Why CEO really means being chief communication officer

By necessity, most entrepreneurs quickly take on the role of CEO—and sales manager and customer relations expert and HR department. When you’re running a small company, the list of hats you wear is endless.

My path to CEO has been a little different. Fresh out of business school, I had big ideas and even bigger plans to make a difference in the world. I knocked on the door of CHG Healthcare and told them I wanted to start a new online division that would revolutionize the world of health care staffing. We launched the new company. And it failed.

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Fortunately, the leaders at CHG had enough faith in me to give me another shot. Over the past 17 years, I’ve had the chance to work in most areas of the company, from marketing to sales to serving as chief operating officer. When I was named CEO two years ago, I thought I knew what I was in for. I quickly realized, however, that the title was all wrong. Rather than chief executive officer, I discovered that my job was really to be chief communication officer.

Good communication doesn’t happen by accident.