What makes a good CEO?

In an e-mail exchange following the ‘Entrepreneurship and innovation in the Netherlands’ article, it was stated that project managers are best suited to become CEO’s in these times since they are the ones best qualified to work with multi-disciplinary teams to achieve a target. I had a discussion with a renowned international program manager (Peter Luiks) on this reaction. He is of course of the opinion that program managers make excellent CEO’s ;-)

The definition of what constitutes a project and what constitutes a program is not always clear. Let's assume for this discussion that a project involves a clear target with a limited number of disciplines needed and a program involves setting up an umbrella project from a holistic viewpoint and integrating a number of projects to reach a specific goal. Main differences is therefore size, number of disciplines involved and overall impact.

Both project and program managers know reality drives all events and they know what reality is driving events in their business or process. This insight at the very least qualifies them to take an advisory role to any board of directors. Transparency being such a buzz word of late, a CEO would be stupid not to listen. Programs and projects are run by people as companies are run by people; all need to show visible successes to thrive. For a CEO this quality is essential.

We can identify the following differences between Project management and program management in general:

1. The first is about limiting your scope to achieve your targets; the second is about broadening your scope to be successful.
2. The first is about reaching deadlines; the second is about staying on course.
3. The first is about point solutions; the second about managing situations.
4. The first is about being there for your team; the second about being there for all.

A program manager is capable of a more diverse range of roles than the average project manager. In this sense, the best project manager will not necessarily become a good program manager or vice versa. I believe project managers are rarely good CEO’s because their focus is too narrow. They need clear concise targets handed to them, are very creative at executing in multi-disciplinary teams, but most often lack the kind of creativity needed to self start. They rarely become good program managers for the same reason. A program manager is a political animal without showing it and he or she is self motivated. Is a good program manager CEO material? I don’t know, the ones I thought were really good didn’t want to become CEO. So maybe those are!

Basically, I don’t care where a CEO comes from, the most important quality is leadership! CEO’s are the ones to envision the strategic programs (with a little help from us) and lead them. Lead being the key word here, not manage. That’s where I think collaborative networking comes in; around the strategic programs, multi disciplinary teams tackling issues to come up with solutions and projects to realize them. A CEO is there to inspire, motivate and make sure things move in the right direction. But that’s just my opinion.