Ditch the Employee Mindset and Think Like a CEO to Advance Your Career

You are a CEO of the business of you and your career. Your career is your business. If you desire to achieve some things in your career and make some contributions, then it's important to treat it like a business. Understand how a CEO would lead that strategic direction so that you can be successful. In today's video, I'm going to be sharing eight ways on how to think like a CEO. The first way that CEOs think is identity before property. So what do we mean by that? Identity means who you are. In fact, I love the word identity because did you know that identity is a compound word? The two words that make up identity is id and entity. So the id is yourself. So your authentic self, the soul of who you are and entity is an individual creature or an institution that has its own functions to be able to thrive and survive. And you are an identity with an id. So your identity is the whole of who you are. And CEOs think identity before property. So why is that important? What does that mean? Right? Property are the things that you own. And let's call a spade a spade. There are some things you desire to own. It could be, maybe you desire to own a home. It could be your desire to own your right to take vacations wherever you want. It could mean you desire to own more authority in your industry or in your company, or it could mean you desire to own more money. But before you can acquire that property, identity comes first because you will only be able to do the things that you need to do to obtain that property. If you become one who is able to do that. So think of it this way. Recently my husband and I have been hiring people to maintain the lawn outside of our house. Have you ever noticed that if you want a nice looking flower bed, or if you want nice looking grass, you need to put energy into it, tend to it. You need to seed it. You need to put some nutrients in it. You have to put energy into the garden or into the lawn in order for it to look good. But in order for weeds to grow, you don't need to do anything. You just simply need to neglect it. So the same thing is true with identity. If you desire to own certain things, if you desire to have the property to have the things you desire in your life, you must become the person to have an identity and focus on identity first before you can do the things that are needed to acquire that identity. So here's what I mean by that. When that person we hired to take care of our lawn, when they came and all they did was mow the lawn. In fact, the more they cut the lawn within weeks, even more weeds started to grow. And really the way to make it so that weeds no longer grow is you have to get it at their root. You need to pull the weeds right out from the root. And so this is the same thing that's true with your identity. You need to get to the root of your behaviors, the root of your mindset, the root of the things that your mind is set to and how you think and how you perceive things so that you can have the awareness of how to take on a new identity. And with the new identity, it creates the new activities that you can perform flawlessly. And then with new activities over time, you get to own the property. So that's the first way CEOs think is identity before property. The second way that CEOs think is decision before reality. Now the thing about reality is that reality is a lived experience. And maybe you're watching this and you're thinking, well, I there are certain parts about my life that I'm grateful for and there are certain parts of my life that I'd like to change or I'd like to improve or I'd like to have more of. So then that is your reality. But CEOs understand that before something becomes real, we need to be able to make decisions, a series of decisions that lead to the reality we desire to have. And so Ray Dalio said that your life is a sum of all the decisions you make. And isn't that true about any aspect of life you can think of? It's true about your fitness. It's true about your family, your relationships, personal and professional. It's true about your financial status. It's true about your spiritual life and the faith that you believe in. You are making a series of decisions in order to have the reality you desire to have. Now, hopefully the decisions you are making are going to lead to that reality instead of lead you away from that reality because decisions create or they take away momentum. So it's like a series of right decisions, a series of the best decisions, the right decisions to create that reality. And here's the thing about decisions that CEOs really understand is that the more you journey towards your path, towards the goal, the objectives you want to achieve, the more you journey towards that, you are going to be making more and more decisions every day with less and less information, with less and less clarity, with less and less certainty about outcomes. And this is something that CEOs embrace. Most people, most professionals that I've worked with, even some clients that I've worked with, they shy away from decisions because of the fear of making the mistake. A fear of, well, I can't get this wrong because if I get this wrong, I'm going to lose everything that I've built. I can't make a mistake. So then what that mindset tends towards is not making a decision at all. But I submit to you that making a mistake, even making a decision, and then that decision proving to be the wrong decision, that is better than not making a decision at all. Indecisiveness, is what gets us off the path quicker than making a decision that we need to course correct later on. And this is what CEOs understand. Don't shy away from decisions. Decisions are not only privileges, but they are the sum of what the experiences you have towards the reality you desire to have. So decisions before reality. Number three, the third way that CEOs think is who not, how, who, not how. Ever since grade school, high school, we have been taught by our teachers, our preachers, our parents, our ancestors to focus on implementation. How do you do a certain thing? You got to figure out how, right? And so as a result of that, we get into the workplace, and then we have some successes in our career paths. And then we have more and more responsibilities. We have greater strategic input in our companies, and we still focus on the how. I have worked with senior VPs and senior directors who are still predominantly focused on the how, how do I get this done? How do I figure that out? How do I achieve X? And the thing is, if you focus on the how, then you are putting your activities and your time, your bandwidth and your intellect into an