Momentum Monday: Put on Your CEO Hat – The 5 Key Roles You Play as the Company Leader

It’s true that as an entrepreneur, we are often called upon to fulfill many roles in our company, especially if yours is a company of one or still in the start-up stage. Some of the roles place us front and center, basking in the limelight while others in the not so glamorous position of slogging through paperwork or cleaning up the technology mess.

As the company leader, we wear many hats, but there are a few key roles we as the entrepreneur must fulfill if our company is going to be successful. Unlike the temporary roles we take on during start-up or in a pinch on a rainy day, these key roles can never be outsourced.

5 Key Roles We Play as the Company Leader

#1: Chief Idea Generator (aka the Big Thinker) – The job description for an idea generator is many and varied – from coming up with new and innovative ways of doing things to seeing what isn’t there or even thought of, and creating it.

#2: Chief Rain Maker (aka the Sales Force) – The rain maker is the best at selling the idea of your company, to anyone, at anytime whether it’s the pitch to come work for you or a proposal to snag a new client from the competition.

#3: Chief Energizer (aka People Exciter) – The role of the energizer is to get people on board and excited about it. Those people include your internal team, external partners and of course, customers and clients. This role is vital and must be readdressed frequently if you are going to keep everyone moving in the same direction.

#4: Chief Instigator (aka the Entrepreneurial Troublemaker) – The best way to describe an entrepreneurial troublemaker is by their ability to get stuff started, shake things up. Sometimes that means building strategic partnerships, sometimes that means promising a customer that you can do what has never been done before (and attaching a deadline to it).

#5: Chief Gambler (aka the Risk Taker) – It’s the job of the risk taker to see the changes in the marketplace happening before or as they are happening and take that one big leap of faith that steps you up to the next level.

So when you are sitting at your desk, ask yourself which CEO hat you are wearing. If the answer is none of them, figure out who else within your organization can handle it and get back doing one of the 5 essential CEO jobs!