What I’ve Learned about Being an Association CEO – PT 1
This month marks my third year anniversary at the American Ceramic Society as well as my third year as an association chief staff officer. While this is just a drop in the bucket compared to the experience of some of my long-serving peers, I have learned a few things and thought I would share a little of what I’ve learned here. Hopefully, some of these observations will be of value to those of you who might want to become a CEO in the future. So in no particular order, here’s the first:
EQ is more important than IQ. In my past roles as chief knowledge officer for ASAE & The Center and chief strategy officer for the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives, most of my work was done on the “T” side of the Myers-Briggs scale. But being an effective association CEO demands far more emotional intelligence (EQ) than I ever expected.
Much of my time is spent building consensus, nurturing relationships, encouraging and supporting staff and volunteer leaders, discerning people’s true motivations and needs, mediating disputes, telling people things they don‘t want to hear, and helping people to see new possibilities (and preferably convincing them that they came up with the idea in the first place). In my experience, being great at writing/editing/meeting planning/product development/finances/project management/etc. is not nearly as critical as the ability to empower others to be great at those things. So, if you really want to be an effective association CEO, practice your people skills.
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Comments
Fascinating post, Scott, thank you.
I have a question: Your list of the things that take up your time -- how do you develop these skills? Obviously part of the answer is experience, but is that the only answer? Do you think it's possible to find resources that, for example, will help you be better at discerning people's true motivations?
Posted by: Scott Briscoe | September 16, 2009 3:58 PM
Scott - Great questions. I think because these are soft skills, people often overlook them when they are thinking about their own professional development.
I guess, first off, practice is critical, and the more people are able to step into roles that allow them to flex these particular muscles, the better. Reading about it or participating in learning programs can make someone more aware of the both positive and negative behaviors that support or detract from one's people leadership abilities, but only to a point.
I think one of the best things you can do is to observe closely the leaders around you (both good and bad) and keep asking questions like: what makes Person A seem more credible as a leader than Person B? What enables this manager to bring out the best in their people, but not that one? How do they inspire trust and loyalty? How do they nurture people (or not)? How come this one can make people feel like they are making a valuable contribution, but that one can't? Dissect what good leaders are doing and emulate it.
Finally I’d say, people need to be introspective and humble about their own actions, not to beat themselves up, but rather to open themselves to learning. Most of us have room to be more empathetic, to listen better, to inspire more, to condescend less, to be more open to new ways of looking at things, and to nurture others more frequently. I think if you want to be a good leader, you have to have enough humility to realize you always going to be a student.
Hmmm. I think this answer is longer than my original post!
Posted by: Scott Steen | September 17, 2009 6:42 PM