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CEO escalations are exploding

CEOs are more bombarded than ever - they receive hundreds of emails, notifications and pings each day. These messages can take away from CEO focusing on strategic matters that actually grow the company. You can think of these messages as escalations - bits of information that made their way to the Office of the CEO.

Here are a few CEO escalations that I’ve heard from my coaching sessions with CEOs. Do any of them sound familiar to you?

“Our #1 strategic partnership is blowing up and they’re pulling out of our decades-long agreement. What do we do?”

“Our VP of Corporate Development is threatening to quit when we are halfway through due diligence on a major acquisition target. Can you talk him off the ledge?”

“An activist investor is threatening to call a vote of no confidence if we don’t divest our India business unit. How do we handle them?

CEOs are more distracted than ever

While the CEO escalations listed above seem valid, they can take away from the CEO furthering their strategic agenda. And if you’re not careful, these distractions can add up.

According to a Harvard Business Review study of 27 CEOs from primarily public companies averaging $13.1 billion market capitalization, only 43% of CEO time was spent on activities that furthered their agenda. A whopping 36% of CEO time was spent in reactive mode, handling issues as they unfolded.

That means that 57% of CEO time was spent on distractions that did not further the CEO’s agenda.

This study was completed by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter back in 2018, so undoubtedly things have shifted since then. I’m guessing things have gotten worse. But the fact of the matter is that technology has exploded the number of CEO distractions. Pings have also increased due to remote global teams who are working around the clock.

Bottom line: CEOs are distracted by escalations that pop up more and more often. So what’s a CEO to do?

De-escalate your CEO

Your goal as a CEO, Chief of Staff or Executive Assistant is to de-escalate low-priority CEO matters as much as possible. Here are 3 steps to de-escalate your CEO more often:

Step 1: Define CEO decision scope

Create a list of items that should be escalated to the CEO and a list of items that should NOT be escalated to the CEO. This simple job aide can help leaders on your team decide whether or not to bother the CEO. For example, investment decisions to acquire a company should rise to the CEO. Investment decisions to buy a new copy machine should NOT rise to the CEO.

Step 2: Tell leaders to solve problems themselves

Whenever someone comes running to the CEO with a problem, ask them to try to solve it on their own first. Have them go through the exercise of defining the problem set, solution set and recommended path forward. By completing this thought exercise, they may come up with the answer to their supposed CEO escalation. The escalation may not need to happen at all.

Step 3: Create an escalation log

Once you’ve started to train your leaders on what to escalate and what not to escalate, it’s time to create an escalation log. Make a list of all CEO emails, meetings and notifications over the past week. Identify which of those should have been raised to the CEO level, and which should have been solved at the C-suite level instead. Give feedback to all relevant parties as you continue to train them on avoiding CEO escalations.

Try out these 3 steps to de-escalate your CEO to help them achieve more inner peace as they work to further their strategic agenda. Remember, this is a continual process to train your leaders on how to solve problems on their own so they only escalate to the CEO as a last resort.

If you’re a CEO reading this newsletter, make a plan to complete these de-escalation steps with your Chief of Staff and/or your Executive Assistant.

And if you’re a Chief of Staff or Executive Assistant reading this newsletter, bring up CEO de-escalation in your next 1:1 with your CEO.

Do you know a CEO, Chief of Staff or Executive Assistant that could benefit from de-escalating their CEO? Share this newsletter with them.

The Office of the CEO Playbook

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Office of the CEO Jobs

Welcome to our Office of the CEO job board. If you have a Chief of Staff or Executive Assistant job you’d like shared to 3,000+ readers of this newsletter or need hands-on recruiting help to hire your Chief of Staff or Executive Assistant, reply to this email.

Chief of Staff, Bluevine, Jersey City, NJ, Tech, Startup

Chief of Staff (GTM), EliseAI, New York, NY, Tech, Startup

Chief of Staff, Société Générale, New York, NY, Finance, Enterprise

Chief of Staff to Head of Data, Atlassian, San Francisco, CA, Tech, Enterprise

Chief of Staff, Taara, X, the moonshot factory, Mountain View, CA, Tech, Startup

Chief of Staff, Aircall, Seattle, WA, Tech Startup

Chief of Staff, Americas, Airwallex, San Francisco, CA, Tech, Startup

Executive Assistant to the CEO, GeneDx, New York, NY, Healthcare, Public Company

Executive Assistant to the CEO/CMO, BrainJuice, Dallas, TX or, West Palm Beach, FL, Consumer, Private Company

Executive Assistant to the CEO/CFO Temporary FT, Webflow, Remote, Tech, Startup

Executive Assistant to the CFO, Carta, San Francisco, CA, Tech, Startup

Executive Assistant to the CEO, Revv, New York, NY, Tech, Startup

Executive Assistant to CEO & President, BPD, Boca Raton, FL, Healthcare, Private Company

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for next week’s edition.

Until next week,

Mackenzie

Mackenzie Lee | Founder & CEO
M: 650.283.4152 | E: [email protected]
New York City, NY
www.CedarChief.com

At Cedar, we turn executives into fast and fearless leaders.

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