How Difficult is it to be a CEO?

We are constantly inundated with reports from the media how one chief executive officer makes 615 times his staff make, or how another CEO's earnings of one day are what you make in an entire year. We are also told that CEOs don't earn their salaries as they just sit at their desk firing people left, right and center. The media's hatred of CEOs is nauseating as it's a lot more than just buying stock in a company.

CEOs make on average $200,000 per year while working an obscene amount of hours attending meetings, working at the office, spending time at public events and, depending on what company you work for, speaking with the media. It's not all sunshine and lollipops for CEOs.

The role of a CEO comes with much responsibility. Not only are you in charge of a company, you're responsible for the livelihood of thousands of employees resting on your success.

A lot of CEOs do receive big paychecks, but to show a little bit of faith with both shareholders and the workforce, they often opt for a $1 salary and stock options. This means if they're successful then their stock will soar; if they fail then their stock will drop.

Here are just some of the common tasks associated with being a CEO:

Creating and maintaining a workplace culture
Establishing a senior management team
Setting strategy and vision and delegating responsibilities
Producing a budget and allocating capital to various projects
Report to the Board of Directors on a regular basis

Indeed, some CEOs - think of the Target CEO who pretty much dropped the ball in Canada - are given a hefty salary without showing any results. Here are a few things to realize: CEOs signed a contract so their pay is legally binding; the board of directors was willing to spend X amount of money to get this qualified CEO and hope he/she will turn things around; and CEOs should be earning 20 times more than what a cashier makes since they are leading a major company.

Simply put: it's very difficult to be a CEO, especially in today's world when every single action you take results in social media explosions and ignorant tweets and wall updates.

CEOs are about as popular as a centipede on top of a vanilla cheesecake.

Here are some of the reasons why being a CEO is not so easy:

You Work Harder and Longer Than Everyone Else

When you're a CEO of a small business, you're working harder than anyone else, and longer too. You're trying to get the company off the ground, you're trying to bag three clients and you're trying to make payroll next month. It's a very stressful time, and it could affect your home life as well. It's a very difficult process.

When you're a CEO of a major corporation, you're also working harder than anyone else, and longer too. You're trying to improve the stock's valuation, you're working to get that merger approved and you're working to ensure there are as few layoffs as possible in the next quarter. At the same time, you're trying to make the board of directors and shareholders happy people.

The Successes and Failures Fall on Your Shoulders

Once you have boosted the company's stock by 15 percent year-to-date and you've increased overall revenues by 12 percent, you will be celebrated by everyone, from the board of directors to the janitors. However, once failures start to pile up then you'll become enemy of the workplace. Everyone starts to detest you and blame you for all of the company's ailments, even ones that accumulated prior to your start date.

Look out if there needs to be a series of immense layoffs! Once this makes the news then you will be public enemy No. 1 in the news media. Everyone will accuse you of ripping off shareholders and lying to staff because you're earning a nice salary while others are left without bread.

You Have Nobody to Turn to

If you're a manager or a junior clerk you have people to turn to, whether it's your superiors or colleagues. When you're a CEO, and the going gets tough, you have absolutely no one to turn to. Indeed, you're earning a decent income but sometimes the pressure can get to you. You need someone to talk to but you can't. This is because someone may leak certain information to the media, a board member may lose confidence in you and a subordinate won't know much about your problems. It can be a lonely feeling sitting at the top.

Firing Good People

You may have known a certain person since you started with the firm 10 years ago. Unfortunately, their performance has slipped despite numerous warnings. Now, you have to lay off hundreds of people, and that person's name is on the list. The worst part is that you have formed a lifelong friendship with this person and you feel very guilty about it. You hate doing it but you have to give certain people the pink slip.
No matter how kind they are, how hard they work or how much of a team player they are, you have to fire specific individuals you don't want to. Of course, you can't blame others because the buck stops with you.

Answering to the Board of Directors

Don’t forget that you have to answer to the board of directors. For every course of action you take and every plan you implement, you have to seek guidance and approval from the board. Even if this is just one small idea, like scheduling a meeting or something bigger like creating a brand new company website, you need to always as for their permission. Unless you're a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates, you will oftentimes have a difficult time trying to explain concepts to the board of directors. Not that this is a bad thing, but the only idea that a board member knows is the dollar sign. Everything else is foreign to them at this point.

Indeed, in most cases it is great to be the man. By becoming the CEO, you have accomplished a great deal. Out of all of your fellow colleagues, fellow MBAs and fellow executive material professionals, the company decided that you'll be the person to bring the corporation into a new era of profits, innovation and beyond.

Unfortunately, the pressures and stresses can be too much for one person to bear. This is your cross to bear, though, and that's the responsibility of any given CEO.

What's even worse, however, is if you have to succeed an ultra-successful CEO, someone like a Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Rupert Murdoch. This can be challenging- just ask current Apple CEO Tim Cook, who had to follow in the footsteps of Steve Jobs.

What is your opinion of CEOs? Would you like to be one or would you be content in your current position? Let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below.

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