Coming up with a CEO job description can be beyond challenging because every company - and every CEO - is unique. To get a better idea of what a CEO does and the most important aspects of the CEO job, we scoured the web to find some choice quotes direct from CEOs themselves.
Keep reading for a CEO job description straight from the CEOs themselves.
“A CEO should determine and communicate the organization’s strategic direction. Until that's settled, making decisions about anything else at the business is difficult. And without this, the company is merely a collection of people pursuing individual goals, guided by their own values.” (source)
- Joel Trammel, Khorus
“As CEO, I get to be involved in almost every aspect of the business, and at the same time I'm in charge of our big picture goals. [...] I have to make sure we're all on the same page, our opinions are aligned, and we're moving in the same direction.” (source)
- Jonathan Wasserstrum, TheSquareFoot
“Nowadays, the main value that I can provide for the company is hiring really great people.” (source)
- Zvi Band, Contactually
“ As CEO of Punchh, I am responsible for overseeing all aspects of business operations and leading my team to success by driving deliverables, motivating staff and ensuring we are all on the same track towards our goals.” (source)
- Vic Mahadevan, Punchh
“My job requires me to be available any time, especially since we work in three different time zones. Even when I'm on vacation, I have to check emails multiple times a day, so I can't ever turn my work mind off. [I also] hate that there's no one to complain to. In past jobs I've complained about my bosses for making unfair rules or poor business decisions. Now I can't be mad at anyone - just myself!” (source)
- Erin Zaikis, Sundara
“Nobody will ever care about your company the way you do. It's just not possible [...] I never imagined I'd work harder than I did when someone paid me a salary.” (source)
- Sarah Ratliff, Coquí Content Marketing
“Now as CEO I have the ability to dedicate my heart, mind, and skills to whatever task I feel is the most important to the company.” (source)
- Guillermo Ortiz, Geek Powered Studios
Every CEO job description will be different and that is evidence in the breadth of these quotes. However, there are clearly a few clear areas where there is tremendous overlap from company to company. Namely, we can clearly see that CEOs are focused heavily on developing corporate strategy -- from choosing clients to approving new hires -- it is the CEO who decides what direction the company takes. Further, across the board CEOs are extremely busy, meaning that listing out the individual tasks they may incur in a CEO job description for a job posting is likely futile. Rather, taking a big picture view is likely to be much more useful.