The CEO Standard | Daniel Woodrum

The Problem

Everyone in your company is held to a standard except you.

You have scorecards for your team, KPIs for your managers and core values on the wall. Most CEOs have nothing written down for themselves.

That matters more than it sounds. Your team doesn't do what you tell them. They do what you tolerate and they learned what's tolerable by watching you.

The Moving Meeting

You reschedule the 1 on 1 for the third time. Your leaders notice and start moving theirs. Nobody says anything because you set the example.

The Avoided Conversation

You know who needs to hear it and you've known for 6 months. Every week you wait, your best people learn that avoiding it is acceptable here.

The Negotiable Morning

The workout, the planning block and the hard thing first all get traded away by 8 AM. You'd never accept that trade from someone on your payroll.

The Half-Present Dinner

You're home and your phone is face up on the table. The people who matter most get what's left of you after the business takes its share.

Before We Start

It starts with 4 interviews about you.

Before you write a single standard, I sit down with 4 people who see you every day. Each conversation is private and takes 30 minutes.

Your spouse or partnerThe person who sees what the office never does.

Your second-in-commandThe person who covers for the gap.

A leader on your teamSomeone who follows your example daily.

A second leaderSo no single voice carries the story.

"Where does this person break their own word?"
"What do they tolerate in themselves that they would not tolerate in someone else?"
"If 1 thing changed in the next 90 days, what would matter most to you?"

You get what I hear as themes in a written Gap Report with no names attached. Your leadership team also scores you on 12 statements. That number is your Standards Score and we measure it again on day 90.

The System

3 levels of leadership, and it all starts with level 1.

Every standard is yours. The way we build them is the same every time.

01

Weeks 1 to 6

Lead Yourself

We spend a full day together in person and build your 12 standards across the 4 arenas of your life.

3 standards in each arena
A trigger, a floor and a system behind each one
The decision you've been putting off, made by day 30

02

Weeks 7 to 10

Lead Others

You show your leadership team your standards and your scores, including the weeks you missed.

You present and I facilitate
You ask where you make their job harder
Your 3 leadership standards get finalized

03

Weeks 11 to 13

Lead Leaders

Each of your leaders builds their own standards after watching you go first.

Up to 6 leaders
A Team Standard they hold each other to
A monthly review run by your second-in-command

Move 1

Expose

We find the gap between what you say and what you do, using other people's words and your own calendar.

Move 2

Set

You write the standard in 1 sentence that anyone could check.

Move 3

Build

We put a system behind it so it doesn't run on willpower.

Move 4

Hold

You score it daily and I see every miss the same day.

What Gets Built

A standard is more than a promise to yourself.

Most CEOs have tried discipline and it works until the first bad week. Every one of your 12 standards goes on a card with 6 fields so it survives travel, a sick kid and a hard quarter.

The floor is the part most people have never written. It's what the standard looks like on your worst day.

Standard Card

Example

Arena: Family
Standard: I'm home and off my phone from 5:30 to 7:30 every weeknight.
Trigger: The 5:00 alarm on my calendar that ends my last meeting.
Floor: When I travel I call home at 6:30 and give them 15 minutes with nothing else open.
System: Removed: meetings after 4:30. Added: a phone drawer by the door. The person who knows: my wife.
Score: 19 of 20 weeknights this month

The 90 Days

What happens and when.

In between these milestones there's a 2-minute daily check-in and a 30-minute call with me every Friday. If you miss a standard you hear from me the same day.

Before day 1

The interviews

I talk to your 4 people and your team completes the Standards Score. If there's no real gap, we stop here.

Week 1

The Gap Report

You hear what they said, sorted into themes. We track your honest week and list everything you've been tolerating.

Week 2

Standards Day

I fly to you and we spend a full day building all 12 standards. Your first 4 go live that week.

Day 30

The Decision Memo

The biggest thing you've been tolerating gets named, priced and decided in writing.

Week 5

8 standards live

The next 4 go on your scorecard once the first 4 are holding.

Week 7

The Reveal

You stand in front of your leadership team with your standards and your scores. Then you ask them where you make their job harder.

Week 8

All 12 live

Your 3 leadership standards get finalized using what your team told you.

Weeks 11 and 12

Your leaders go next

Each leader builds their first standards and together they write the Team Standard.

Day 90

The Day-90 Review

I go back to the same 4 people with the same questions and your team scores you again. You get the before and after in writing.

The Outcome

What you'll have on day 90.

Every standard is yours so I can't promise what yours will say. I can promise what gets built and what gets measured.

12 personal standards

Written, signed and scored

3 in each arena of your life with a system behind every one. You'll know your hit rate to the percent.

1 decision made

By day 30

The thing you've been tolerating gets ended, given a standard or accepted openly. It stops costing you in the background.

A leadership rhythm

Your team can count on it

1 on 1s that happen, feedback that gets given and decisions your leaders don't have to chase you for.

Leaders with standards

Up to 6 of them

Each of your leaders builds their own after watching you go first. That order is why it sticks.

A Team Standard

Held without you

The short list of non-negotiables your leaders hold each other to, reviewed monthly by your second-in-command.

A before and after

In their words

The same 4 people, the same questions and a second Standards Score. You'll see exactly what changed.

Fit

This is for a specific kind of CEO.

It's a fit if

You run a 7 or 8-figure company.
You have a leadership team of 3 to 6.
The business is fine and you know you're the constraint.
You're willing to have 4 people tell me the truth about you.

It's not a fit if

The business is in a cash crisis.
You want strategy, marketing or sales coaching.
You want your team fixed and not yourself.
You won't show your standards to your team.

The Investment

$25,000

I'd rather you know the number before you apply.

Half is due before the interviews begin and half on day 45. I take 3 CEOs per quarter so each one gets the hours this takes.

The gate. If the interviews show there's no real gap between your standard and how you live, I'll tell you and we won't start.

What That Covers

4 private interviews at the start and again on day 90
A full in-person Standards Day with my travel included
A 30-minute 1:1 call every Friday
Daily check-ins with a same-day response to every miss
The Reveal session with your leadership team
Standards sessions for up to 6 of your leaders
3 written reports: the Gap Report, the Decision Memo and the Day-90 Report

Your Side

The 5 things you commit to.

Your calendar. I get view access for the 90 days.
Same-day replies. When I text about a miss, you answer that day.
The Reveal. You present your standards to your leadership team in week 7.
The same 4 people. They're interviewed at the start and again on day 90.
A 7-day cooling-off. If you want to stop, you wait 7 days before you do.

Application

Apply for The CEO Standard.

This takes about 10 minutes if you answer it properly. I read every application myself. If it looks like a fit we'll get on a call and decide together.

Don't fill this out:

Your name

Email

Company and your role

Mobile number

Annual revenue

Size of your leadership team

If I asked your spouse and your team where you break your own word, what would they say?Be specific. A vague answer here is the main reason I'd pass on an application.

What have you been tolerating for the last 12 months, and what has it cost you?In yourself, on your team or in the business. Put a number on the cost if you can.

Are you prepared to invest $25,000 and have 4 people interviewed about you? Yes Not yet

Your answers come to me and nobody else.