The Leadership Skill Most CEOs Don’t Develop Until It’s Too Late

Look through the lineup of leadership training courses from high-profile, respected organizations. Check out the latest bestsellers that are topping the leadership charts. When you do, you’ll notice a common trend. Most, if not all, of the topics talk about ways to get to the top.

What you’ll find is a lot of delegation, decision-making, culture-building, growth hacks and networking. They’re all subjects designed to help leaders inch their way to the summit, especially if you’re a first-timer.

But there’s a problem: What happens when a CEO like you reaches the height of your success? If you haven’t spent time planning for how to handle that pivotal part of your career journey from a psychological perspective, you’re liable to start faltering.

Notably, a 2024 McKinsey and Company checklist published for CEOs adds a long section on personal development. After all, many CEOs overlook themselves and their futures in the whirlwind of trying to keep their companies profitable, putting them at risk of burning out. And beating burnout, which affects roughly half of all leaders, is a difficult task, and it’s more difficult when you’re not sure how to keep your edge, your identity or your money once you’re the one in charge.

What’s the solution? Spend time as a CEO developing your ability to remain self-aware holistically. This means acknowledging the other side of your life that isn’t wrapped up in employees, clients, board members, financial documents and general gladhanding.

To begin, try taking the following steps. They’ll help you start on your journey to being the CEO of your world from a comprehensive standpoint, and not just as the current resident of the biggest corner office.

1. Surround yourself with a community of supportive CEOs

As the saying goes, it’s lonely at the top. But it doesn’t have to be.

Joining a community of like-minded CEOs who also want to enhance their ability to govern their personal lives can be highly beneficial. Mike Brown, the founder of the mastermind group Unbreakable Wealth, has seen firsthand how impactful it can be for a CEO to be surrounded by others who are navigating similar successes. Brown’s group is focused on giving entrepreneurial CEOs the skills needed to navigate themselves into their eventual post-exit selves without losing themselves in the process.

Too many CEOs wait until their post-exit or retirement to concentrate on the “what’s next”. However, you shouldn’t have to stumble through a business exit event. (You’ll exit one day, even if you’re a young CEO now.) Being friends with others in the same boat can help reduce uncertainty.

2. Treat some of your personal time as non-negotiable.

Studies have shown that CEOs and entrepreneurs are twice as likely to get divorced. Sometimes, what causes these marital breakdowns is the CEOs focusing all their attention on their companies, rather than their private relationships. And there’s a reason why: Plenty of CEOs neglect their closest loved ones in a way that they’d never neglect their business dealings.

To be sure, every CEO needs to attend to things in many different areas of their business. That’s to be expected. Yet after many years of giving a business significant attention, a CEO’s personal time can start to seem unnecessary. Or, maybe it can even seem unimportant. Still, your personal world will be one of the things that matters most after you leave the corporate world behind.

If you’ve been concentrating all your attention on work, consider investing in a CEO life coach. We Are the Women offers executive coaching specifically for female CEOs, but it’s only one of many organizations devoted to the topic of self-preservation and familial preservation. Even if you’re involved in other types of coaching communities, you may find that one that’s targeted toward preserving your personal wellness. And, these commitments can be invaluable.

3. Approach your next personal venture as if it were a company.

Many CEOs feel lost when they reach the top or plan to move out of their positions. Ironically, this actually helps to equip them to successfully navigate their next stages. This is the case as long as they treat the stages as if they were businesses.

Is it any wonder so many retired or former CEOs eventually succumb to some of the most common retirement psychological responses? These include feeling lonely, figuring out who they are without their role and identifying fulfilling passions. One approach is: Taking a CEO lens to how you’re going to live your life when you no longer have the CEO title.

By anticipating these concerns (just as you would anticipate business roadblocks), you can ward off their intense effects. And if you start this reflective process while you’re still a CEO, you can minimize how hard it can be to make a major transition later.

Being a CEO doesn’t come with a definitive roadmap. In many cases, those around you expect you to apply a combination of your gut instincts and technical know-how, and then hope for the best. However, you can avoid a sense of fumbling when it comes time to move ahead with your life. You can achieve this by reframing your values and projecting what true success means.