Book Review — A CEO Only Does Three Things by Trey Taylor
A Blueprint For Top-Level Leadership Excellence
The BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): Just like the title says, the Chief Executive Officer of any organization should focus their time and attention on three things: Culture, People, and Numbers.
Executive summary
Harry Truman’s quote, “The buck stops here,” conveys an important message. If you’re a CEO or aspire to be one, you’ll be responsible for your organization’s performance. Therefore, pay attention. There are only three areas to focus on: the culture of your organization, its people, and its numbers. While many other important issues may arise during a leader’s tenure that do not fit into these categories, they are best managed by those designated for them. This allows the CEO to concentrate on the priorities that matter most. Thus, the biggest challenge is tuning out distractions by delegating secondary matters to others.
The CEO establishes the company’s overall vision and strategy and communicates this to all stakeholders. They also recruit, hire, and retain top talent while ensuring adequate cash flow. Culture, people, and numbers form a trinity of excellence, creating a framework that the CEO can personalize by understanding themselves, their team, and their mission. CEOs who concentrate on these pillars are better equipped to lead sustainable organizational success from the perspectives of the organization’s stakeholders.
Aligning the culture with the people is easier said than done. It is deliberate and intentional but requires vision from the start of the CEO’s tenure. Establishing the culture must be the top priority because if it deviates from the intended vision, so will the people and the results. Aligning the people with the culture takes time; it is not an overnight process. Hiring and retaining individuals who fit the culture can be challenging. Still, when executed with purpose and intention, this approach effectively connects both elements to what internal and external stakeholders observe: the results. When the culture drives the people, and the people are aligned with the organization’s “why,” it creates a flywheel, positioning them to impact the bottom line positively.
The Forward, written by Kevin Harrington
A former Shark Tank “Shark,” Kevin, states that while the journey to becoming a CEO may be unconventional for some, their actions are consistently similar once they get there. He brilliantly sets the stage for the book’s author, Trey Taylor, by clearly emphasizing that a CEO’s unique skills, experience, reputation, and authority can significantly influence the long-term success of their endeavors.
My favorite line from the Forward is: “Our ability to make good decisions decreases over time when we are making too many decisions that don’t have to be made.”
The content
The book is divided into four sections: Essentials, Culture, People, and Numbers. Each section has several sub-chapters that explore the overarching content.
The essentials. Self-awareness is the most important predictor of career success, not personality. Leadership at every level begins by understanding yourself. It is the first step in one’s leadership journey; you cannot begin to comprehend others without first taking stock of who you are. It’s, therefore, a prerequisite for success in the CEO role.
The culture. It is your company’s most important competitive advantage. It must represent your values and intent because a CEO cannot be everywhere at once. Further, a culture misaligned with the CEO’s values and purpose will drive away the most precious resource: people. Therefore, as Peter Drucker says, “culture eats strategy for breakfast” as it reigns supreme.
The People. Getting the right people on the bus takes effort. Three psychological dimensions are explored in the hiring process: the “I think” dimension, the “I feel” dimension, and the “I am” dimension. Most companies hire based on the “I think” dimension because it gauges intellect. However, the author argues this approach is misguided, as the most intelligent person isn’t always the most successful. The “I feel” dimension pertains to our emotions, which often outweigh the intellectual dimension in decision-making. The best CEOs blend both dimensions, but the “I am” dimension is where everything connects. It represents our sense of purpose. Aligning the three with the company culture enhances long-term retention.
The Numbers. The final section of the book is the shortest. CEOs don’t need to be Chief Financial Officers (CFOs). They may have that experience, but most do not. CEOs must understand cash flow and position their companies to achieve results that endure through both good and bad times. The best CEOs cultivate a culture and staff their teams with individuals who comprehend the “why” behind delivering the organization’s desired outcomes. In other words, establish the culture, select the right people, and the results will take care of themselves when the organization understands its function concerning those results. Accomplishing this involves setting key performance indicators, aligning them with the culture, and interpreting your data.
The 25 most insightful quotes from the book:
On Self:
1. “You cannot hope to understand and lead until you’ve done the work of understanding yourself.”
2. “Self-awareness — not personality — is the strongest predictor of a successful career.”
3. “As a CEO, you must do the work that others aren’t willing or able to do — critically examining your beliefs and behaviors and working to optimize them.”
4. “Statistics show that the typical American reads three books a year, but the average CEO reads twelve.”
On culture:
5. “A company’s culture is its most important competitive advantage.”
6. “When a company’s culture is broken, your best people move on to other opportunities, and the people who stay are unlikely to act in the business’s best interests; execution and even profits will eventually falter.
