Enterprise value gets talked about in boardrooms all the time — but too often it’s reduced to EBITDA, stock price, or revenue growth. Those matter, but they’re outcomes. True value is built when CEOs align innovation, leadership, and execution so growth is sustainable, repeatable, and transferable.
I’ve seen too many mid-market CEOs burn energy on the wrong things — chasing quarterly metrics, micromanaging execution, or obsessing over dashboards. The real levers of value are harder to measure, but they’re the ones only you can pull.
- Vision Clarity – When the vision is fuzzy, execution is too. Only the CEO can set a future that is compelling enough to align the entire organization.
- First Team Alignment – Your leadership team is your team. When they’re misaligned, drag, duplication, and confusion spread throughout the company.
- Stakeholder Engagement – Customers, employees, and investors need to hear from you, not through you. Authentic connection is a CEO’s job.
- Strategic Organizational Alignment – Your operating model and governance must match your strategy, or else plans stay on PowerPoint slides.
- Board Effectiveness – Boards can accelerate or stall value. How you engage them determines which one it will be.
- Personal Effectiveness – Your clarity, energy, and resilience set the tone for your company’s capacity to grow.
When you own these six levers, growth compounds, culture strengthens, and execution accelerates. Ignore them, and value quietly leaks out every day.
CEO Call to Action: Which of these six are you under-investing in right now? Pick one and commit to a tangible step in the next 30 days. Because the work only you can do is the work that creates enduring value.