implementation that is too tactical from where you need to be at the strategic decision-making level. Focusing on the how means that you're going to be involved in all the steps necessary, all the how-tos, the steps necessary. But CEOs don't focus on the how, they focus on the who, which means who can figure this out. Who do I need to bring in? Who do I need to hire? Who do I need to be teamed up with? Who do I need to have as an ally? Who, not how. And when you focus on the who, the decisions you make are completely different. The way that you manage yourself, the way that you lead other people is completely different. Now, one of the biggest things that prevent professionals from focusing on the who and focusing more on the how instead of the who is the belief that they got to do it themselves, that nobody else can do what I can, that I'm the best at doing this how, focusing on this how. And if I don't do it, there's not going to get done or it's not going to get done as well. And that's one of the biggest obstacles to shift towards focusing on who and not the how. And that is a mindset. It's a mindset. So this is the third way that CEOs think who and not how. The fourth way that CEOs think is COI instead of ROI. Now you must know what ROI is. People talk about it all the time, return on investment. And in fact, return on investment may be one of your major KPIs that is in your performance metrics. And companies love to focus on performance metrics and then therefore it's like ROI. What is the ROI of putting this money in? What is the ROI of spending money on X? So I need to make sure that it's going to make a return for me and focus on that. Along with it harbors a concern for not getting an ROI. And so when people focus a lot and solely on ROI, the flip side of that simultaneously is the concern, the anxiety and the fear of not getting return. So then I'm just not going to do it. So then it's not worth it if I don't get a return. But CEOs don't think like that. CEOs focus more on the COI. So what is COI? COI is the cost of inaction, cost of inaction. This is a completely different mindset. Cost of inaction. The question that CEOs ask is what's it going to cost me if I don't invest that money? What's it going to cost me if I don't make that decision? What's it going to cost me if I procrastinate, if I hesitate and if I don't move forward with it, what's it going to cost me? And there is a dollar value there. You know, you think about costly mistakes. What's more costly than a mistake is continuing to feel that mistakes need to delay decisions. That's more costly than a mistake. See life is not about needing all of your decisions to work out perfectly because that's not possible. It's an unattainable goal, but it's about minimizing the do-overs. The do-overs are what's costly. So then if you minimize the do-overs and you understand that if I hesitate and I procrastinate, there's a cost associated with that. Then that's where CEOs really understand how to evaluate valuation. And what are they evaluating? They're evaluating the decision they're making. They're evaluating the cost of inaction. And this is what enables CEOs to continue to take decisive action, to make the decisions that most people won't dare to make, to make the decisions that most people would have their knees shaking to make that somebody makes it. So COI and not ROI. Number five, the fifth way that CEOs think is this one. Thinking is doing. Thinking is doing. You see at the executive level, it's less and less about implementing. So doing things, you know, rolling up your sleeve, going into the field, taking care of it yourself. It's less and less about that. And it's more and more about using your imagination and your communication, which means that if you're an executive, your knowledge, your insights and your wisdom is so important. Lead with those. And this has everything to do with the quality of your thinking and that quality of thinking. Thinking is the doing. You know, when you first started your career as a early career individual, maybe you had to do a lot of grunt work. You had to pull the data together. You had to do data entry. Maybe you had to do some manual labor in your life. I did. I used to waitress, wait on tables at a restaurant and that was manual labor. That's doing. And we're so used to operating based on doing, I got to get busy doing something, use my muscles or the skill of my hand to do something. And hopefully that's valuable enough for me to earn a living. We're so used to operating on that concept. But if you're going to make the switch and turn into executive levels, think like a CEO thinking is you're doing. It's not about using your hands or the skill of your hands or manual work anymore. It's about your thinking, the quality of your thinking, the frequency at which you think and your ability to think on deeper levels. So thinking is doing number six, the sixth way that CEOs think, and here it is. Time is not money. Have you ever heard the phrase that time is money? Time is money. You see, the phrase time is money basically means time is equal to money. And if you believe that time is equal to money, then you are very likely to spend a lot of your time thinking about ways to save your money because time is money. And so I see a lot of people with that concept, time is money who desire to save as much money as they can. So for example, they will drive that extra couple of miles just to save 10 cents on a gallon for gasoline to fill their cars because of the belief that time is money. But here's the thing. CEOs understand that time is not money. Why? Because life is not made of money. Time is the stuff that life is made out of. So then that means that time is not money. Time is infinitely more valuable than money because money can save you time. It can be re-earned and replenished, but time cannot. So time is infinitely more valuable than money. And when you understand that and you own that concept genuinely that time is infinitely more valuable than money, you make different decisions. And one of the most important decisions CEOs make understanding that time is more infinite than infinitely more valuable than money. One of the most important decisions CEOs make is they utilize their money to buy back more of their time so that they can improve on their opportunities so that they can use the time they got back to add more value, to produce more value. And then that could sometimes, and most of the time be equal to making more money or at least into a valuable contribution. So time is not money. It is infinitely more valuable than money. Number seven, the seventh way that CEOs think is this, get closer to the source of truth. You