Bestselling author and CEO Joel Trammell chatted about his new book “The Chief Executive Operating System: The Essential Playbook for Success in the CEO Role.”
This bestselling book was just released on May 21, and it sits at No. 1 in the Amazon category for Business Management Science, and No. 2 in the Business Education section, as well as No. 4 in the Management Science category.
Background on the author
Trammell spent decades as a CEO, leading businesses to many successes. Being in this role exposed him to a pervasive problem among his fellow business leaders: many of them lacked the fundamental tools and education to make their companies truly great organizations.
This led him to launch a website and author multiple books to provide CEOs and leaders alike with the tools and support they need. Trammell is the owner of CEO Magazine and a pioneer in the field of CEO education and training.
Q & A interview
You’ve authored a few books so far around the subject of being an effective CEO, most recently with “The Chief Executive Operating System.”
As a teacher, have you ever learned something from your pupils that you were able to add to your book as a training tool or example?
The greatest joy of teaching is what you learn in the teaching process. By explaining concepts to students and observing the interaction, you are constantly refining your message for maximum impact.
Every time I give a course I find multiple areas to tweak to better explain the concepts. When students ask questions, it often points out areas where your explanation was lacking.
How does it feel to be an author in the digital age now with technology being so prevalent?
Technology has made it significantly easier to perform many of the mechanics of authoring a book but made it tougher to produce something with unique value. When everyone has fingertip access to massive amounts of information, an author must work hard to present their views in the most concise manner possible.
Can you talk to us about your younger childhood years? How did those shape you to want to pursue entry into the CEO world?
It’s hard to describe exactly what drew me to this path from those early years. I certainly felt called to leadership, and the leaders I was fortunate to know further inspired me.
For me, the concept of being CEO was never tied up with pop-culture notions of private jets and rousing speeches. I’ve always been interested in the nuts and bolts of how to effectively run an organization. It’s endlessly fascinating to me how someone gets very, very good at that.
You have helped so many individuals and businesses achieve success over the years. What is one instance that stands out as a highlight for you?
What I find most rewarding is when a CEO who attended a session years ago comes up and says they’re still applying principles from the training. If you can give someone tools they integrate into their leadership approach and they’re still using them years later, that’s huge.
I never want our trainings to be like most trainings are, where you go for a few days, get all pumped up, and then don’t use 99 percent of what you learned.
On an organizational level, we’ve certainly seen some transformations. For example, one life sciences company we worked with on the manager-training side came to us after making several acquisitions.
Their annual voluntary turnover was pretty high, and the whole culture felt siloed based on who came from which acquired company. Over several retreats, we delivered management training to their executives and then to cohorts of managers.
The managers themselves took to the training enthusiastically. In surveys, employees told the company that their bosses were doing a lot better job. And most dramatically, the company cut its turnover in half, getting it down to 15 percent.
To get to your level of success, you need a solid support system. Who would you say is your biggest supporter?
My wife, Cathy.
In your book, The Chief Executive Operating System, do you have a subject that you enjoy writing about the most?
I believe business is fundamentally about people, so that is a common theme throughout the book. I like explaining to CEOs how everything they do can have an impact on the performance of the company. Building an organization that facilitates peak performance is the heart of what a CEO does.
His bestselling book “The Chief Executive Operating System: The Essential Playbook for Success in the CEO Role” is available on Amazon by clicking here.
