Three ways to assess and improve CEO performance

Executive overview

Most CEOs who struggle aren't failing — they've outgrown their operating system. There are three clear signals that reveal whether a CEO is performing: team output, calendar discipline, and vision connected to today's priorities.

A CEO's job is to do less over time while the team produces more — not to become more productive themselves.

The three performance signals

• Team output is the CEO's output — if the team isn't hitting goals, the CEO isn't effective, regardless of effort
• Productivity means product of activity: busy without output is just busy
• Calendar reveals leverage: one-on-ones with key leaders are high-leverage; a fully blocked calendar is a warning sign
• White space is not wasted time — it absorbs unexpected problems and opportunities
• An ever-widening inverse correlation between the CEO's individual contribution and the team's output is the goal
• Vision requires two things: anticipating the future and connecting it to the right next action for today
• Founder CEOs are often strong at casting future vision but weak at translating it into today's priorities

What not to do when performance is lagging

• Don't try to become more productive — the answer is to do less, not more
• Don't add headcount — good people don't fix broken systems; broken systems break good people
• Don't pursue random sales and marketing tactics — stalled growth usually signals a capacity or systems problem, not a missing tactic

The real fix: upgrade the operating system

• Underperformance is almost always a systems problem, not a skills or effort problem
• Just as software outgrows old operating systems, businesses outgrow their processes and models
• Struggling CEOs who are working hard and skilled are likely victims of their own success — the business grew, the system didn't
• The right response is to audit the operating system, not add complexity