It has been said over and over again: chief executives must do more than preside over their companies' operations and strategy. Instead, they must take on every unaccounted for intangible. From visions for the future of the business to the culture its employees live every day, a chief executive officer is responsible for making the decisions that hold a company, no mater how big or small, together.
While it may seem far from a CEO's typical day-to-day concerns, the duty of establishing a company's culture falls squarely onto his shoulders. Although not as obvious an executive responsibility as advising the board of directors, having a clearly defined and exemplified company culture is nonetheless integral to a company's success.
When hiring CEOs, it is important to consider whether the candidates will be up to the challenge of identifying and promoting the qualities they want their organizations to adhere to. They must be willing to take on the guise of "chief cultural officer" in addition to their duties as chief executive. To succeed in this chief cultural officer (CCO) role, a CEO must prove to be:
- Creative: At the early stages, a company is like a blank canvas. The CEO must be able to design an image the whole company can work toward. This will require not only strategic planning, but the ability to come up with a unique solution that could have a profound effect on the company.
- Engaging: The CEO's job is not done once he or she designs the culture. The CEO must also ensure the workforce is able to understand and embrace it. This means going beyond the big-picture and focusing on details. How will the onboarding process instill the culture from the get go? How will veteran employees engage with the company's new vision? A cultural CEO must be able to both create and implement the answers to these questions.
- Dynamic: As a company grows and its needs change, the culture will need to change along with it. A CCO must be able to simultaneously adapt to a changing landscape without losing sight of the original principles and values on which the culture was originally built.
Working with a retained executive search firm can help your company identify CEO candidates who have experience creating and molding organizational cultures to maximize productivity and engagement.
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