A day in a CEO’s life!

With budding entrepreneurs in the pipeline, there will be a whole package of  great CEOs in the country. Ever thought about what a CEO does on a daily basis? What  skills do you need to possess and how can you get work done? This week we have looked at the key skills required to make it to the top and will give you a glimpse of how a CEO spends his / her day! Let us first understand the role of  a CEO:

A Chief Executive Officer is responsible for the every-day management and implementation of a company’s long-term and short-term plans. He is the leader, visionary, decision-maker, and manager of the company and its employees. Someone who the employees look up to.

In order to execute such responsibilities, one needs to possess the following skills:

• Leadership and motivation: A CEO advises the Board, promotes the organisation and looks into the operations of different departments. He / she delegates projects to the managers on the basis  of their skills and strengths. He / she chiefly motivates the employees in the organisation and creates a vision!

• Team-work and people skills: It is the CEO who is the interface between the Board and company, between the company and community. Assures the organization and its mission, programs, products and services are consistently presented in strong, positive image to relevant stakeholders.
• Management and decision-making: It is the CEO who recommends the yearly budget for and prudently manages organization’s resources within those budget guidelines according to current laws and regulations. Implementation of plans and management of  human resource is among the key role of a CEO. Eventually the buck stops with the CEO so they need to feel fully responsible for all outcomes, whether good or bad!

Let’s take a closer look at the day of a CEO! According to a survey conducted by CEO.com, about 80% CEOs wake up at 6 am and work an average of 57.8 hours hours a week (10 – 11 hours per day). CEOs spend around 2.5 hours in meetings everyday, interacting with executives, stakeholders and customers. The CEOs travel often for work. On average, 86% spend between 1 – 10 days of the month on the road or in flights. When tallying up the amount of time they spend on projects or activities each day, a CEO is busy far more than 24 hours every day, while remaining positive about what they can achieve in that time period.