After reading a recent blog by Chris Matyszczyk (I’ll give you a buck if you can pronounce that) titled “Here’s Proof That Many CEOs Are a Waste of Money,” I was inspired to share my thoughts on why truly great CEOs are worth every penny of compensation they receive.

1. Truly great CEOs (TGCs) cast a clear vision of where the organization is headed and make a clear and articulate case for transformation, obtaining the buy-in of the board and other key constituents and stakeholders before embarking on the journey.
2. TGCs evaluate the make-up of their executive leadership team to discern if the talent they have on board is the talent they need to lead the transformation. They make tough decisions and take action to address any gaps in leadership.
3. With the right executive leadership team in place, TGCs actively engage them in understanding the vision and translating it in such a way that the rest of the organization not only gets behind it but fervently works to execute it.
4. TGCs recognize that it takes a lot of time and resources to transform an organization. They take the steps necessary to fund the journey—ensuring that the organization has the financial wherewithal to sustain ordinary operations while investing in change and growth.
5. TGCs communicate constantly—at all levels of the organization—keeping others informed of the plans, goals, achievements, challenges, failures and critical decisions that happen throughout the course of the transformation.
6. TGCs are human and recognize that organizations are made up of other humans. With humanity comes great strength, ego, pride, imperfection, vulnerability and frailty. Recognizing this, they work to transform this humanity into the engine that will transform the organization.

Do you have what it takes to be a truly great CEO?