Executives Shape Their Resources to Meet Their Goals

For three years Zack Schuler has attended meetings of a local chapter of Vistage International, a peer executive leadership organization. These monthly meetings, said Schuler, have become the single biggest resource to how to guide his business, Northridge IT consulting firm Cal Net Technology Group. The meetings as well have given a glimpse into some traits shared by chief executive officers. One is that as the head of a company the work never stops. “Even on vacation you are thinking about work,” Schuler said. “That is true of everyone in the group. At times the work is passive but the buck stops with you. You are ultimately responsible for everything.” Cataloguing the traits of the successful CEO has resulted in millions of words being written and the big business of personal coaches and consultants imparting their knowledge of what top executives are doing wrong and what they need to change. In a profile from the Economic Times on Marshall Goldsmith, the leadership guru who has worked with Fortune 500 companies around the world, Goldsmith said that an important quality chief executives need is learning agility and a habit of asking questions. That is a belief shared by Schuler, who said real leaders understand that leadership is a journey and not a destination. He and the other executives in their Vistage group all understand the value of continuing to learn. “We want to grow and be active in our businesses,” Schuler said. “There is not a single one who comes into the office just once a week.” Therese Tucker, the CEO of financial software developer Blackline Systems, has found that knowing what it takes to do the different jobs at her company helps to set expectations and standards. While Tucker has a technical background, she has also worked in sales, support and implementation at the Calabasas company that she bought from its two founders. Another trait she finds helpful, especially at a small company, is the ability to rise above the daily activities and think strategically. “If you don’t take time here and there to step back and look at bigger picture and make a strategy, pretty soon you are behind and that is not good,” Tucker said. Having a vision and then investing your management team and workforce to believe in that vision was espoused by Mike Muench, the president and CEO of Line 6 Inc., a guitar, amplifier and musical effects manufacturer in Agoura Hills. If you can do that it will translate into consumer sales. “That is your job as CEO: to give purpose for the work of others,” Muench said.