CEO Accountability

Recently, a friend who was applying for a job at a startup asked me how she could know whether the company founders were worth working for and how to vet them for integrity.  She had been burned at her most recent gig by a CEO that made promises and didn’t mean any of it.

Off the top of my head, I had a few ideas that reflect my experience in management, leadership, and governance. I believe these ideas are worth sharing as they ultimately reflect my values as the CEO of Only Sky.

Three Steps to CEO Accountability

First, I believe that a founder/CEO should embrace a framework that holds them accountable. 

By law and corporate bylaws, a CEO is accountable to the board that elects them and to the shareholders that elect the board. Therefore, the CEO must be willing to take direction from the board and not install a patsy board that will rubber-stamp every decision. 

To get to the root of this, I suggested she ask to speak to some of those to whom the founders are accountable: board members or advisors, who had worked with the company and could vouch for the qualities one looks for in a CEO, as well as board and leadership alignment. 

Secondly, a founder/CEO won’t scale the business unless they recognize that they have a unique set of things they do well and a far larger set of things they do just okay or poorly. 

The founder/CEO must engage in a deliberate practice to identify their strengths and hire to delegate their weaknesses. A lack of self-awareness can be funny to watch, but it’s terrible for the business. Glassdoor is a good place to watch this saga evolve. 

For this, I suggested she ask, “What are your strengths, and what strengths are you hiring for?” My friend reported back that this was the most useful question and conversation that took place during the interview.

And, critically, one must be able to observe a pattern of seeing the founder hire people more capable than themselves for all the roles that emerge as the company grows – otherwise, the company will stagnate as decisions get routed to and backed up in the CEO’s office. “A players hire A players” is the apt phrase. The alternative sounds like “The CEO hired his golf buddies,” “B players hire C players,” and “Weird how the new manager quit after a month.”

My friend was bold enough to get answers to these questions, which put her at ease as she moved through the recruitment process. For me, the concept of accountability ultimately ties back to the value of integrity that I wish to strive for – if you are not accountable, can you really have integrity? 

And to model integrity for Only Sky, it has to start at the top.