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Conversations about ownership

Ep. 514 — Joel Trammell: You Own the Business. Do You Want the CEO Job?

Your plan for next year calls for growth, but every decision still comes back to you. Define the CEO work and connect it to your ownership goals.

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Episode Summary

Your plan for next year calls for growth, but every decision still comes back to you. Coming out of the Owner’s Summit and into Q4 planning, I’m revisiting my conversation with Joel Trammell from Episode 422. We start with how the CEO job changes as a company grows and why your team needs decision criteria instead of your answer to every problem. Your ownership goals give that work direction: what do you want from your time, cash flow and wealth? Joel connects those goals to the value the business must deliver to customers and employees, then turns a three-year plan into quarterly commitments. Every department needs to predict where it’s going, not just report what happened. We also get into why a great department head needs training to become a CEO, how to decide whether you want that job, and what to look for in someone who does. The business can be a good investment even when you’re tired of running it. Before you put another growth target in the plan, who will do the CEO’s work?

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Top 10 Takeaways

  1. As your company grows, the CEO’s job shifts from solving today’s problems to managing the future.
  2. Give your team decision criteria so every operating decision no longer needs your approval.
  3. Clarify your ownership goals before asking a CEO to decide where the business should go.
  4. Every major CEO decision trades resources among customers, employees and the people who own the business.
  5. Your long-term plan needs customer and employee goals alongside its revenue and profit targets.
  6. Agree on quarterly outcomes so you can oversee the company without taking back everyone’s job.
  7. Ask every department to predict results, not just report what it has already done.
  8. Success running one department doesn’t automatically prepare someone to run the whole business.
  9. Define the CEO’s actual job before deciding whether you want to keep doing it.
  10. Look for a CEO who is curious about the whole business and willing to learn.

Sound Bites

“Every single decision will ripple through time, cashflow, or equity.” — Ryan Tansom

“Customer quits, customer causes a problem, we fire drill. Employee quits that we thought was a good employee, fire drill. But there’s no strategic approach to either one of those groups.” — Joel Trammell

“If you want to be the VP of sales, hire a CEO and go be the VP of sales.” — Joel Trammell

“The CEO’s the generalist. I gotta know just enough about each area to be able to evaluate and hold accountable the executives in that area. But I don’t need to be an expert on anything.” — Joel Trammell

About Joel Trammell

Joel Trammell is a CEO educator, entrepreneur and co-founder of CEO-S. He is the author of The CEO Tightrope and co-author, with Sherif Sakr, of The Chief Executive Operating System. He built two companies to nine-figure exits and now teaches leaders how to define and perform the CEO role. This conversation was his third appearance on the show.

Resources Mentioned

Guest Contact

Joel Trammell, CEO educator and co-founder of CEO-S.

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