Mark Helow, founder of the CEO Project, likes to point out that “chief executive officer” is just a title, and it doesn’t come with an instruction book. He has spent the past 15 years researching the habits of CEOs at fast-growing, mid-market companies (average revenues of $50 million, average annual growth of 40% or more), and what he’s uncovered can help any business manager become a more effective leader.

Helow and his partner, Jim Schleckser, have found that much of the difference in performance among mid-market companies can be traced to a few critical traits in their CEOs, most notably:

• A burning desire to improve and an accelerated ability to apply ideas. The majority of CEOs become locked into a “mental map,” reinforced by the past success of the same strategies and processes. Exceptional CEOs constantly attempt to see their world through fresh eyes, and use that ability to develop and apply new ideas to propel their company into the future.
• A sequence of thought and action patterns that creates a vision for their company that is larger than the norm and the ability to help convert that vision to reality. Helow and Schleckser describe it as “connecting the dots” by looking at existing or potential customer needs and matching them with resources they can assemble.
• A different approach to time allocation, one that calls for spending at least 50% of his or her time on improving the company’s business/profit model, upgrading the organization’s human capital and improving its customer service and sales processes. Exceptional CEOs believe that time is a greater currency and scarcer resource than capital, and they use superior time allocation as a significant competitive weapon.