7. “Culture drives behavior. It is unspoken, automatic, and almost invisible.”
8. “The CEO cannot be physically available to influence every choice that every employee has to make each day. But culture can.”
9. “When a culture becomes polluted and toxic, formed for the wrong motivations, or allowed to be corrupted by new members who hold different viewpoints, it can be a scarring psychological experience for those involved. Polluted water affects every fish in the tank.”
10. “Forming a culture may happen by chance, but only by continually curating, cultivating, and grooming it will we get the results we want.”
11. “A CEO must do certain things intentionally for the benefit of everyone in the company, from the receptionist to the CFO. If you do not personally own the responsibility of curating your culture, someone else will.”
12. “Make your values come alive in a creative and impactful way that demonstrates to your people and to the world what your company represents.”
13. “If you don’t regularly assess your culture, your company can begin to drift. The farther out you drift, the more resources you’ll need to correct the problem and the more likely you’ll be to lose your moorings.”
On People:
14. “Building an environment in which they can thrive — your culture — is crucial. But a culture without its people properly aligned and focused is an oxymoron. Culture cannot exist without people, and people must be properly aligned with the culture for results to manifest.”
15. “A CEO who understands people — how they tick, what they need in order to function and achieve — has a sustainable competitive advantage few others can rival.”
16. “The single biggest constraint on the success of my organization is the ability to get and to hang on to the right people.”
17. “If you have even 25 percent of your Michael Jordan’s playing baseball, that’s a tragedy in terms of their individual potential and the potential of your business.”
18. “Just as it is more profitable to keep your current customers, it is also more profitable to keep your current employees.”
19. “Treat our employees with trust and integrity, and they will do extraordinary things. Deny them that trust, and they will leave.”
20. “Recruiting the best people on the planet to your company doesn’t matter if they aren’t staying with you for the long term.”
21. “If you look to humble your employees when they make mistakes, you handicap their ability to do better work in the future. Treat each mistake as an opportunity for growth.”
22. “If, for some reason, you cannot find praiseworthy actions in your company, then you have a problem.”
On Numbers:
23. “In business, as in chess, it’s a cardinal sin of leadership to leave yourself without any options.”
24. “The person who decides what gets measured is the real person in control of the business.”
25. “Transparency is the key to fostering a culture of trust between CEOs and their teams. People who understand their role in the organization’s culture and goals are more likely to trust their employer and embrace the endgame.”
Wrapping up
I loved this book, and it’s not just for CEOs or those who aspire to be one; that would be too limiting. It’s meant for individual contributors and people leaders in all types of organizations because its messages are relevant regardless of where someone is in their career journey. Whether you’re the CEO or on the path to becoming one, this book provides a thorough blueprint for success. However, if you’re just starting your career in an organization, perhaps just out of college or the military, the book offers insights and golden nuggets of wisdom into what your CEO primarily values, regardless of whether they actually follow that script.
So, why should you read this book? First, it will resonate with anyone leading an organization or a team. For those individuals, there are three main responsibilities, and Trey Taylor does an excellent job of summarizing them. Second, if you’re eager to understand what excellence looks like at the highest levels, this book provides a blueprint that is neither overly prescriptive nor complicated. Lastly, regardless of your role, it strikes a perfect balance to help readers grasp what matters most in every organization: the culture, the people, and the numbers. After all, anything beyond those three aspects falls outside the intent of the organization’s top leader.
With that, thanks for reading!
About the book’s author
Trey Taylor is the managing director of trinity | blue, a consultancy designed to provide executive coaching and strategic planning to C-Suite leaders. His experience derives from fields as diverse as technology, financial services, venture capital, and commercial real estate development. Frequently featured as a keynote speaker, he has addressed attendees at the Human Capital Institute, the Ascend Conference, and many other engagements. You can find out more about Taylor’s consulting work at trinity-blue.com.
Follow Trey Taylor on LinkedIn.
Book details:
Publisher: A Board of Advisors Book (October 29, 2020)
ISBN-10: 1544517270
ISBN-13: 978–1544517278
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Reading is one of my passions, and I hope you find this book review insightful! As a leader and educator, I love learning and sharing. With each book I read and summarize, I consider how its content can be applied to teams and organizations, searching for resonant elements such as impactful quotes while discerning who the ideal readers are. I seek opportunities to implement what I’ve learned from each book and share that knowledge to improve myself, my teams, colleagues, peers, and those pursuing personal and professional growth alongside me. I write these reviews partly because I love to read and write, but also to share leadership lessons.
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