Surprising benefits “if you present yourself as the CEO”

James O’Neill is the founder and CEO of Property Marking Ireland and he finds that, rightly or wrongly, the title of CEO attracts a greater level of respect. 

“I have a board that I report to. We thought about it and it’s for recognition (the use of CEO) as much as anything else. When you go to pitch your programme to senior decision makers, you might get more ‘active listening’ out of it than if you went in as a manager or an operations manager,” he says.

Zero interest to 100% with change to CEO

In the early stages he went by the humble title of operations manager and met with little success while giving pitches. However when his title was changed he suddenly developed a Midas touch. 

“I made three pitches as an operations manager, and they  were not successful. Afterwards, 19 times in a row, with 19 local authorities I was successful (in that) they all found funding for me. It’s as if they found greater validation in having the CEO presenting to them. I could be wrong there, but that’s my experience.”

He acknowledges that there may have been other factors. Perhaps he was improving, perhaps the local authorities were talking to each other behind the scenes, but he feels people sat up and took more notice when a CEO stood opposite them. 

James also feels that using the title CEO impresses people even before they meet the holder. 

“It’s for validation. Even in Government circles, in the bureaucratic chain, if you were looking to meet a secretary general of a department or whoever, you’d probably get your appointment quicker if you present yourself as the CEO than if you presented yourself as operations manager or something like that.”

It’s not that he is in love with the title by any means, but he feels it does have surprising benefits. 

“I’d probably be more comfortable with community officer or development officer. However, for me to grow this organisation and have the greatest impact I have to use the title CEO and founder.”

Practical

Patrick Burke is CEO of Youth Work Ireland and he feels the title became widely used in the sector for very  practical reasons.

“There was some confusion between paid staff and voluntary board, so for that reason it made sense to change it to CEO. I think that’s why a lot of people moved in that direction. It was around good governance, the board had a strategic role, while the paid staff including the CEO have the job of implementing the wishes of the board on a daily basis.”

He hasn’t noticed it having had an impact when funding is being sought, although he does feel there are similarities between the world of community development and that of commerce. 

“I’ve always been involved in the sector and there has been a very close relationship with the corporate sector, not so much in the job I am in now, but when I was in the area of homelessness there was a lot of sponsorship. They understood that we had a corporate body, we have to register as companies limited by guarantee so we are subject to company law in the same way as they are. So there would be a lot in common, and they’d understand where we are coming from.”

Pride and ego

Sean Cooke is CEO of the Men’s Development Network and he has noticed how prevalent the title has become. 

“Going back maybe 15 years ago there was a proliferation of jobs becoming CEOs. I don’t know whether it was the egos of the individuals or if there was a strategic objective to it. My sense is that it was more of an individual preference. I could be wrong about this, but I don’t know if any organisation said it’d be a lot better to have a CEO rather than a director or a programme manager or whatever.”

He says that many people who become CEOs, himself included, tend to be ambitious, and were not in the least bit uncomfortable with the new term. 

While he does accept that there was a need to differentiate between managers at different levels, he doesn’t feel that alone explains the rise in popularity of the title.

Indeed, he thinks you could see how attached people have become to the title if it started being phased out again. 

“I think you’d get a lot of people objecting. They’d see it as potentially a diminishing of the function of the organisation or the status of their role or whatever, there definitely would be that. Some of it’s about future progression in other organisations and that kind of stuff. People who go into these roles, and I include myself in this, are ambitious people, both for themselves and the organisations that they’re working for. But there’s definitely a bit of ego attached to it, there must be. That’s my sense of it,” says Sean.