This new CEO Tip comes from our friend Mark Essayian, who previously provided another CEO Tip here on CEO Insights. Mark is the President and CEO of KME Systems, an IT Services MSP located in Orange County, CA and Las Vegas, NV. KME’s tag line is, “Because we give a damn” which has gained the attention of his targeted customers. He is a huge fan of Hawaiian shirts!
Today, Mark address something that many CEOs and leaders suffer from, “The Bright Shiny Object Syndrome!” Here is Mark’s guest post:
What is a Bright Shiny Object or BSO? It can be many things:
- The software you saw that your team must have
- The best new tech device on the planet
- A process that a fellow CEO says transformed their firm
BSO’s tend to distract some CEO’s and I used to be in that category. They look great and you just know they’ll fix dozens of problems inside your firm! But what truly happens is you lose focus on the real issues at hand. If you focus on BSO’s, trust me your team knows it and it lessens your authority.
Initially, your team will jump to react since you are the CEO, but after a while, they will learn to ignore them since you’ll distract yourself again next week with the latest BSO.
Worst of all is constantly sending new BSO’s to your clients. I’ve been on the receiving end of those emails and started to wonder just what this one particular CEO was thinking? Did he think I really needed to buy $10k worth of software to help us understand AI better? You know that answer…
Sound familiar? I used to have the issue with my leadership team but stopped it and they reacted positively. I still occasionally send the BSO email, but I make sure it addresses a genuine need in the office according to a simple rule.
Will it help resolve a genuine business issue that we have already identified?
If it doesn’t address something our team is already working on, the BSO goes in the trash. Of course you can bookmark a site for later reference for those “just in case” things, but don’t let BSO’s distract you from running your firm and losing credibility.
I’d like to thank Mark Essayian for his second CEO Tip. This tip should help many CEOs and leaders to prevent Bright Shiny Objects from derailing his/her vision and having an impact on success.
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