Jobs can be of various types. You can work as an assistant, boss, executive, CEO, manager, etc. While having those job titles you can even specialize in different fields like finance, accounting, business administration, politics, English, history, etc. All this will help us understand what job title you will hold. It is also said that a CEO and a chief executive are pretty similar to each other or are the same thing. The executive officer is reasonable for executing important duties and maintaining the work environment. Let’s know What is an Executive Officer?
Today we will focus on the job title of an executive officer and understand what they do, how they do it, and how you can become one. Executive officers as their name suggests are reasonable for the executing roles and responsibilities of other employees in the organIzation. They deal with everything in the organization ranging from understanding employee grievances to making decisions in business meetings. They usually perform such varied roles and are one of the most important members of an organization. Today we will understand them in much more detail.
Let’s start with defining the job of an executive officer and how they carry out these activities.
Executive Officer
An executive officer is also known as the CEO- Chief Executive Officer and the world for an organization. It is the topmost position of an organization and they are responsible for dealing with all the organization’s problems and finding solutions for the same. It also comes under the C-level jobs which are the highest paying jobs in the world. Their work deals with a lot of things like decision-making for the organization, providing assistance, scheduling meetings, innovating new products, planning new strategies to increase sales, and acting as a marketing head by using oneself to market the company. Example- Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla.
They are seen by the public and thus need to maintain stability in their lives. This is important to keep their image among the customers. They are the main communicator of business meetings and help in resolving issues that arise between the board of directors and organization partners. To become an executive officer you need to be knowledgeable and have the skills to handle large crowds. Their social image plays a huge role to maintain the organization’s image and helps in their growth. An executive officer is collectively elected by the board of directors and the shareholders using a democratic voting system. Thus you need to gain the trust and respect of everyone in the organization to become the executive officer.
The responsibilities of an executive officer can change according to the organization they work with. In a smaller organization, the executive officer’s daily responsibilities include maintaining the business and looking after its business operations. While in a large-scale organization that is well known around the world, the responsibilities of an executive officer change. They focus on providing motivation and support to the employees and act as a leader for them. They don’t look after the business operations of the organization instead, focus on the growth plans of the company and how they can be improved with the changing society.
Skills to become an Executive Officer
As an executive officer, you need to possess skills that can help you carry out your job with ease. These skills are very important because the job of an executive officer requires a lot of experience and patience. These skills act as stepping stones to clear out problems and help achieve the best from the job. Various skills you need to become an executive officer include-
Communication skills
As an executive officer having great communication skills is important. Your work deals with communicating with other businesses and more directors to execute plans that will benefit the company. You need to be good at communicating your point of view to others and also have good listening skills to comprehend what your employees and other business executives want to convey. Communication skills have become a lot more important today, because of the drastic shift in industries from a small scale to a large scale industry. You can develop your communication skills by reading books about communication, attending seminars, talking with new people, etc. It can easily help you improve your skills.
Open mindset
As an executive officer, you need to have an open mind where you do not restrict people or plans because they don’t fit your thinking patterns. Thus developing an open mindset should be important. It will help you accept new thoughts and think about innovations. As society is changing day by day and new concepts are getting introduced like a preference for a vegan diet, LGBTQ community, feminism, etc, the organization needs to change to suit the demands of the customers. This can include changing company policies, giving special rights to some people, focusing on equal representation, etc. Thus having a pep mindset is important to become a successful executive officer.
Friendly
As an executive officer, you need to have a friendly and compassionate personality. This personality will help you seem more approachable and people around you would see you as their leader. When you are an executive officer you need to deal with a lot of people throughout the day which can drain out of your energy and make you frustrated but your personality is something that would help you keep calm and behave in a friendly manner. You also need to understand your employees’ problems and define rules that can help them overcome the problem. Having a friendly nature will help you in the long run.
Transparent
As an executive officer, it’s important to maintain a level of transparency with everyone. You are obliged to maintain transparency with your customers about the business and products used for business. You also need to maintain transparency with the employees about various employee benefits they can get, rules and restrictions about the organization, and maintain transparency with the board of members about the deal impacts on the organization, and how it will benefit. When you are transparent with your customers, employees, and other business managers this increases their trust in you and the brand or business. When the employees understand what they are working for this can increase their performance output as well.
