Chief Executive Magazine

America’s CEOs are feeling better about current business conditions, but they’re less convinced things will get much better from here. Chief Executive’s latest CEO Confidence Index, fielded July 7-9 among 321 U.S. CEOs, shows leaders’ assessment of current conditions rising for a fourth consecutive month, up 2 percent from June to 5.8 out of 10—the highest reading of the year. Their year-ahead outlook, however, softened.

Jen Millard found a creative way to start her canned water company, mainelove, without having to invest in significant capital outlays—using the facilities of local brewers when they are not making beer. It’s an all-around win, for the brewers and mainelove—the company now distributes in five states and more than 600 stores—but also the state of Maine. Maine has exported its water for generations, but now mainelove is creating more economic value that stays local.

I recently had a chat with Kristen Faulkner, and she isn’t your typical athlete. She’s a two-time Olympic gold medallist across road and track cycling. Harvard graduate. Venture capital career. Didn’t even start cycling until her mid-20s. Then, within a few years, she’s standing on the podium at the 2024 Paris Olympics, winning gold in both the individual road race and the team pursuit. That kind of trajectory doesn’t happen by accident.

It’s typically not a question of data. In fact, most leadership teams aren’t missing data. More often, they’re operating with incomplete strategic decisions they believe have already resolved. The cost rarely appears in the strategy session. It appears months later in execution, resource allocation, organizational alignment and ultimately business performance. We’ve all experienced it: A strategic priority is announced. A transformation effort begins. A growth objective is established.

For 40 years, I’ve helped organizations navigate leadership transitions, first as a senior manager and later as an advisor. I’ve worked with hundreds of CEOs, board members and CHROs, and have seen transitions go smoothly as well as ones that almost ruined organizations built over decades. The key factor was rarely the successor. Most often, it was an outgoing CEO who determined whether the transition succeeded or failed.

It was a whirlwind spring of live and virtual events here at Chief Executive Group. Nine cities, 14 events, hundreds of conversations across all of the communities we help—CEOs, CFOs, CHROs, public company directors—over four blurry months. So many great ideas and insights from so many great people both on and offstage. Now that we’ve a moment to exhale, here are a handful of ideas that continue to stick with me: Hand and Heart.

As with any new shift in the tectonic plates of technology, experts are quick to light up your emails with panaceas to guide you through the turbulence of new AI risks and opportunities. Yet, strategy consultants, schools, attorneys and associations are getting surprised daily along with the rest of us, as groundbreaking AI offerings emerge. Academic and commercial recipes flood the zone, despite a vacuum of scholarly expertise and data specific to the implications, uses and dangers of AI.

Every CEO is being told to do more right now. Move faster. Adopt AI. Build optionality. Rework talent. Rethink the operating model. Watch for disruption. Prepare for competitors that may not even come from your industry. Rita McGrath’s advice: Before CEOs chase the next tool, market or technology, they need to answer a harder question: What is the ‘center’ of this company?

The CEO conversation right now has two camps fighting over the same word: hardcore. On one side are the executives who’ve decided the answer to a complicated moment is to crank up intensity and push everyone harder. On the other side are those in line with Sheryl Sandberg’s reframe. Sandberg argues that “hardcore” can mean kind, that you can be demanding and humane in the same breath. Both camps are making real points, and yet both miss the bigger story.

Editor’s Note: With a bevy of stressors, every CEO knows—and fears—the truth about this job. It can be a killer. That’s led Chief Executive to team with the renowned faculty at Mayo Clinic Executive Health to help you rethink some of the most important—and too-often overlooked—aspects of maintaining good health as CEO. We’ve collected the articles in a growing library. We hope you find this initiative useful.