Work On The Business, Not In It...

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has curtailed his holiday in sunny Dorset to rush back to Downing Street following the outbreak of foot and mouth disease on a British farm. Is this driven by a need to be seen to be doing something from a PR perspective or does the CEO of UK Plc need to work on his delegation skills more?

Any good CEO has to balance involvement (interference?) in operational matters against taking a more strategic view. Delegate to little and too much weight lands directly on his/her shoulders. Delegate to much and risk the fate of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair by being accused of not being in control.

A key stage in any business is when the CEO can focus on working on the business, rather than in it. This requires that a management team is assembled that can take primary responsibility for operational matters. Sure the CEO might be the best person to do everything and make every decision (which he probably had to do to in the early days), but he or she has to sleep sometime (and even take the odd holiday).