Six Reality Checks For CEOs’ First 100 Days

Congratulations, you’ve just landed the biggest job of your life! You might think you are finally reaching an all-powerful place with ultimate control to do what’s right and to do it your way.

Let’s prick that balloon. As former CEO of Best Buy and Carlson—and a board member of Ralph Lauren and Johnson & Johnson—our friend Hubert Joly can attest that what got you here won’t get you there as you prepare to launch this ultimate test of your abilities in the chief executive’s role. Hubert learned painful lessons resuscitating an American icon in an industry where he had no direct experience.

1. You don’t need to be the smartest person in the room.

When Hubert started at Best Buy, he thankfully held no pretense of retail prowess. His mantra was, “I’m Hubert Joly, and I need help!” He was the first to hire an executive coach, Marshall Goldsmith, and quickly required the entire C-Team to embrace what they had yet to learn as leaders and subject matter experts. “Everyone could tell you what they’re working on,” Hubert smiled, “and that dissolved arrogance and shifted the mindset to continuous improvement.”

Ironically, deep domain expertise can handicap leaders from seeking the counsel they need or developing the discipline required to move decisions away from your office to each of the leaders on the team who are best equipped to make them. While all authority technically funnels to the CEO, your role entails hiring, supporting and empowering capable leaders to make choices tied to an inspired vision. 

“Like a master gardener preparing fertile soil in which plants can thrive,” Hubert says, “the CEO shapes working conditions and environments to enable subordinates to blossom through enhanced collaboration, aligned priorities and expanded autonomy tied to accountability. A key to wisely scaling leadership involves decentralizing decision authority to empower subordinates.

“The best leaders don’t climb to the top; they are carried to the top,” Hubert quotes Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence. Today, more than at any other time in history, leadership is personal. “It requires extraordinary self-awareness. You must know your purpose.” At Carlson Companies, and even earlier in his career, Hubert learned through experience that “superficial drivers like power, fame, glory and money were not sustainable motivations. Leaders need to connect with something more meaningful.”

 2. You’ll need to be a thermostat, not a thermometer.

As CEO, your role is “Chief Energizing Officer,” according to Hubert. ”One guideline I tried to follow in this job was to remain a thermostat, not a thermometer.” In the face of external pressures and crises that inevitably arise, the thermometer shows the temperature varying based on the circumstances—overtly indexing to the new crisis du jour. “As CEO if you let your temperature go down, if you lose that spring in your step, the energy level in the entire organization goes down,” Hubert observed. Irrespective of whether the temperature outside is good or bad, being a thermostat—staying upbeat and positive because you can control that—is the best way to transmit stability even amid turmoil. Today’s world of constant change elevates the leader’s role in energizing the organization. “I came to see my responsibility as the Chief Energizing Officer because a company is a human organization made of individuals working together who are fed by each other’s energy,” Hubert said. “And although in physics we cannot create energy, in human interaction you can, of course, generate real light as a power source.” That’s a key role for the CEO.

3. You don’t have to immediately transform everything.

Instead of acting like a bull in a china shop, effective new CEOs must celebrate what and who currently lead the organization. When assuming the CEO mantle amid high hopes and anxieties, it’s vital to resist hastily reshaping the prevailing culture. Begin by carefully studying organizational strengths woven into heritage and practices. “Celebrate the history and great accomplishments of the past. Then map out an inspiring journey—appreciating the past while gently transitioning toward an enhanced future,” Hubert insists. With care and patience, long-tenured staff become willing partners in thoughtfully conceived change led by those who demonstrate care through action.

4. You don’t automatically enjoy unlimited authenticity. 

While conveying sincerity and approachability should serve you well as a leader, Hubert believes, once you become CEO what you say and do is instantaneously reinterpreted. You must recognize that your every word and glance now undergo relentless scrutiny and amplification. Guard against inadvertent miscues while reinforcing precise messaging aligned to strategy. Identify and empower internal truth-tellers who can provide you with candid counsel and privately suggest course corrections if needed.

5. Pressure is a privilege.

Although as CEO you’ll have considerable formal authority and responsibility, and you must assume the responsibility as “the buck stops here,” your real bosses will be the directors on the board. Their main job is governance, and a big part of that is to hire and fire you. The board will be your customer, along with your employees, investors and communities that make your business possible and profitable. Today’s tempestuous environs strain business leaders and societies enormously. “You must learn to accept that pressure as a privilege,” Hubert believes. “Pressure should serve to heighten effectiveness, not as an excuse to abandon decency.” If you default to command-and-control leadership by unilaterally overriding decisions or constantly second-guessing managers, you will demoralize your team and signal that their processes are inadequate.

6. Unleash magic.

Over the years, Hubert has come to recognize that in his past role as a CEO, and now as a teacher and coach, “is to unleash magic” in leaders. In an organization, magic happens when everything and everyone are aligned. When the team focuses on a purpose that means something to them, they not only believe in what they are doing “but they take action on their own volition,” Hubert observed. Extraordinary things come from their hearts that lead them “to do things that nobody would tell them to do. They just do them,” he insists. That is not only beautiful and inspiring, and it can produce remarkable business results. Magic created by your people is the fuel of great organizations. Hubert’s next book under development focuses on the principle of magic as a form of managed energy and creativity. “As leaders, we spend a lot of time on strategy, structure, incentives and all of the traditional management stuff. It’s not that those things aren’t important, they are, but they don’t create magic.” You’ve got to tap into the drivers of human motivation.  Hubert’s passion today, just as it was when he was CEO, is to help people “align behind a noble cause and unleash the magic that ensues.”

You Have a Mission Not a Mandate

Ultimately, we have found that the biggest shock new CEOs feel is that the board gave you a mission, not a mandate. Yes, the buck stops with you, but don’t mistake your selection as a prize with unlimited authority from the board to change everything instantly, prove your smart to everyone you meet, say whatever comes to mind or pressure the organization by sheer force to bend to your will. That will be a trainwreck. You’ve been chosen by the board from among an elite set of internal and external choices because they’re betting you’ll launch the next chapter with vision while at the same time cherish their input, celebrate what’s best about the culture, demonstrate the courage to be coachable in public and surround yourself with the best people.