Summary: Executives add value through how they think, lead, and decide:

1. Think Strategically: Focus on solving current challenges and exploring future opportunities through deliberate reflection.
2. Lead Through Teams: Achieve results by aligning, developing, and empowering teams toward shared goals.
3. Decide Wisely: Manage risk and make timely, data-informed decisions that balance short- and long-term outcomes.

Bottom line: Great executives think deeply, lead effectively, and decide confidently to create lasting value.

You Are Paid for the Quality of Your Attention and Thinking

As an executive, your greatest value is not in how busy you

Appear, but in how you think – strategically, critically and

creatively and where you direct your attention. You are responsible

for addressing two core domains:

1. Current State Issues – diagnosing and resolving business problems, operational inefficiencies and organizational challenges today.
2. Future State Possibilities – envisioning what the organization could become by identifying new value streams could shape the future of the business.

Why this is critical:

• A study found that executive frequently schedule very little “personal reflection/thinking time”: Dr. Lisa Aldisert states that CEO’s average on 6 hours a week working alone. Think about this: the day-to-day meetings, calls, emails and putting out fires dominates my time, not allowing time for the strategic elements of the job. The Complete Leader Blog: A Little Think Time Goes a Long Way.
• Rigorous research shows that high-performing executive teams are 57% likely to prioritize learning vs on 16% among low-performers. Gartner March 15 2024 – Survey Analysis: High Performing C-Level Teams Prioritize Time To Learn.
• According to a recent article, when leaders do not schedule time for strategic thinking, they are 36% more likely to make poor strategic decisions and 42% more likely to miss important market shifts. Executive Search Firm News: The Strategic Pause: Why To Executives Need Regular Deep Thinking Time and How to Protect it.

Challenge Yourself:

You must develop a practice at scheduling time in your calendar each week devoting to exploring:

1. How you might unlock hidden value in your current operations.
2. What patterns and themes are you seeing in the data you are studying that has you excited by the future possibilities to transform your business.

• This is not optional – this is a core executive discipline!

You Are Paid for Getting Results Through Teams

At the executive level, your role is no longer to deliver results through your individual effort alone. You are accountable for orchestrating outcomes through your teams – across functions, geographies and stakeholders. Remember you are the Conductor of the orchestra and not an instrument player.

Evidence of impact:

• Research McKinsey & Company indicates that companies with top-executive team aligned and working effectively are almost twice as likely to achieve above-median financial performance. “Demystifying top-team performance: What every CEO needs to know.”
• Another study suggests that leadership quality alone explains up to 70% of the variance in team engagement – and companies with strong leadership teams see 21% higher profitability and 37% lower absenteeism. Quarterdeck: “Leadership Skills and Teamwork: the Executive’s Guide

Challenge Yourself:

1. Clarify the goals for each of your teams you lead and ensure alignment with the organisation’s strategic priorities.
2. Build the capabilities and cohesion of the leadership team — invest time in team-development, role clarity, feedback, and external orientation.
3. Hold yourself accountable for team outcomes, not just your own individual metric.

You Are Paid for Managing Risk by Making Timely and Informed Decisions

In an increasingly complex, and uncertain business environment, your job is to manage risk well – not by delegating the responsibility to others, but by making timely and informed decisions that balance upside and downside along with short-term and long-term impacts to your business.

Data to support this:

• A study found that only 12% of surveyed executives believe their company has an “excellent” risk management program. Moreover, 50% of senior managers do no use risk analytics in decision making. CFO Feb. 6, 2017 “Better Data, Better Decisions.”
• According to Russell Reynolds Associates, risk-focused executives must engage in a data strategy, challenge sources, establish metadata standards and help the board understand risk-data expectations. Russell Reynolds – Oct 26, 2020 – “7 Key Actions for the Data-Driven Chief Risk Officer.
• According to a McKinsey & Company survey of global directors, risk-management is among the top five priorities for executives and their boards. McKinsey & Company April 25, 2022, “The CEO’s Risk Agenda: An Insurance Perspective.”

Challenge Yourself:

1. Use reliable data and analytics to inform and guide your decisions — make your judgement visible and grounded in evidence.
2. Ask thoughtful questions and engage trusted advisors or teams to provide context and challenge assumptions.
3. Create decision-making frameworks in advance (e.g., scenarios, risk appetite, trade-offs) so that when time-sensitive decisions arrive, you act with clarity and speed.

Final thought

Your role as an executive is defined not by how much you do, but by how well you think, how effectively you lead others, and how decisively you act under uncertainty.

• Be disciplined at scheduling time weekly for high-quality attention and thinking.
• Schedule time to meet with your teams to hold them accountable for their promises and agreements and if you do it by design the quality results will follow!
• Make decisions that manage risk and unlock value.

If you excel at these three responsibilities, you create enduring value and impact for your organisation.