Many CEOs want to improve their organization, but they are not interested in Improving themselves.  In fact, improving oneself is more difficult than improving the organization.

According to Indra Nooyi, the chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo personal improvement pulls up the entire organization.  She once said, “The distance between number one and number two is always a constant.  If you want to improve the organization, you have to improve yourself and the organization gets pulled up with you.  That is a big lesson.”

Here is the truth to understand.

When we get better, the organization gets better.

4 Areas Every CEO Should Improve That Would Improve Their Company

1.  Leadership

The most important area that every CEO could improve in, is the area of leadership.  Leadership expert John Maxwell states, “That everything rises and falls on leadership.”  The wise CEO must do everything they can in order to grow their leadership skills.  They must engage in leadership activities and evaluate their leadership performance.  They should read books and articles on leadership.  They should get around others leaders often.  They should study people and learn how people think, feel, and act.  They should ask others to comment on their leadership and make growing their leadership one of their top priorities.

Coaching Question: What one or two actions could I take today that would make me a better leader tomorrow?

2. Decision Making

CEOs are put in their position in order to lead and make decisions.  Unfortunately, great decisions are not always easy to make.  Decisions design our future.  To improve yourself, you have improve the decisions that you make. One serious issue that can sink a CEOs is not doing an audit on the decisions that they have made.  Because CEOs are asked to make many decisions quickly, they can move on the next decision and never stop to consider whether the past decision was good or not.  It is only the big decisions that get noticed and reflected upon.  I have often challenged leaders to track the decisions that they make in any given week.  They should record how important the decision was, how long it took them to make it, and then how strongly they felt that it was the right decision.  When a CEO improves their decisions the organization will improve.

Coaching Question: What are the best leadership decisions that I have made?

3.  Relationships

The next area that every leader should improve is in the area of human relationships.  Every CEO would be a better CEO if they improved their human relationship skills.  I am a strong proponent of Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”  Next to the Bible, I believe that it is the best leadership book that has ever been written.  In that book, Dale Carnegie writes about 30 human relationship principles that should never be violated.  He is right.  If you have never read that book, I highly encourage you to do so.  You can find out more about the book here.

Coaching Question: Which human relationship principle do I need to improve in order to improve my performance as a leader?

4.  Strategy

Every CEO should improve their ability to think strategically.  It is easy for leaders to fall into the trap of doing what has been done instead of charting new territory and new ground.  CEOs have to ask themselves the question, “Do I work ‘in’ the business or do I work ‘on’ the business.”  CEOs that desire to improve their company will learn quickly that they must spend time working ‘on’ the business.  They must improve their ability to think strategically in order to move the company forward.

Coaching Question: Do I spend time working “on” my business?

There are actually many areas for improvement.  CEOs and leaders should be on a constant track of improving themselves.  Remember, when the leader improves, the organization improves.  The areas mentioned in their article have the biggest pay off as far performance goes.  Every CEO would be wise to improve in these four areas in order to lead their companies and their people better.