Most people think the view from the corner office is all about spreadsheets and golf. It isn't. When you’re at the top of a company—whether it’s a scrappy Series A startup or a massive Fortune 500—your perspective shifts in ways that are hard to describe to someone who hasn't been there. Honestly, there's a massive communication gap between the executive floor and the rest of the building.
What the CEO wants you to know isn't usually found in the quarterly town hall slides. Those are polished. They’re safe. But behind the scenes? There is a completely different set of priorities that determines who gets promoted, who gets resources, and who is quietly sidelined.
I’ve spent years observing how leadership actually functions. It’s messy.
The ROI of Every Single Hour
Think about your salary. Now, double it to account for taxes, benefits, and overhead. That is what you "cost" the company. Every CEO is constantly doing a mental calculation: Is the value this person creates significantly higher than that number?
It’s not about being "busy."
CEOs hate busywork. They want outcomes. If you spent ten hours color-coding a PowerPoint that doesn't change a single customer's mind, you basically just wasted the company's money. This is a harsh reality. Satya Nadella at Microsoft or Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan Chase didn't get to where they are by checking boxes; they got there by understanding which levers actually move the needle for the business.
You've got to be the person who solves problems before they reach the desk of the executive team. If you bring a problem to a CEO without a proposed solution, you aren't helping; you're just adding to their cognitive load. They already have enough of that.
Communication is a Skill, Not a Given
Most employees are terrible at explaining what they do.
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They use jargon. They ramble. They provide too much detail on the "how" and not enough on the "why."
When we talk about what the CEO wants you to know, brevity is at the top of the list. If you can't explain your project in three sentences to someone who hasn't looked at it in a month, you don't understand it well enough. Executive presence is often just the ability to be concise.
Think about the "TL;DR" (Too Long; Didn't Read) culture. CEOs live in that state 24/7. They are context-switching every fifteen minutes. If you can become the person who provides high-density, low-fluff information, you become indispensable.
Why Your "Great Idea" Might Get Shot Down
It hurts when you pitch something you’re passionate about and get a lukewarm "thanks, we'll consider it."
It usually isn't personal.
A CEO is looking at the entire chessboard. You might have a brilliant idea for a marketing campaign, but the CEO knows that the supply chain is currently falling apart in Southeast Asia, or that a major competitor is about to drop a price-cutting product. Your idea might be good in a vacuum, but it doesn't fit the current strategic reality.
Understanding the broader context is what separates a "worker" from a "leader."
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The Cult of "Ownership"
You hear this word a lot in corporate manifestos. It’s usually fluff. But in the mind of a CEO, "ownership" has a very specific, almost visceral meaning.
It means that when something goes wrong, you don't say "that's not my department."
It means you stay until the job is done because you feel the weight of the responsibility. Reed Hastings at Netflix famously built a culture around this—treating employees like "stunning colleagues" rather than family members. A family is about unconditional love. A high-performance team is about accountability.
CEOs want people who act like owners because owners don't need to be micromanaged.
The Fear Nobody Admits
Here is a secret: Most CEOs are at least a little bit terrified.
They are responsible for the mortgages of hundreds or thousands of people. Every decision they make is scrutinized. They are lonely. You can’t really complain to your subordinates, and you have to be careful what you say to your board.
When an employee shows genuine empathy for the business’s challenges—not brown-nosing, but actual business-level empathy—it stands out.
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Your Career Path is Yours to Build
Don't wait for a "development plan."
Companies are machines designed to produce profit, not to act as your personal career coach. While good managers will help you, the ultimate responsibility for your growth sits with you. What the CEO wants you to know is that they value people who are self-starters.
If you want to learn a new skill, find a way to apply it to a business problem. Don't ask for permission to take a course; show how the course will make the company $50,000 more next year.
Culture is What You Do When No One is Looking
You can put "Integrity" on a wall in 4-foot tall letters. It doesn't matter.
Culture is the collection of small habits. It’s whether you help the new hire when the manager isn't watching. It’s whether you’re honest about a mistake before it becomes a catastrophe. CEOs are hyper-aware of "cultural toxins"—people who are high performers but absolute nightmares to work with.
In the long run, the "brilliant jerk" is almost always fired. They aren't worth the cost of the turnover they cause in the rest of the team.
Actionable Steps for the Modern Professional
If you want to align yourself with what leadership actually values, stop looking at your job description. Start looking at the company's annual report or their latest public statements.
- Audit your output. Look at your calendar for last week. How many of those hours were spent on tasks that directly contributed to the company’s primary goal? If the answer is "less than 50%," you are at risk.
- Master the "Executive Summary." Practice writing one-paragraph updates on your work. Use bolding for key metrics. Make it skimmable.
- Ask better questions. Instead of asking "What should I do next?", ask "What is the biggest bottleneck facing our department right now, and how can I help clear it?"
- Build a network outside your silo. CEOs have to see the whole company. If you only talk to people in your specific niche, you’ll never understand the pressures the business is facing. Talk to sales if you're in tech. Talk to HR if you're in finance.
- Take the "Ownership" test. Next time something breaks, don't wait for a ticket. If you have the capacity, fix it or find the person who can, and follow up until it's dead.
The gap between where you are and where the CEO sits is often just a matter of perspective. Once you start seeing the business as a living, breathing entity that requires constant care and strategic navigation—rather than just a place that sends you a paycheck every two weeks—your value triples. Stop being a passenger. Start navigating.