"What's Up e-Doc?"

As CEO, you need to work on the business: its purpose, direction, strategy, structure, systems, people, goals, and accountability processes. See the whole business, not just its parts. Have an aerial view to know where you want to go and how you want to shape your business. Instead of shuffling papers or doing the bookkeeping, decide how to make your company different, better, more profitable and more systems-oriented. Think and act like a business architect. Again, your goal is to design and shape a business that serves you and works independently from you -- a business that is systems-dependent and not owner-dependent. You want a business that runs nearly on autopilot and spits out cash.

As a leader, you need to be more strategic, long-term focused; and less fixated on the tactical/technical, day-to-day. If you don't focus on the entire business, no one else will. It will just drift or run aground. So how do you stop thinking and acting like an employee or technician? Here are eight steps to consider seriously:

1	First, change the metaphor in your head for what it means to be an owner. Regardless of your industry or the size of your business, start viewing yourself as a CEO, not an employee. Instead of seeing yourself as a role player, see yourself as a head coach. The effective owners I know prefer to view themselves as a director, conductor, facilitator, or captain. Either way, choose a metaphor for what it means to be a leader.
2	To help with this mindset transformation, start referring to yourself as CEO. Put it on your business card, stationery, etc. Using the term CEO will force you to see your company as an entity above and beyond yourself, as a separate and valuable asset that needs to be professionally managed and optimized. You are not the business and the business is not you. Spend time and energy helping to build, improve and optimize this asset. For example, focus on how to grow sales, expand your competitive advantage, and increase your value to customers.
3	Consider that as CEO, you get paid at least the equivalent of $200 an hour to professionally manage this separate entity and valuable asset - your business. Ask yourself before you touch any task, "Would a CEO do this?" Or ask, "Is this task worth me doing at a cost of $200 an hour?" Don't spend a dollar's worth of time on a dime decision or task. Elevate your vision, thinking and tasks.
4	If you truly buy into your role as a CEO, you should be willing to give up the urgent, less important, low-value tasks you routinely handle. Realize that 80% of your results come from 20% of your talents and activities. Delegate the 80% of your activities that only produce 20% of your results. Stop doing the wrong kind of work. CEOs should think, lead and delegate -- not handle trivial matters. Your job as CEO is to design, re-design, and grow the business; your managers' main job is to improve the business; and your employees' various jobs are to operate the business.
5	Schedule time to think and plan. You must think deeply about important, strategic matters. Make time to get away from the day-to-day distractions and focus on deep thinking, planning, and decision-making. Isolate yourself to concentrate on big-picture issues. Spend time alone digesting all the information you are bombarded with and develop the big ideas to take your business to the next level of performance. Once a month, schedule a day away from the office to think and plan. With no distractions whatsoever, put on your CEO hat and spend time reviewing and improving your chief asset - your business.
6	On a daily basis, reserve the vast bulk of the day to tackle only your top 3 priorities. Selfishly guard your time and focus. Don't allow your employees to disrupt your CEO-oriented priorities and actions with countless got-a-minute interruptions. Allowing such conduct creates an environment whereby your time is not valued and respected. It also creates unproductive days, a reactive business mindset and employees that are overly dependent upon you for everything. Stop these got-a-minute interruptions.
7	Think about CEO role models at large companies you admire. Those proven CEOs with solid integrity and ethics. For example, think of the former CEO at GE, Jack Welch. Read his books and understand his philosophies, mindset, and strategies. Then periodically stop yourself and ask, "What would a Jack Welch do in this case?"
8	Whatever your technical expertise, consider hiring someone else to handle such technical and tactical work so that you can escape the stranglehold. For example, if your background is selling or accounting, hire a competent sales manager or accounting manager to manage such day-to-day details. If you already have such employees on your payroll, then for goodness sakes let them do their jobs. Get out of their zone of responsibility.

Quit trying to manage details and start managing your people. Guide their focus and priorities, but let them do the work.

Tim Shepelak, owner of The Growth Coach, provides coaching services to small-to-mid-sized business owners, entrepreneurs, and executives of all sizes and types, whose industries range from manufacturing to distribution, service, retail, professional service firms, etc. He utilizes a unique and proprietary strategic-focusing and business-management process to help clients unlock and implement more effective strategies to grow the value of their businesses and lives. Tim can be contacted at 513-405-2421, e-mail T.Shepelak@TheGrowthCoach.com www.thegrowthcoach.com