CEO Leadership Habits with Gene Hammett

In this episode, I explore the key habits that CEOs should adopt to improve their effectiveness and leadership within fast-growing companies. I underscore the significance of daily practices like praising employees specifically to enhance morale and foster a culture of recognition. Weekly, I recommend reviewing calendars to optimize time management and reduce unproductive meetings. For monthly routines, I stress the value of one-on-one meetings that serve both as check-ins and coaching sessions, emphasizing the need for active listening to support employee development. Lastly, I discuss quarterly reflections on organizational goals, advocating for regular business reviews to assess progress and adaptability. My insights aim to guide CEOs towards refining their leadership style and strengthening their company culture.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:32Speaker 01

  The daily habit that you should do might not be a surprise to some of you, but some of you think that you don't need to do this. And it's praise your employees. When you praise your employees, you're being specific about what you want, what you see in their work and their attitude that you like. And when you praise that, people will feel connected to you, they will feel heard, and they will have a little bit of a spring in their step, or maybe a glimmer in their eye when you praise them. Welcome to Growth Think Tank. This is the one and only place where you will get insight from the founders and the CEOs of the fastest growing privately held companies. I am the host. My name is Gene Hemmott. I help leaders and their teams navigate the defining moments of their growth. Are you ready to grow?

• 1:18Speaker 01

  Today, we want to talk about CEO leadership habits. My name is Gene Hammett. I'm an executive coach, been doing this for over 10 years, and I work primarily with fast growth company leaders. And those CEOs really have a lot of struggles that I've seen just from the interviews I've had and my coaching clients as they go through different phases of growth in their business. And so I thought I would share with you just some of the habits that you might want to adopt if you are a CEO looking to optimize your time and your effectiveness. Now, I'm going to break these up into what you should do each day, what you should do each week, what you should do each month, and what you should do each quarter. And when I say habits, what I really mean behind this is

• 2:02Speaker 01

  what are the things that you're doing on a day to day basis? And how are you engaging with your team and leading your team? And those habits are the The you know, kind of the things that you do on a regular basis. So let's jump in. The daily habit that you should do might not be a surprise to some of you, but some of you think that you don't need to do this. And it's praise your employees. When you praise your employees, you're being specific about what you want. Uh, what you see in their work and their attitude that you like. And when you praise that, people will feel connected to you. They will feel heard and they will um. Have a little bit of a a spring in their step or maybe a glimmer in their eye when you praise them. Now you may be thinking you don't have to praise your employees because you pay them a paycheck and you give them other benefits.

• 2:47Speaker 01

  But here's the reality. If you want a culture that is innovative and you want people that are loyal. They want to know that they're doing a good job. So you should be looking out across your organization and find at least one person per day. And say something nice to them. Be specific. Don't be general. Don't just say good work. Get really specific with that, you know, if you can. If you can't think of something nice to say about an employee. One of the things I will remind you of, you have to wonder if they should be on your team. And only you can decide that. But that's the daily habit, praise your employee. The weekly habit is you should review your calendar. I think a lot of meetings keep going, showing up on your calendar every week.

• 3:29Speaker 01

  And you want to make sure that at the end of the week, you were reviewing how effective you were with your time. And then make some specific changes and and and next week and try to refine that. Maybe take the hour long meetings down to forty five minutes or thirty minutes. Take thirty minute meetings down to twenty minutes, fifteen minutes. But the point is, don't let this just kind of you show up every day and just let it go. Look at your time and do that. One of the things I like to do is color code my time. By the main categories that really help me. So at a glance, I can see how I'm spending my time. In coaching my employees or coaching my clients. Those are different. How I spend my time marketing or how I spend my time in sales or how I spend my time on uh meetings that are outside with external people.

• 4:14Speaker 01

  And I color code those so that I can see at a glance. And I can tell you, you're probably going to too many meetings or you're. Having too many meetings with external people that are wasting your time. And I know I say that because I'd love to have a meeting with you. If you're a CEO that wants to to move forward and you think that I could help you, I'd love to have that chat about your time. Now, let's look at the monthly. Now, I will actually say that you should do this more often. But at the very minimum, every person that reports to you, you should sit down with them one on one, could be Zoom, could be in person. But you listen to what they're doing. You look for things that that are doing well. You look for, you help them, support them through challenges and you coach them. It isn't just about how's the work going.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  Maybe they're struggling with making a decision on something and you want to help them build their confidence. And you coach them through that. Now, a lot of CEOs think they don't need coaching skills because they are have risen to the top. I disagree with that concept. I think that you should have some basic coaching skills. And you should do that at least on a monthly basis with every direct report, if not biweekly and some people weekly. Now, quarterly, the the CEO habit that I would like to remind you is is if you've got goals or OKRs, either one, you want to make sure that you are looking at the the organization's goals and you're going to see where you are. You're going to look backwards. You're going to also set new goals and new intentions or new objectives for the the coming quarter.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  Now, if you sit down with your executive team and do this as a team, it really is quite powerful. One of the details I've used with my clients before is a quarterly business review, which everyone's going to have a different structure. But inside that quarterly rhythm, you're going to look backwards and you're going to plan forward so you can be intentional. Now, there's some other CEO habits that I haven't touched on today. But this is just a little bit of an insight around the CEO habits that will help you be the best leader you can be. My name is Gene Hammett. I'm an executive coach. We we help fast growth companies grow. And if you are facing a new level of growth or new opportunity and you are fast growth, then you want to make sure that you send me an email, [email protected]. [email protected].

• 6:25Speaker 01

  Sorry, I kind of ran through that really fast. I would love for you to to have a conversation about what's going on and see and help you identify any blind spots that might be getting in the way. So when you think of growth and you think of leadership, think of growth, think tank. As always, with your courage, we'll see you next time.