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TRANSCRIPT
Over the last year, we have been searching for several senior executives to join our team. While we have an extraordinary team, we have bumped into resource constraints. Said plainly, we don’t have enough time. The business doubled, the team tripled, and the caffeine intake quadrupled.
Whenever I spoke to a prospective candidate, I would find myself saying we need additional ‘executive capacity.’ Given my disdain for buzzwords, an internal voice would come over the PA and say, “You need to be clear, Kelly. What the heck is executive capacity anyways?”
Throughout those searches, I formed my perspective and thought I’d share how I describe executive capacity and, by extension, what it means to be an executive.
Titles, positions, and more buzzwordiness.
Organizations have managers, directors, Vice Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, Executive Vice Presidents, and Senior Executive Vice Presidents - phew. That's a lot.
But wait, there are more. There are CEOs, CIOs, COOs, CTOs, CDOs, CMOs, CLOs, CPOs, and CAOs. There are two CAOs - accounting and administration. There are even CHOs - Chief Happiness Officers. No, really. It's a thing.
I'm missing some Cs, Vs, and who knows what else. I loathe titles but recognize their usefulness in providing clarity - maybe.
Along with all of these titles, we have managers and leaders. With no shortage of answers in the world describing the difference between those, I'll leave it to the google machine to answer that fully. Because I believe executives must be both managers and leaders, I want to share my thoughts on the differences quickly.
Management = head focused
Leader = heart focused
Executive Capacity - what the heck?
Like being a leader, a title does not grant you entrance into Executiveville. This is about capability and capacity.
Executives are:
Vertical experts
Horizontally connected
Calm and calming
Clarifiers
Simplifiers
Now let’s dive into each one.
Vertical Experts
Deep functional expertise allows executives to go” vertical” They know their functional area (finance, marketing, etc.) better than most. They can go deep and get down into the weeds, or they can go very high and paint a vision related to their functional area.
Horizontally Connected
While they are world-class vertically, they know enough to pick their head up out of their functional silo and look left and right. They understand the adjacent verticals enough to think through the issues and opportunities. They are dot connectors. They are capable of bringing disparate ideas, functions, and people together.
Additionally, they recognize that they play a role in a larger group. As an executive, they must fight against creating silos of excellence and fiefdoms. They are particularly passionate about NOT weaponizing of power, information, or title.
Calm & Calming
A tremendous amount falls on these leaders’ shoulders- the organization's requirements, the emergencies, and the needs of their humans. Generally, their choices range from horrible to cataclysmic. It can feel like a front-end loader is constantly dumping massive rocks into their rucksack of responsibility.
Executives have a superpower - they respond, not react.
They handle stress and pressure while maintaining composure. Over their career, they have faced issue after issue, and ultimately it all works out - one way or another. Most importantly, they know what to do when faced with tough situations or decisions.
For me, when the pressure is at its highest, I have five things I try to remember. I might not always be successful, but I give it my best.
1. Focus on what I can control
2. Stay positive
3. Stay consistent but flexible
4. Communicate constantly
5. Don't forget the mission
They know they must manage their psychology and put their oxygen masks on before helping others.
Clarity
As the pressure mounts, executives work to see what is happening. They want to understand reality, not perceptions. They seek clarity of thought, communication, and priorities.
They work to slow down, even stop, to assess the situation. They know the fog of war has an astonishing ability to enable bad decisions. They work to let the water settle so they can see the bottom clearly.
Maintaining internal clarity is crucial. It's impossible to be clear with the team if you can’t see clearly inside yourself. Clarity allows them to quickly work with their teams to take the rocks in their rucksack and redistribute them. Either to other teammates or, better yet, toss them out entirely and leave them on the side of the road.
While it can be frustrating to those around them, they also try to make decisions as late as possible. The answer is often clear, but they don't make decisions until they must. This provides more time for more information and to let things develop. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
I love this from Peter Drucker
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
If you haven't read the Effective Executive, I highly recommend it. I will share my highlights in the notes below. 1
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
Given the complexities of the modern world and the fact that humans are infinitely complex, executives must simplify, simplify, and simplify more. Simple in ideas and communication.
Executives must chip away all the noise to help everyone understand what is happening and what we must do next. There is nothing easy about that, and it takes time.
To be clear, simple is hard. In 1857 Henry David Thoreau wrote a letter to a friend and commented on the difficulty of simplifying.
Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.
Takeaways about Executives
Functional (vertical) experts
Horizontal dot connectors while constantly breaking down silos
They are calm - they respond, not react
Clarity: ABC - Always Be Clarifying
Simplicity is hard - when you think it's simple, make it 50% simpler.
I hope you found this helpful. And if you did, please share it with someone, tap like, or leave a comment.
Take care out there.
Credits2
Hightlights from PeterDrucker'ss The Effective Executive - https://kellyvohs.notion.site/The-Effective-Executive-6d6a5363dd6e4c538a0074d07d4cdd30
NDTV.com. “PM Modi and PresidentObama'ss Joint Radio Address: Full Transcript“ NDTV.com, NDTV, 28 Jan. 2015, https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pm-modi-and-president-obamas-joint-radio-address-full-transcript-734743.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Directed by John Hughes, performances by Matthew Broderick. Paramount Pictures, 1986.
Braveheart. Directed by John Hughes, performances by Matthew Broderick. Paramount Pictures, 1986.
Seven Years In Tibet. Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, performances by Brad Pitt. Sony Pictures, 1997.
American Airlines Safety Video. YouTube, uploaded by American Airlines, 22 September 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXb28mVZiJo
Are you an executive?