- Spend time cultivating your team. Bring in people who are better at their jobs than you could ever be.
- As CEO, your job is not to do everyone else’s job. Your job is to help everyone else do their jobs better.
- Spend at least 75% of your personal time on your Product. Your company is only as good as its product. Put your stamp on it.
- Run the Numbers. Send a weekly email to your team summarizing all the key data that drives your business.
- Ask for Feedback. Guess what? You’re not as smart as you think you are. And you will make mistakes. Ask your employees, customers, partners, etc. for regular feedback.
- Get out of the office and talk to real customers, partners, suppliers, bloggers, press, etc. Listen to what they have to say and take it to heart.
- Actively solicit feedback from third parties: friends, peers, associates. Share your issues and how you’re handling them, and ask for an honest assessment.
- Make sure people within the organization know your goals, and know what you can be counted on to do. Hold yourselves accountable. If you don’t meet your goals, withhold your bonus, take no raise, and treat yourself exactly as you would treat an employee who missed their targets.
- Create systems for gathering feedback. Interview customers, competitors, analysts, and others in your industry to know how your company and products are perceived.
- Once a day, go talk to one of your low-level employees—someone more capable than you in their area of expertise—and learn from them.
