As a refresher, a CEO does only three things:

• Sets the overall vision and strategy of the company and communicates it to all stakeholders.
• Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company.
• Ensures there is always enough cash in the bank.

These responsibilities might seem straightforward, but they encompass a vast array of tasks and decisions.

For instance, ensuring there is always enough cash in the bank could imply that a CEO needs to double as a CFO, but clearly, CEOs should not be CFOs. Similarly, hiring the very best talent could include all people functions, but of course, it should not.

In other words, even with just three things, CEOs will never run out of things to do. So how should they prioritize?

One guiding principle is that CEOs should only do things that they can uniquely do. Let someone else take care of the heavy lifting.

When Wattpad started to scale, this mindset shift really helped me prioritize. This problem is much more common than you may think. Based on my observations, I would even say that at some point, most inexperienced CEOs spend too little time on things that they can uniquely do. Failing to do so, the problem could manifest itself as people in the company chronically waiting on you before they can take their next actions on projects. You lose all the leverage you have in hiring a team.

You already paid them so much money to do the job for you. Don’t do their job for them!!!!

Although this lesson is mostly for CEOs, the same principle also applies to other leaders and managers. There is a bucket called ‘only you can do.’ Note that this bucket is not called ‘I can do it better‘ because who can do a better job or who can do it faster is not the issue here. Resisting the temptation to take on a task when your team can (should!) handle it can greatly help you improve your productivity and turn you into a much more effective leader.

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