Merrill Dubrow: My name is Merrill Dubrow, CEO of M/A/R/C Research and a 35-plus year veteran of the Insights community, and the host of our podcast On the M/A/R/C. Welcome to another On the M/A/R/C and Merrill-ISMs 25 Mistakes CEOs make, this one's a little bit different. I was recently reading an article published by CEO Coaching International. And I thought it was very, very interesting to see how many of the 25 mistakes that CEOs make that I actually made, or struggled with. What I'm going to do is I'm going to take the 25 mistakes and break them into five buckets. I'm going to read five at a time, and then I'm going to comment about it. So here we go, here are the first five mistakes that CEOs make. Number one, they're not clear on what they really want. Number two, they don't communicate how their employees fit into that vision. Number three, they don't live or communicate their values. Number four, they do not set clear action plans with their team at the start. Thus, the results they expect fall short. They don't review their annual plans every quarter. Those five seem to be all about communication. And I truly am a big fan of communicating and many activities to support that, like ask Merrill sessions, where I have somebody on my team randomly pick six people, and I spend 30 minutes on a Zoom call with them with no agenda. I have a business update every Monday where I address the company, the entire company for about 20 minutes. We have senior management meetings weekly and talk to all my director reports, very often. I would say on those five, I need to approve on a few. They don't review their annual plans every quarter. It's easy for me to say that we do that. But I would say we're not as judicious as we should. So I'm going to give myself a strike for that mistake. They do not set clear action plans with their team at the start, thus the results they expect fall short. I think we're a little bit not as strict on that as we could be. I think we have plans. We don't follow up as often as we could, we do one, probably most but not all. So I'm going to with two mistakes out of five for me so far. The next five are, they win their own annual planning session because nobody knows the company as well as they do. They are often unaware of their blind spots is number two in this five list. They are not transparent, breeding distrust, suspicion, and frustrating among employees. They have a poor attitude. They ignore brutal facts of their own reality thinking they will magically get better. Without question, I have failed on the first one, they run their own annual planning session because nobody knows the company as well as I do. I don't think in my 19 years here I've ever brought in somebody to do that. It's usually led by myself, or a number of different members of the leadership team. And I failed on that, for sure. I'm definitely aware of my blind spots. I'm not saying I don't have any. But often I have really, solid self-evaluation, self-awareness and ask team members what I can do better and what I need to work on, often. I do believe I always have a positive attitude and try and communicate 24/7. And I never ignore the brutal facts in a situation. I would say I'm aware of them. But at times, they don't react as quick as I should because the timing isn't always right. So I'd say that's one and a half more mistakes because I'm going to give myself on that last one, a half a mistake. So in that batch, I've got three and a half mistakes out of 10 in total. The next five mistakes that CEOs make are, they do not manage cash flow. They don't track critical KPIs. They do not own a differentiate their company's values proposition. They do not cultivate key relationships. They make excuses about why they cannot fire an underperformer. Well, let me tell you, I truly believe the first two, managing cashflow and track KPIs are a strength of mine. So I haven't failed those. Over time we've added a few more KPIs that today aren't perfect. So I am actually going to knock myself a half a mistake since we could do better on KPIs because they need to change off and if you haven't done that, I think you should take a look at it. Internal external relationships Wharton and critical to success. I think I'm good at that but can have improvement. So that's another half a mistake for me. Over time we've gotten much better, for not making excuses about why we cannot fire an underperformer. I would say culture is very important for me and I consider this team, my family. So that's hard for me. I have realized that thanks Susan and others for stressing that sometimes you're making the situation better for a person if they are asked to leave and explain that, they're not happy we're not happy. So I am going to say that we've done improvement on that. But I'm still up to four and a half mistakes with 10 to go. The next five, they won't pay top market rate for A players. They don't put the right people on the company bus. They try to do everything and do not delegate. They are loose on personal accountability. And number 20 is they micromanage and frustrate top performers. At M/A/R/C, we pay fair above average. But there's always a company that will pay more. So that's a fail for me. We try high to put the right people on the company bus and do delegate well, since a few people I believe can't do everything. But I got to tell you something, I think that's also a fail, because unless we believe the person can handle the situation, we probably are a little reluctant to give them a chance and should. And that's a fail. The reason is, I think we do that is given the responsibility to people before they're ready. I think we need to let them work into the position. I think that's a good thing. And that allows growth and surprises can happen. But that's still a fail. So that's two more mistakes for a total of six and a half out of 20. And here are the last five, they don't prioritize high payoff activities. They don't think big enough. They make excuses about why they cannot fire an underperformer. They don't take care of themselves, spend enough time with your family. They don't spend enough time enjoying life and the journey they're on. I love those five but won't score well, but I love them. I just noticed that they make excuses about why they cannot fire a performer, that's actually in there twice. It was in there on the first 10. And it's in there in the last five. So I don't need to judge that. But the reality is, they don't prioritize high payoff activities. And they don't think big enough. I think at times working for Omnicom, these two items weren't always allowed. So for most of my career in the 19 years that I've been at M/A/R/C, they are a fail. And I also say they don't take care of themselves or spend enough time with family, 100% a fail. This is a problem for me. It is a fail. Yes, I've gotten better, but I got a long, long way to go. They don't spend enough time enjoying life and the journey they're on. I've struggled with this. But I have close friends, thanks, Steve and others who have really helped me with this. So not a fail. But I think a watch. So that's three more fails for a total of nine and a half fails out of 25. Wow. I'm not sure I am a good CEO. Again, another shout out to CEO Coaching International who put this list and PDF together. Nice work. To my fellow CEOs, I issue you a challenge. Give this podcast some thought. We're going to make available the PDF. Go through it. Process that information and let me know how many mistakes on this list you've made. Chances are less than me. And I also want to know what's the hardest for you? My name is Merrill Dubrow, thanks for listening to today's On the M/A/R/C and Merrill-ISM's 25 Mistakes CEOs make. I look forward to hearing from you. Stay well, stay safe and please, please stay in touch.