Someone Finally Told Me I Needed to Be a More Strategic CEO
And thank god he did.
Six months into the CEO role, I thought I had it figured out. The business was running. The board was mostly happy. My calendar was packed. I was productive, visible, making decisions.
Then one of my employees, brave as hell, pulled me aside and said it plainly:
"We need a more strategic CEO."
Not more present. Not more decisive. More strategic.
It landed like a gut punch. Because deep down, I knew he was right.
I was still operating like a COO. Actually, I was still the COO - I hadn't even replaced myself yet. I was doing both roles, which meant I was doing neither properly.
Operations had always been my strength. Give me a performance challenge and I'd fix it. But that's exactly what kept pulling me back down.
The problem? No one tells you what a CEO actually does with their time once they're not doing all the other stuff.
The Whirlwind Phase
The first 6 to 18 months of any CEO role are a blur. You're diagnosing, stabilising, learning the politics, building trust. You're focused on internal transformation before you can execute on anything strategic.
Every CEO I've interviewed says the same thing: head down, everything urgent, moving fast.
And then one day, you look up.
You can breathe. You know the business. You've got momentum.
And that's when the real decision hits.
Because unless you decide to lift your gaze and get up and out of the business, the day-to-day will consume you just as effectively as it did in the first phase.
No one else will make this shift for you.
Not your board. Not your exec team. Not your EA.
This is where most CEOs plateau without realizing it.
What Changed for Me
After that conversation, I had to get honest about where my time was actually going. Not where I thought it was going - where it was actually going.
I was still running operations. Still holding COO decisions. Still stepping into problems because that's what I'd always done, and frankly, because I was good at it.
But being good at something doesn't mean you should keep doing it.
Strategy wasn't something I lacked understanding of. It was something I lacked discipline around.
So I built it.
Three Shifts That Made the Difference
1. I created structure to stay out of firefighting mode
I started every morning with a daily huddle - 20 minutes where I could see across the entire business. I did it primarily for my COO and General Managers to have line of sight across their portfolios AND to know where they needed to dive in. For me it ensured the team were aligned and working on what mattered each day.
No more getting pulled into operational fires. The huddle surfaced what needed attention before it became urgent.
2. I forced external focus into every day
Future focus. Time to learn. Time to connect outside the business.
This wasn't optional calendar time that got pushed when things got busy. It was protected with the same rigor as board commitments.
Because if I wasn't looking up and out, I was just managing what already existed instead of building what came next.
I also said goodbye loudly each day, giving my team permission to leave, to balance, to not burn out. Modeling what I expected from them.
3. I learned to ask one question constantly
You could solve this, but should you?
That question alone changed everything.
Just because I could step in didn't mean I should. Just because I was good at operations didn't mean that's where my value lived anymore.
Every time I was tempted to jump into a problem, I asked it. And most of the time, the answer was no.
I also had to learn how to actually use an EA - not just for booking travel, but as a partner in managing my energy and sustainability. That meant letting go of control over my calendar and trusting someone else to protect my strategic time.
Where Most CEOs Get Stuck
Between 6 and 18 months in, expectations change.
Boards stop wanting reassurance and start wanting foresight.
Teams stop needing direction and start needing alignment.
Stakeholders stop asking what you're fixing and start watching where you're taking the organisation.
But most CEOs keep operating as if nothing's changed. They stay embedded in their old role. They stay close to what they know. They stay reactive because it feels productive and familiar.
And then another 18 months passes.
Then another.
And they're asking themselves why the big strategic moves feel slower than expected, why their agenda keeps getting crowded out, why they feel busy but not always impactful.
This isn't about capability. It's about discipline.
The Cost of Not Shifting
If this shift doesn't happen, the cost is rarely immediate.
It shows up later as fatigue. Frustration. A quiet sense that you're working incredibly hard but not always on the things that matter most.
And boards feel it, even when they can't articulate it.
The difference between a good CEO and a truly impactful one isn't intelligence or work ethic.
It's the ability to move yourself out of the centre of execution and into the role of architect, amplifier, and strategic anchor.
If This Sounds Familiar
Those three shifts - creating structure, forcing external focus, and asking "should you" instead of "could you" - were my practical moves.
But the strategic framework that held them all together? That came from cracking three specific codes about focus, alignment, and culture.
If you want to see how those codes work together, I've recorded a free training that walks through exactly that. It's called The CEO Code, and you can watch it when you're ready to make the shift.
Because the shift is coming whether you name it or not.
The question is whether you take charge of it - or let another 18 months slip by.
