Avoid These Common CEO Mistakes

Kelly Wade
Former CEO and Sales & Marketing Disruptor

Kelly Wade

After growing up working in her family’s businesses, Kelly amassed nearly 30 years of sales, marketing, and management experience focused on growing and leading people, cultivating unique cultures, and developing strategic long-term growth plans for a variety of industries. She spent a decade with one of the largest commercial roofing companies, where she led the company through a highly successful sale to private equity as the first female CEO in the national roofing industry.

“As CEO I’ve learned the hard way – and I coach CEOs to prioritize this – to get the right people in the right seats all headed in the same direction and don’t put off the hard decisions that can come in doing so. When the right DNA-driven personality and skill set is in the right role, and all are aligned on the vision, magic will happen.”

Juergen Rochert
Former Mercedes-Benz Financial Services CEO, Global Leader in Automotive Retail & Wholesale Industry

Juergen Rochert

Juergen is a seasoned senior executive and CEO with 39 years of global experience in the captive financial and insurance services industry and the automotive retail and wholesale industry. He is an expert at driving profitable growth, customer retention and loyalty, risk management, and cross-cultural leadership. He excels at leading struggling businesses through challenging times, helping them to navigate crises and continue to achieve growth and profitability.

“A common mistake I’ve seen CEOs make is neglecting communication and alignment with their extended leadership team. CEOs need to make sure everyone understands and supports the vision and is aligned on the same values, goals, and priorities. I advise CEOs to lead by example by using the Core Values publicly in decision making. Ask management how their proposals support the core values. Make the question, ‘What is the right thing to do?’ the standard in discussions.”

Lew Jaffe
Former PictureTel CEO and Video Conferencing Pioneer

Lew Jaffe

Lew is a proven CEO and entrepreneur whose greatest strengths include leadership, vision, and building plans that teams can execute with great success. He is a customer-focused leader that understands complex market dynamics, the intricacies of distribution channels, and maximizing corporate assets. During his 30+ year career, Lew has led the growth and/or successful turnarounds of more than 20 under-performing companies across all industries, both public and private, as their chief executive or outside advisor, creating over $1 billion in shareholder value.

“The most common mistake I’ve seen CEOs make is buying into their own press. It’s critical to be passionately dispassionate and go where trusted information leads you. A small change that you can make as a CEO that will have a BIG impact is focusing on what is important and not just interesting. I love to help CEOs think more about where they really make money and not just the activities that keep everyone busy.”

Andres Molano
Former CEO and Leader in Global Energy Markets

Andres Molano

Andres is a co-founder and former CEO of SoEnergy International in Miami, a $300M global energy services company. He has expertise in business and market development and business operations, and deep knowledge in T&D systems and energy markets. Andres is known for his visionary and entrepreneurial leadership style with a bias for action and managing change. He has led diverse and high-performing teams and grown international sales and operations throughout North America, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

“A small change that you can make as a CEO that will have a BIG impact is to look at and resolve the tough dilemmas that your team is facing daily. If your goal is to create an organization that breeds innovation and flexibility, then what would be the dilemmas that you should focus on? You want to make sure that whatever you and your management team are articulating and saying you value is what you are actually doing.​​​​​ This generates clarity, clarity generates engagement, and engagement generates BIG results.”

Rafael Paniagua
Former CEO of Industrial Giant ABB in Brazil

Rafael Paniagua

Rafael Paniagua is an experienced leader as CEO and President in the power, automation, and manufacturing industries. Over a 25-year period, Rafael has built and grown successful companies and lead global operations in multiple continents. As a President and CEO of ABB Brazil for 7 years, he repositioned the Brazilian and Latin American operations focusing on high growth segments, led dramatic change in the customer base, and achieved strong growth despite a very tough market.

“A lack of an effective delegation process from the CEO to the management team is a common mistake. A small change that you can make as a CEO that will have a BIG impact is to improve the communication at all levels and to all stakeholders (employees, management team, vendors, clients, investors, etc.). Proper preparation and delivery of a clear, concise, and compelling message will highly impact the business.”