The CEO; Is it about Prestige or responsibility?

By Dr. Ernest Abaho

Every one strives to be a CEO including myself. This responsibility is seldom viewed by many as tasking but rather they see it as a title. To me from the entrepreneurship context it is a responsibility that if there was an opportunity, I would change its taxonomy. You must be wondering why I view a CEO as a responsibility rather than prestige. Here are someof the reasons.

Leadership.

As a leader, the CEO is expected to share his/her qualities with the rest of the people that work in the company. The benefit with this is that you will easily share your vision and passion for the growth of the business because there will be a reduced mental gap between yourself and the rest of the team. Today, we live in a dynamic environment where the CEO as a leader must foster and lead change at all level of the business. The leader in you justifies your CEO position; do you inspire the team, are you exemplary, do you listen to others’ problems and aspirations; do you command organizational citizenship and compassion? If no, work on it as soon as possible. To become a good leader you need to play the Coach/Player role. That is when you will have a strategic contribution to your company.

Risk.

While success is always attributed to the CEO, failure is seldom associated with him/her. Instead, there will be one person to hold responsible for the failure. This person is usually a line manager or a star staff who will always be blamed. We can take an example of a sports team. Usually, the star players are blamed when there is a loss and then the coaches praised when there is a win.

The truth is; a CEO bears the risk of being the “receptionist