6 CEO objections to building the Office of the CEO (and how to handle them)
Attention Chiefs of Staff, Executive Assistants, COOs, executive coaches, board members and investors:
If you want your CEO to invest in building their Office of the CEO, you'll need to get buy-in from your CEO themself. But it's not easy convincing a CEO with limited time, attention and budget to embark on this project.
Here are 6 common CEO objections to building the Office of the CEO and how to respond to them:
1. I don’t have time
I'm glad you mentioned time. Time is one of the most precious assets for a busy CEO like you. The Office of the CEO is designed to give you more free time so you can spend it on your most strategic, high priority initiatives.
If you invest in building the Office of the CEO, your meeting load will decrease, your decision load will fall dramatically, and your blockers will be handled by your executive office. You have much more time to grow your company faster by setting strategy, meeting with prospects and closing deals with your biggest customers.
2. I don’t have the budget
Investing in the Office of the CEO will produce measurable returns that impact you, your leadership team and your entire company. The ROI for the Office of the CEO has been calculated anywhere from 10x-25x, making this a worthwhile investment.
In addition, you must establish a strong Office of the CEO to remain competitive in your market. The way you operate as a CEO is a strategic differentiator vs. your competitors. If you aren't able to show up at your best, then your market share will slip, your growth will suffer and your board won't be happy.
3. I have other competing priorities
Look, we get it. You have a million things on your plate as a CEO. But the Office of the CEO is meant to help you handle a heavy work load through delegation, de-escalation and prioritization.
Your competing priorities will actually decrease because you have successfully engaged your leadership team to deal with them on your behalf. This allows you to declutter your headspace, regain your sanity and get back in control.
4. It’s going to take too long
A world-class Office of the CEO is not built overnight. It's a continuous improvement journey that spans a number of years. But instead of fixating on the end point, I'd ask for you to think about how we can start making improvements right now.
We can get started with small adjustments, which will create big impacts. To get started, we can immediately help you reduce your meetings, delegate your workload, and assign more responsibility to your C-suite team.
5. I don’t know where to start
The best way to start is through a frank assessment of your current Office of the CEO. You can leverage Cedar's maturity model [[add link to maturity model section 2.3]] to identify the bright spots and polish opportunities for your executive office.
If you're short on time, then I'd ask you to identify your biggest headaches right now and figure out their root causes. Do you have too many meetings? Too many decisions? Too many emails? Tackle your biggest problem first.
6. I don’t have the right team to build the Office of the CEO
Building a strong Office of the CEO requires various skillsets in executive operations, strategic consulting, organizational design, recruiting, process optimization, and change management. Past experience in management consulting, executive search and executive offices also helps.
Ask yourself who on your team has these skills and see if they are ready, willing and able to partner with you on building the Office of the CEO. If there's no one available, then it might be time to seek out an external consultant.
Connect with Mackenzie Lee, Cedar CEO, on LinkedIn here to dive deeper into overcoming common CEO objections to building the Office of the CEO.