Focus on growth
As an executive officer, you should always focus on improving the organization. Your mind should be fixed upon growing the organization’s reach and product selection and providing as much as you can to your customers and employees. When you work with a growth mindset you get less distracted and work more efficiently rather than half-heartedly. It will directly lead to an improvement in the performance of the overall organization and boost the employee’s performance as well. We place limitations on what we can do and what we cannot do. It’s time to remove those limitations and develop a growth mindset. This will help you overcome those limitations.
Maintain ethics
As an executive officer, you must maintain certain ethics in business. These ethics are building blocks of any business and if they get disturbed the whole organization that was built on them will shatter and fall. That’s the reason why you should always develop the habit of behaving ethically while doing business. Certain ethics that are important in any type of business are –
- Honesty- The most important ethic of all is, to be honest with everyone. You need to be honest about what’s going on in the company to the board of directors and talk about the finances and taxes of the organization with them.
- Fairness- You should behave in an equal manner with everyone in your organization whether it’s the print guy or your boss. When you follow those ethics your employees would eventually observe and learn with you.
- Law-abiding- You need to be aware of the law and abide by it at all costs. When you abide by the law you maintain the trait of the government as well.
These are some ethics that you need to maintain when in an authoritative position.
Creative beings
As an executive officer being creative is something you should be born with. You can develop this skill later in life as well but, those who are naturally born with it can make use of it. Creativity is an important skill as it helps you think and observe things from your point of view instead of obeying the conventional way of dealing with things. Your questioning behavior and stubbornness to undertake the true meaning behind things will help the organization to reach heights. A creative person will always try to work on different activities of interest and would use this knowledge to solve new problems. Thus the role of creativity in an executive officer is immersible.
Commitment
As an executive officer, you should be able to commit to things, and when you do commit to a particular thing you need to stick with it and take it to success. Some minor changes are acceptable. When you learn the habit of committing, you get a hold of your thoughts and learn ways to train your mind to stick to a particular thing. This might induce a lot of stress at the beginning but will eventually make you a better person. Commitment will help drive out the confusion and help the company to attract more shareholders and investors. Commitment is hard to find and if a shareholder finds it in you and the organization then they would invest in the company because of you.
These are some of the most important skills you need as an executive officer.
Salary of an Executive Officer
The job of an executive officer comes under the c-level jobs and is thus one of the most highly paid professions in the world. The high salary is mostly because of the amount of work they need to do daily. Many executive officers out there are some of the wealthiest people in the world and this can give you an idea about their salary.
The average salary that is paid to an executive officer is $800,000 per year, so in a month the average salary would be $70000. Among them, the top earners make about $1,000,000 per year while the bottom earners make about $600,000 per year. The salary of an executive officer completely depends on your education, experience, certificates, appreciation, etc.
How to become an Executive Officer
Becoming an executive officer isn’t easy. You need to work a lot and have a lot of experience to reach that place. It’s quite hard but impossible and thus here we have listed down certain ways you can become an executive officer. These steps aren’t guaranteed pathways to success. It all depends on how you take the journey and what you make out of it. Let’s get into the various ways that can help you become an executive officer.
Education
Your education is the first thing that any company, organization looks at when deciding if they want to hire you or not. To become a successful executive officer you need to have certain basic degrees. Education only matters to the extent of getting into the job there’s a lot of other necessities and qualities you need to be successful in the job. The basic degree you need to get to become an executive officer is a High School Diploma, a Bachelor’s Degree in any profession of your choice, it can range from Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, Human Resources, etc., and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. The Master’s degree is the most important degree of all the other given degrees.
Experience
To become an executive officer you do need experience. It is the most important thing of all as it determines whether you are qualified for the changes that will come forth when you take the job. It’s impossible to become an executive officer on your first try. You need to first get employed at various positions in a firm and get the experience of all the different ways an on is done. You at least need 5 to 15 years of experience in any field to become an executive officer in a smaller firm and need 20-30 years of experience if you want to become an executive officer at a bigger firm or organization. Being an executive officer is quite hard and you need to look after everything that’s going on in the company. Thus experience is a prerequisite.
