“You need to think like a CEO.”

It’s a phrase that gets tossed around a lot, but what does it really mean?

Over the past several years, I’ve worked with ambitious founders, financial advisors, and service-based business owners who are scaling successful businesses. In the early stages, they built momentum by doing everything themselves—managing every detail, making every decision, and staying close to every client. Underneath those behaviors were powerful beliefs like “Clients work with me because of me” and “If I’m not involved, it won’t get done right.” But as the business grows, those same mindsets become constraints. Thinking like a CEO requires a fundamental shift: from doing to leading, from control to trust, and from reacting to strategically building what’s next.

What It Really Means to Think Like a CEO

Thinking like a CEO isn’t about having a corner office or a certain title. It’s about changing how you make decisions, use your time, and define your role in the business.

It’s the shift from:

• Doing everything yourself to building a team you can trust
• Reacting to daily demands to leading with vision and intention
• Measuring success by how busy you are to focusing on what drives growth
• Tying your identity to the work to building a business that grows beyond you

When you’re thinking like a CEO, you’re:

• Casting a clear and compelling vision to drive the business forward
• Making time for strategic thinking, not just task management
• Creating space to build what’s next instead of always reacting to what’s now
• Aligning your actions and capacity with the growth goals that matter most

Why It Matters for Goal Achievement

When I facilitate goal-setting workshops or strategic planning sessions, I often see a similar pattern: leaders and their teams are motivated and results-focused. But without stepping back to think like CEOs, they often miss the execution either by setting the wrong goals or not creating a clear plan to follow through.

When you think like a CEO, goal setting changes. You:

• Anchor goals to the long-term vision, not just short-term metrics
• Prioritize what actually drives growth, not what keeps you busy
• Build in space to evaluate, adapt, and lead with intention

And one of the most overlooked but powerful tools in this process is reflection.

Taking time to pause, review, and reflect on what’s working (and what isn’t) is often the missing link between setting goals and achieving them. Reflection allows you to reconnect with your vision, realign your priorities, and lead from a place of clarity instead of reactivity.

Why I Created the Think Like a CEO Series

This shift from operator to CEO is one I’m currently helping many of my clients navigate. It’s a leadership journey that requires thinking bigger, embracing risk, and redefining how they show up in the business. Without the accountability and partnership of a coach, it’s the kind of work that’s easy to postpone or avoid altogether.

That’s why I created the new Think Like a CEO series on the Elite Achievement podcast. These are candid conversations with high-performing leaders who have shifted their identity, let go of control, bounced back from failure, and embraced the mindset required to build seven- and eight-figure companies. You’ll hear powerful stories of identity shifts, bold moves, and the lessons these CEOs learned through challenge, resilience, and growth. From how they make high-stakes decisions to how they bring out the best in their people, these conversations reveal what it truly takes to think and lead like a CEO.

The first episode drops this week and you don’t want to miss it.

🎧 Subscribe to Elite Achievement to follow the Think Like a CEO series.

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Ready to help your leaders think and plan like CEOs?

Whether you lead a firm or a fast-growing business, I facilitate strategic planning retreats with leadership teams to help you align your vision, clarify priorities, and solve the right problems. These retreats are designed to spark meaningful conversations, strengthen leadership, and produce a focused plan your team is ready to execute.

When leaders hire me to facilitate, they get more than a meeting. They get a focused, high-impact experience that drives alignment, sharpens priorities, and results in a clear plan their team can actually execute.

If you want to start the next quarter or the next year with stronger leadership and a more committed team, email meet@kristinburke.com to connect.