3 Things Top CEO's Always Do

The "3 Things" series originally started as three chapters in my 1994 book "Deal Makers / Deal Breakers" because in business (and in life) you are either one or the other. You either look at business as "How can we make a deal?" or you have the destructive filter of "This won't work because" (as your standard response).

This ongoing series reveals the simple truth that everything usually boils down to three simple traits or points. In understanding and embracing the "Top 3" or the "3 Keys" to unlocking success, you can cut thorough the clutter and crap and get the deal done.

These 3 things will also help you when it comes to people since:

"People are either wind in your sails or anchors on your tail"

# 1 - Trait of Success: Communications/Email - Every single highly successful CEO which I have had the pleasure to meet, do business with or engage with has the highly effective trait of answering every single email or message.

Might sound daunting to some but every single top executive knows every single email correspondence with accounts, clients, investors, partners and executives must be answered and addressed. In fact, with the two dozen billionaires I have the pleasure of dealing with - 100% of them display this trait. The most effective at this, when a communication is sent, makes sure an answer has been delivered within an hour. The least of them make sure to respond during the same business day. The key here is they do not let the sun set on their communications and if they for any reason cannot personally reply, they have a system in place where an assistant or associate responds (however, most reply back personally - although it sometimes it is just an economy of words right on point.)

You can directly judge the skill set of a CEO by watching how they reply to emails and messages. If they cannot manage this simple prudent and respectful practice, more than likely they as a CEO are scattered, dis-focused and running around in too many directions not being effective. On the flip side of that same coin, the CEO who does take the time to respond has mastered the art of following up and knowing it "takes relationships and teams" to find success. These excellent relationship masters and respectful leaders know effective communications and relations make for great business - big business; so from employee communications to strategic partners communications, what you pay attention to reveals much of your business character. The very best I have ever come across, who had an amazing follow up and communication style, was David Geffen. His particular follow up one time was a hand written, hand addressed and hand stamped note sent in the mail (what an exceptional touch of class).

The other effective leader with this amazing skill is Mark Cuban. One would think with the NBA, Shark Tank, Dancing with the Stars, an upcoming movie appearance and 11,000 other things plus 1,000,000 people at a time wanting his attention; that Mark would not have time to follow up. Yet, amazingly a response from Mark rarely goes past 30 minutes from the time sent (truly and amazing professional and respectful skill).

#2 Trait of Success: Under promise then over deliver!

This one seems to be standard business logic, however one would be amazed how often the green and inexperienced CEO breaks this rule and does not display this successful business trait. Every CEO knows they are being judged at every single minute. Judged and observed by investors, partners, potential clients, employees and potential investors at every single stage and every step of business dealings. This means every word uttered is seen as a promise and commitment and everything you say you can and will be viewed as an agreement. The most successful CEO understands "words matter" and "words mean things" (again one would be amazed how many green and inexperienced CEO's willy-nilly toss about words and commitments and then wonder why things went wrong and no one understood).

To adopt this trait and mimic this portender, one must only be willing to speak the truth and never utter a word (promise) which cannot be 100% met - on schedule. Many CEO's get in trouble by over promising things to potential clients and partners while knowing full well the things said are not true or in reality no where near the truth. This is a business deal death trap. The excellent CEO clearly states what his or her company can do, is willing to do and then they pull out all the stops to make sure (whether for partner or employee) they over deliver.

# 3 Trait of Success - Every meeting could lead to your financial windfall, so always be in due diligence mode

This is an obscure one in most circles and not taught in business schools, but every single (and I literally mean 100%) CEO I have watched move on to Billionaire had one edge over all the others, i.e.; they knew that every meeting, every pitch, every relationship and every client meeting could be the precursor to being bought out of thier business or could generate a huge financial windfall for them and their partners/employees.

Here is how they approach this little known tactic:

The very person or company you are pitching to work with you, partner with you, buy from you or engage with you might very well end up being the person or company that buys you out for billions!

Thus, it is NEVER just about landing the deal (you may think it is), but the other side of the table they may see your deal, your opportunity as thier future or their companies future. So in this instance it is better to be fully prepared rather than caught off guard. How does one make sure they are fully prepared? Approach your daily schedule, work, communications, decisions, agreements and operations as if tomorrow top level due diligence teams could swoop in and begin to verify what you have created so they can have the pleasure of taking it off your hands for billions.

This literally means you have no chance of going back and cleaning up sloppiness or shoddy business practices, so you better make sure you operate as you must past business due diligence every single day so when the big day comes you can rest easy and ...

Close the deal.