What the Best CEOs Do Differently — and Why It Works

There are just some leaders who stand out among their peers. It’s not just their education or industry experience. It’s their mindset, habits, and goal-setting strategies.

What the best CEOs do is engineer success by crafting and communicating a clear, compelling vision, committing to ongoing learning, and making data-driven decisions.

“Future leaders can try to replicate what top CEOs do because there are some repeatable characteristics, systems and disciplines that people can learn from,” says Vistage Chair Heather Anderson, founder of Leading Challenges. “They’ve established a process and know and can articulate what they have done to be successful.”

Learning from the top 1% of CEOs can help you elevate your leadership style, too. However, it’s essential to define what makes an elite leader before attempting to replicate their success.

“I see business leaders who think, because of the revenue they’ve generated or the wealth they’ve amassed, that they’re a good leader,” says Jimmy Blackmon, U.S. Army Colonel (Ret.), author and a Vistage speaker. “Revenue doesn’t indicate the effectiveness of leadership. To me, an elite leader has the behaviors and traits that allow them or enable them to teach, coach and mentor other aspiring leaders.”

Here are 7 things the best CEOs do differently and tips for how you can elevate your leadership.

1. Crafting and Communicating an Inspiring Vision

Exceptional CEOs understand the importance of crafting and communicating an inspiring vision. They know that it’s more than a lofty statement spoken at all-hands meetings or written on the office walls — it’s a north star that guides every decision within the organization.

“An inspiring vision is something that emotionally resonates with people to get them committed to something bigger than themselves, and it’s directional,” Anderson says. “I think in this next generation of workers, that is important.”

When discussing vision, Blackmon often references the scene in “Alice in Wonderland” where Alice asks the Cheshire Cat which path to take; he famously responds that it depends on where she wants to go. Alice admits she doesn’t care where she goes, and the cat replies that then any path will do. Without a clear vision, it’s impossible to articulate direction, which leads to confusion and disengagement among teams.

“You have to be able to effectively communicate a clear vision of what you’re trying to achieve as an organization,” he says. “When I was in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was an effective visionary leader because he could visualize what he was trying to do against us and the Iraqis and communicate with his direct reports.”

To unite any team around your vision, Anderson suggests:

• Always making the vision visible.
• Incorporating the vision in communication with staff/direct reports.
• Empowering staff to make and execute decisions to get buy-in to the vision.

“The best leaders allow people to see how decisions align with the vision,” Anderson says.

2. Making Data-Driven Decisions

Gut decisions and good intuition are critical components of success. But the top CEOs don’t guess. They leverage data to make informed, strategic choices. The best leaders gather and utilize customer insights to respond to what customers are requesting.

“They are likely even using data to stay ahead of what their customers need,” Anderson says. “Using AI, using the trends coming down the pike or understanding their customers’ problems to enhance what they bring to customers.”

Anderson likens it to hockey players in the Stanley Cup. Like elite hockey players, what the best CEOs do is anticipate what is coming next so they can be proactive and “pass the puck,” helping customers solve the problems of today and the future.

At the same time, they don’t allow “analysis paralysis” to creep in. Effective, good leaders understand how to balance data with decisiveness.

“In the late 90s and early 2000s, when I was in the military, when we suddenly had unmanned aerial vehicles, we had all types of intelligence collection assets,” Blackmon says. “I saw a lot of leaders get caught up in analysis paralysis. The need to get more and more data paralyzed them from being able to make decisions. There is a fine line between analytics and decision-making.”

Numerous tools and techniques are available for data analysis and forecasting. Dashboards for visualizing KPIs, forecasting software to project revenue, demand and supply chain, customer relationship management (CRM) and people analytics are just a few strategies top CEOs use to keep a pulse on all aspects of the organization.

Meanwhile, industry-specific benchmarking tools, including the Vistage Business Valuation Tool, can help leaders to measure their company’s performance against industry norms or competitors to set realistic growth targets.

Start small by identifying the three to five core metrics most important to the organization’s strategic goals to avoid overwhelm. Simultaneously, build a data-driven culture and ask better questions.

Instead of “What’s our revenue this month?” ask: “Which product line is contributing most to growth?” or “What channel has the highest ROI?”

3. Building High-Performing Teams

Elite CEOs don’t try to do everything themselves. They hire strategically, invest in development, and create the conditions for others to thrive.

They surround themselves with people who challenge them, rather than just agreeing with them. They create psychological safety where teams feel confident speaking up, taking risks, and owning outcomes.

“There is a lot of psychological work that CEOs have to do to realize that at this level, you are now the coach and no longer the player,” Anderson says. “You have to know your role, your strengths, what you bring to the team and how to bring in others.”

“One of the things I see top CEOs struggling with more than anything is realizing they need to trade up, pay, recruit and hire higher-level talent,” Anderson says. “Sometimes that means letting team members go who were there in the early years. It’s an emotional journey they go on to permit themselves to decide they’re going to add top talent even if that means letting someone go.”

Recruiting, maintaining, and motivating top talent requires intentionality. Use interviews and assessments, such as Gallup CliftonStrengths, DISC, and others, to gauge adaptability, coachability, and values alignment.