Take risks
To become an executive officer you need to start taking risks and do something new and fresh. It can include innovating new technology, launching an app, aiding a cause, publishing a book, participating in-office events, showing your skills on social media, and developing a social presence. All these things can help you become an executive officer. This helps the recruiters and organization understand that you strive for success and are focused on career growth which will, in turn, improve your performance. When you start taking risks and doing new things you can open up yourself to others and develop your confidence. This can help you manage crowds and form an excellent team.
Take leadership
To become an executive officer you need to start taking more leadership roles at your organization and improve your communication with employees and colleagues to learn how to deal with them. You can even take leadership in small projects that can help you impress your seniors. You need to put yourself out there and try new things, again and again, to prove to others that you can do it. You need to make them believe that you are meant for that role and this can happen only if you believe in yourself and be confident and do things that matter to you.
These are some ways you can use to become an executive officer.
Responsibilities of an Executive Officer
There are a lot of things that an executive officer needs to do. This petition is quite different from any other normal job position as the work you need to do is never fixed. Your workload can increase one day and the next day you might be completely free. Here are certain basic responsibilities that every executive officer needs to do. The responsibilities are as follows-
Management of meetings
As an executive officer, you need to look after the meetings and imagine actively in the board of directors’ meetings and help them in reaching a particular decision. You sometimes also act as a commutator between the organization and the business party who wants to collaborate with the organization. You need to assist the board of directors and make the meeting successful. You act as a support system to the board of directors and give their decisions a voice.
Look after Financial Activities
As an executive officer, you need to deal with the company’s finances and make decisions that will increase the company’s profits. You are responsible for taking decisions in a financially correct manner, look after the company’s losses, and provide the company with financial assistance. You need to deal with all the risk factors associated with the company and change the company’s policies to lower the risk. You need to analyze the company’s budget and revenue and expenditure to make thoughtful financial choices in the future.
Human Resource Management
You also need to provide support to the employees working under you. As an executive officer, you need to become responsible for the people working with you and how you can manage them. You need to develop effective policies that support their interests and make the work environment a fun place to work in. You need to attend to employee problems and make changes in the organization’s work. You also need to be aware of the laws and regulations framed by the government to make the organization a legal environment that abides by the law.
Look after fundraising
Many times an executive officer is responsible for raising and managing funds by using their image. You need to manage all fundraising activities and plan them effectively. This can include making policies related to fundraising, scheduling meetings, and engaging in research. You also need to review the grant proposals that need to be sent to the funders and maintain records of all the documents included in the transaction. You need to look after the funds and review whether they are necessary and genuine or not.
Marketing
As an executive officer, your main job is to maintain your social image in front of others. This will directly help the company maintain its social image in front of its customers. You need to use your image as a marketing tool to market the company’s products and make profits for them. You can also decide on which type of marketing campaign the company would use to market its products.
These are some of the basic responsibilities that an executive officer needs to do. All these are quite common in nature but there are a lot of complex problems that they deal with. You need to understand that the job done by an executive officer is quite hard and needs a lot of experience. You cannot become an executive officer instantly instead you need to earn the position by using your extension and skills.
Working Hours
An executive officer has a lot of work and is constantly working after something or the other. They are the busiest people on the earth and need to work for long hours. Many executive officers talk about their jobs and explain their exercises as executive officers. Elon Musk once said that he mostly sleeps in the office and rarely goes home at night due to the excessive workload that he needs to deal with.
An executive officer needs to work for 63 hours a week. This is an average count. So per day, you need to work for 10.5 hours. Thus if you are committed to becoming an executive officer you need to keep in mind the workload you need to deal with.
Conclusion
The job of an executive officer is quite hard and only a few people can manage it. Thus you need to have good willpower to achieve the goal you have set for yourself and manage the hardships you need to face when you are in a problem.
