To manage a complex business, use the 'plate spinning' metaphor. Let stable areas run with light guidance, but each quarter, free up capacity to go deep on 2-3 struggling initiatives, acting as a team member to solve problems directly.

The role of a CEO at the empire-building stage shifts from operations to allocation. An effective framework is to spend 40% of their time on attracting and retaining A-player talent, 40% on strategic capital allocation, and the final 20% on painting and reinforcing the long-term company vision.

To focus on high-impact, ambiguous problems, top executives must be militant about protecting their calendars. Xero's CPO blocks one full day per week and two hours daily for deep thinking. A key tactic is to be intentionally unresponsive to tactical channels like email and Slack to discourage interruptions.

Contrary to the popular advice to 'hire great people and get out of their way,' a CEO's job is to identify the three most critical company initiatives. They must then dive deep into the weeds to guarantee their success, as only the CEO has the unique context and authority to unblock them.

A powerful management tool is to explicitly state which initiatives are being deferred. Including a "what we're not doing" section in strategic plans gives CEOs explicit permission to ignore certain tasks and focus their energy. This acts as a pressure-release valve and improves alignment on what truly matters.

Kareem Amin rejects the standard practice of weekly 1-on-1s with all direct reports. Instead, he holds them with individuals, regardless of reporting lines, who are central to the company's most important current initiatives (e.g., Head of Sales during a growth push). This aligns CEO time with strategic imperatives, not org charts.

CEOs can maintain focus by co-creating a simple one-page strategy with their board. When board members later propose off-strategy ideas, this document becomes a powerful tool to re-center the conversation and ask whether the new idea is important enough to displace an agreed-upon priority.

The most effective CEOs avoid medium-level tasks, focusing instead on high-level strategy and, counterintuitively, minor details. These small defects serve as a "spot check" to diagnose and fix the flawed underlying process—the "generating function"—that created them, providing powerful leverage.

Leaders often try to "squeeze in" critical strategic work around a flood of meetings and daily demands. This approach is backward. To make meaningful progress, strategic priorities must be the first items blocked out on the calendar. All other, less critical tasks must then be fit into the remaining time, ensuring your schedule reflects your strategy.