and I are having a conversation, but have you ever noticed the conversation is only one way, which means that I am recording this audio video message for you. And maybe you're watching this one month after I have posted or released it. Maybe you're watching it one year after I have posted it and released it. And if you're watching it any time, more than one month after I've posted it and released it, sometimes my perspectives may have changed from that video. Sometimes I have a different approach. Sometimes maybe I can enrich in the content that I have produced, but you know, the video was already released at the time that it was released. And as a result of that, because it's a one way conversation, because it is a snapshot in time and the world is changing. So then therefore my perspective and maybe my strategies would have changed and you wouldn't, you wouldn't have been updated with that. It means that there is a distance between you and me. And the same thing is true with you. If you read a book that an author has written, if the, if you're reading a book and the author wrote the book five years ago, 10 years ago, you know, their, the author's perspective would have changed. Maybe they have even better strategies than they shared in that book. Maybe they would have completely changed their framework on things, but you got the book and you read it at the time that you did. So then there's a gap between you and the author. There's a gap between you and that person. So CEOs understand this and the thought process of the CEO is I need to get closer to the source of truth. You see, as a content creator on YouTube and also as a coach for executives, I have a moral obligation to provide you with my best strategies. I have a pressure to perform, to do no harm and to act out of in with integrity, to offer you my best content, a content that I am recording in that time. So then because the world is changing so fast, the economy is always changing. The quality of that content also depends on the time at which was in which it was released. So the CEOs get closer to the source of truth. In other words, who's the source of that content? If it's my video, I'm the source of that content. And if it's, if it's someone else's book, then the author is a source of that content. CEOs desire to get closer to the source, which means I need to speak with them face to face and CEOs understand this. You see, when I consume content, I will read books. I don't really consume content on social media. Sometimes I do, but it's, it's quite rare. I'm more of a creator than a consumer on social media, but I will read books and I read a lot of them. And if I have ever read a book from an author that I really felt had a lot of wisdom in it and a lot of deep thinking, then I will search out that author and I will reach out to that author for mentorship because I got to get closer to the source of truth. And when I get closer to the source of truth, I'm willing to invest in that time and in their time as well. I'm willing to invest in that so I can get closer to them, communicate with them face to face and get their latest insight, their latest perspectives on the question that I have. So this is a concept that CEOs understand because CEO themselves are a source of truth. So if they're from one source of truth to the other, they understand the importance of getting to the source, getting close to the source. The closer to you are to the source, the more you are able to absorb and be of one mind with that source. The farther you are away from that source, the harder it is for you to be of one mind with the source. Maybe you watched 10 of my videos and my videos are 15 minutes, 20, 30 minutes at most. So then how close can you be and how well can you be of one mind with me? So then as a CEO, if I am overseeing the strategic direction of this business, I want to be of one mind with the source of truth so that the guidance I receive, the mentorship I receive is the most state of the art, the most of the times as possible. So get source, get closer to the source of the truth. Last one, number eight, the eighth way that CEOs think is this get higher in the visionary sightline. A great quality of CEOs is a visionary quality. So what does this mean? A visionary CEO is one that sees the future even before it is a present reality and in their mind through their imagination, they go into the future that they vision for the improvement, the evolutionary future that they want to create. They go into that future, they interact with it and then they bring it back to the present and they create it, they manifest it so that it becomes real. This is a characteristic of a visionary CEO. But in order for individuals to have vision, they need to be able to be higher on a sightline. So what I mean by that, I'll tell you a story, true story. I love going up into skyscrapers. So in every city that I traveled to, regardless of whether or not I've been in that city or not, I like to go to those observatories. It could be in a skyscraper, it could be in a tower. I would buy a ticket and I would go to the top floor that it offers. For example, recently my husband and I, we traveled to Taipei and in Taipei, there's Taipei 101, which is, it used to be one of the tallest towers. And we bought a ticket, went up to the top. Why? Because when I'm on the top, my sightline is elevated. In other words, I can see the horizon so clearly, 360 degrees uninterrupted. And for a visionary CEO, it is where visions are made. That's how visions are made. Now going up on a skyscraper is the physical realm when you physically elevate yourself. But I'm also referring to the figurative or the metaphorical elevation. You need to get to a higher sightline so that you don't have anything obstructing your view so that you can see the future that you want to create into the now of your reality. So get to a higher sightline. If you find value in the content today, whether or not you want to become a CEO or you're starting to recognize that you want the identity of a CEO so that you can produce the trajectory of your career in the direction that you desire. And then I invite you to learn more of these concepts and other concepts as well that I've mentioned, including communications, leadership, self-management and really how to think better. So in the description below this video, I have something to offer you. Go check out what's below the video and that way you can take advantage of what I have there to really deepen your understanding, to put the knowledge into practice. Because remember, knowledge is not power. Knowledge is not wisdom. The way you develop wisdom and power and authority is to apply your knowledge.