so they can achieve extraordinary performance. I've been in the corporate world for more than 20 years working globally - in 6 countries and 3 continents - for medium-large companies.