Make the organization’s mission and vision visible and believable. Celebrate wins and progress, and conduct stay interviews to learn what is keeping employees engaged or disengaged.

Perhaps most importantly, create a culture people are invested in.

Blackmon adds that one motto he preaches is, If you don’t love them [your team]. You can’t lead them. What does loving your employees mean?

“It means you genuinely care for them and you notice when they’re having an off day and you ask them with the intent to hear a real desire to hear them,” he says. “If what you do and the decisions you make are based on your bonus or your next Porsche or the boat you want to buy, they’re not going to be there for you. But if you’re making decisions for what’s best for the business, for them and their lifestyle, they’ll do almost anything for you.”

4. Focusing on Personal Growth

When it comes to learning, what the best CEOs do is treat self-development as seriously as they do business development. They know their company can only grow as fast as they do.

Focusing on personal growth broadens perspectives, allowing for better decision-making and more adaptable organizations. Personal growth often boosts EQ, improving empathy, communication, and conflict resolution. Teams led by emotionally intelligent CEOs are more engaged and resilient.

• Reserving time daily or weekly for reflection and learning
• Hiring an executive coach
• Reading and listening to podcasts (Industry-specific and leadership-focused content)
• Asking for feedback
• Asking hard questions to identify blind spots
• Joining a peer advisory group

“The best leaders find the more they learn, the better they need to be,” Anderson says. “Being a part of Vistage peer advisory groups gives leaders monthly opportunities to learn, apply and see the benefit, giving them momentum.”

5. Strategic Networking and Peer Support

Being a CEO is lonely — but it doesn’t have to be. Top CEOs know they can’t get better in a vacuum. They seek out peer networks, mastermind groups, and advisory boards that challenge them to elevate their skills.

These relationships aren’t about surface-level networking; they’re built on trust, vulnerability, and a shared desire for excellence. The best CEOs have an extensive network of people they can reach out to for help. Anderson shares an example of a 20-year member of her group.

“There’s not a single problem he hasn’t been able to solve by contacting someone who has established a relationship with him through Vistage,” she says. “It’s those relationships that provide the resources needed to solve the complex problems of life, leadership and business.”

Another group member had to lay off 93 people, more than half of whom were in Arizona. Anderson utilized a network of Vistage Chairs to issue a request for assistance. Three Vistage Chairs responded with companies that might be able to take on some of the laid-off employees.

6. Leading with Emotional Intelligence

The days of top-down, command-and-control leadership are over. Empathy and emotional intelligence differentiate good leaders from exceptional ones.

“I’ve led through some significant crises in Iraq and Afghanistan and have yet to meet a problem that yelling and screaming about it would fix,” Blackmon says. “There isn’t room for extreme, emotionally driven decision-making in any organization. People respect your ability to maintain your emotional intelligence and to stay connected and be calm under pressure, and I think you make better decisions.”

He recommends asking yourself this question before responding emotionally, ‘And then what?’ Before reacting or using a specific tone, consider how those on the other end will receive it and if that reaction is what you want.

“A lot of times, if you just take that split second to think, ‘And then what?’ you will change the way you say it, or you’ll change the tone of what you’re saying,” he says.

Anderson notes that with her clients, she starts by defining empathy. She defines empathy as staying in a state of seeking to understand their people, organization and the external realities.

“The mistake I think leaders make is they get into binary ways of looking at people or their organization or external,” she says. “What I mean by that is good, bad, agree, disagree, right, wrong. When leaders move into understanding, they can start to problem-solve around that and make decisions around that and can pivot faster.”

The same principle applies to understanding stakeholder needs. Suppose you can understand your customer, board member, or other external stakeholder, rather than simply agreeing or disagreeing with them. In that case, you can move more quickly into problem-solving and move forward.

7. Maintaining a Long-Term Mindset

There’s no finish line in leadership. What the best CEOs do is approach their role with humility and curiosity. They recognize that today’s best practices could be tomorrow’s liabilities — and they stay agile and adaptive.

They reflect on feedback, pivot when needed, and never assume they have it all figured out. “Leadership and learning are an endless journey,” Anderson says. “It’s about the journey and not the destination. I think the best leaders realize success is a product of how fast they can learn the things they need for their business and have the mindset that learning is ongoing.”

Build regular feedback loops into your leadership. Whether through employee surveys, executive coaching, or peer input, make learning a permanent part of your operating system. Joining a Vistage peer advisory group also provides access to critical, objective information, as well as lived experiences from fellow leaders, and helps business leaders identify and work through blind spots.

Your Journey to Leadership Success

The best CEOs don’t rely on luck; they build greatness through deliberate, disciplined action. They create and lead with a compelling vision that unites their teams, and they use data to make decisions. They commit to personal growth and invest in developing their teams. They lead with empathy, delegate and stay focused on the long game even under short-term pressure. Make time for reflection, learning, and peer connection, even when things are busy.

The most successful leaders didn’t overhaul their leadership skills overnight. They built these habits one step at a time. Start by choosing one area to focus on and improve in this quarter.

Surround yourself with people who challenge you to grow, not just agree with you. Through peer advisory groups, resources and education, Vistage can support you on your journey to achieving leadership excellence.

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