13 Things Top Startup CEOs Do Better Than Everyone Else

By Bhagyesh

| Published: Saturday, April 9, 2016, 14:53 [IST]

Startup is the buzz word but what does it take to build a great Startup? It's not a billion dollar investment but the answer is a good CEO. Now the question arises as to what qualities a CEO must possess in order to be not just good but a great CEO.

Does he have to know about everything of everything, work for more than 12 hrs or even sleep in the office? Well, we don't know about the sleeping pattern but we do have some valuable advice from top Startup CEOs of the world.

So, here are the things that top Startup CEOs follow in order to be successful.

Good at Both Hiring And Firing

13 Things That Every Startup CEO Should Do

It is important for the CEO to sell the idea, the dream to another person while hiring people. But at the same time one must know when is the time to let some people go.

Being street smart

No matter how much time you spend researching & analysing but going out there and actually making the sales is more important. You will get more information about your customers and market by going into the field than you could ever get from your laptop or cubicle.

Put your self-interest behind

Every once in a while there will be a situation where you could manipulate financial details and take advantage of it. But it is during such times when one needs to resist those temptations and place the interest of their stakeholders, employees and customers first. The people/companies who do so are always the on the winning side in the long run.

Being Unconventional

Sometimes it's perfectly alright and even necessary to break the stereotypes or conventional methods of doing business. Be it from hiring policy to working hours, marketing strategies and even methods of reducing costs. It is all justifiable until you don't break any work ethics, as there are no two ways about it.

They are detail oriented, but don't micro-manage

The above line means that it's important to know the details of every aspect of the business but one should not try to do everything or manage on their own. Here the phrase 'Divide & rule' should be used in a positive way, meaning that divide the work amongst your team and just keep an eye on details.

Have Courage

It takes courage to follow your heart, to do with your gut feeling about the business idea against all odds. People might point out that you are wrong or even inexperienced but you have to put everything aside and believe in yourself. And after doing all this one needs to stand out from the market clutter and be unique.

Be realistic

Photo Credit: Giphy

It's easy to get delusional with all that initial courage and extra zeal, therefore it is also equally important to be realistic. Know the market you are getting into and account for the success rate or ratio. Be ready for failure and/or sluggish years. It's not necessary to have a plan -B but it's important to have an exit strategy always.

Be able to delegate

A person can manage 10 people effectively but that same person cannot manage 100 people with the same efficiency. That is why there is a need for delegating; as distributing orders among ten people is easy and those 10 people can further handle another 10 people each. This way the working of the entire business can run smoothly.

Be a salesman

If you can't sell it, then you can't grow it. It's as simple as that. All the top CEO's of the world are fantastic salesmen and it is their salesmen skill that has got them where they are today.

Motivate Others

Selling you're idea and dream to your employees is not enough, you have to motivate them and inspire them to work hard. Easiest way to do that is by telling them that you believe in their potential and automatically they will start believing in themselves.

Enjoy a certain level of tension

According to a Ted talk by Kelly McGonigal, stress is actually good for your health. With that mental attitude one should consider stress or more appropriately its symptoms as a kind of coping mechanism of our body when dealing with extra ordinary things.

With the ability to do so one can in fact become more able to come up with creative solutions for problems in hand.

They happen to be lucky

You can ask any top CEO or business personality and they would say that a lot of times they have been just lucky. But of course that luck arises from hard work, knowledge, experience and especially by being at the right place at the right time.

Learn Every Day

You have to stay focused and up-to-date with the industry standards and market trends. And the only way you can do that is by learning something new every day. The organisations who are in sync with the market environment are the ones that survive, rest are history.

So, we hope that these tips help you become a better leader and enable you to take your organisation to the next level.