CEO Today Magazine October 2019 Edition

TIPS & ADVICE www.ceotodaymagazine.com 26 Rita Trehan is a sought-after international speaker, renowned business transformation expert and CEO of global transformation consultancy Dare Worldwide. She’s helped Fortune 200 companies and large corporations worldwide to improve operational efficiency, performance, consistency, and profits. Although she cut her teeth in the realm of HR, her ambition and imagination has driven her beyond such parameters to become the strategy guru, and often the energy, behind a host of successful CEOs worldwide. Below she shares her five key pieces of advice that will help new CEOs hit the ground running. When I work with new CEOs, one of the first things they ask me is “what should I do in my new position?” It takes more than future planning and strong processes to be a great CEO. When you embark on your new role, the chances are you’ll be confronted with a number of problems and challenges. Most CEOs won’t know the whole story of what they are inheriting, so the big question is: how do you deliver quickly while at the same time, making sure that you’re doing the right due diligence to understand the organisation? 1. Listen and understand Seek to understand first, and then act. The desire to “do” and “act fast”, can be hard to resist, yet few CEOs (unless perhaps an internal successor), have enough information or insight to know whether their assumptions about what to act on, are in fact accurate. Listening as often as possible and taking the time to understand what is being said. Is key to long term success. When I say that a leader needs to listen and understand, I do mean this very literally. I would like to see more CEOs taking the time to speak to people both within and outside of the organisation. In my experience, the best way to learn about the business you are taking on is to make certain that you really understand it from the perspective of those doing the work, day-to-day and not limiting this to just what they are doing but also what and how they are thinking about what could be done in the future. It’s also important to gather insights from external stakeholders; from customers 1 5 Leadership Lessons for New CEOs By Christel Queck, Co Founder of BOLT By Rita Trehan, CEO of Dare Worldwide